Database Develop

[Q] Anyone know where to pick up some RFID tags for use with NFC

Anyone know where to pick up some RFID tags for use with NFC?
I've started playing around with NFC and want to do some fun POC things.
I currently have taken the NFC demo and extended it to support text input as delimited commands (for example e:bt;d:wifi;l:com.slacker.radio to enable bt, disable wifi and launch slacker for when I hop into the car). This works great using the SDK and static text from the tags as input, but I'd like to get a few actual tags to write a quick app to write the tags using the new API and then test them (and use them as it would save me doing some things manually).
I tried http://www.touchatag.com/e-store but they're out of stock currently. Anyone else pick some up anywhere reasonable?

Well, I found http://www.tagage.net/tagage-shop/ and picked up several tags for testing. We'll see how long shipping takes from finland

another good source is ebay

[APP] 6/12 NFC Task Launcher - 3.6.1 Released

After more than a year I am consolidating threads. Maintaining several threads was getting to be too much. Please move to the new thread here with any new questions or comments: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=34417369
Market Link: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.jwsoft.nfcactionlauncher
Application Site: http://www.jwksoftware.com/
Screenshots: http://www.jwksoftware.com/screenshots
Known Issues: http://www.jwksoftware.com/issues
Features:
NFC Task Launcher uses the NFC Hardware and RFID/NFC Tags to allow you to create tags several types of tags, including a custom "Task" tag that will automatically execute tasks when read. See Site for full feature list.
If you do use and enjoy the app it is up in the Market as a paid app. Any purchases / ratings are appreciated as I have put quite a few hours into this expanding it to fill requests for functionality.
Change log:
6/12 Version 3.6
- GPS (Root needed)
- Mobile Data (Root needed)
- Display Timeout
- Fixed Airplane mode bugs
- Precision timer
- New languages
- Cloud backup and restore
5/9 Version 3.4
- UI updates
- Added German, Spanish and Korean
- Removed Italian as it is out of date
- All tags now save to "Your Tags". Recent shows the 5 most recently used
- Changed Tag limiting to uniquely track switch tags
4/19 Version 3.3
- Added Google Places support in Latitude
- Added Navigate to address support
- Added Auto-rotation
- Added write lock option when writing
- Added size to vCards
- Added setting to pause after launching an app (for launching multiple apps or launching and then interacting)
- Added notification when tags save when hitting finish
- Updated Tasker integration (should fix issues with HTC One X)
- Enhanced debugging to make bug reports easier
- Fixed condition where tasks would stop executing when wifi changed
- Fixed reported crashes and typo
Full: http://www.jwksoftware.com/change-log
Where to get Tags?
http://www.jwksoftware.com/nfc-tags
If you'd like to see some functionality added feel free to make a request.
The APK linked below is free of the license check of the Market version and is fully functional for 7 days.
http://goo.gl/xBBOU
For anyone who decides to purchase the app after using the APK attached to the thread - un-install the free version first otherwise the market installation fails.
Here's a few videos I made for a current demo:
Tag Demos
Car Dock Demo

Hmm that would be really cool. Embed a tag in my doorframe and set it to enable/disable wifi so I never have to do it by hand lol. Put one it my car steering wheel to turn on BT...you're a genius sir!

What I would be really interested in is an app which allowed users to easily assign a list of actions to certain tags, directly from the application.
I'd certainly help out in the development of the application if anybody else is interested

gabrialxue said:
What I would be really interested in is an app which allowed users to easily assign a list of actions to certain tags, directly from the application.
I'd certainly help out in the development of the application if anybody else is interested
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If this was something people were interested in it would be fairly trivial to write an app with a defined set of options and write the text tags instead of having to compose them by hand.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA Premium App

this is a great idea! about how much do blank nfc tags cost though?
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA Premium App

jaker.the.skater said:
this is a great idea! about how much do blank nfc tags cost though?
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This would be my question as well. I think this is a cool idea. Definitely need to have an easy to set up user interface to enable tags.

I picked them up for $2-3 each.
I ordered a few from Finland for €1.30 a piece shipped. I also ordered a few from a US company for 2.95 each + shipping. All are 1k tags. Once I get them I'll let you know how they flush out.
Touchtag sells them reasonably cheap but it's a lot of 25 for #15 or $20, I think, but they are out of stock .
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA Premium App

joshthewaster said:
This would be my question as well. I think this is a cool idea. Definitely need to have an easy to set up user interface to enable tags.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Once I get the tags I'll add a main UI for building/writing the text tags. I had assumed constructing them manually and then writing with one of the existing products would be easy enough, but it's pretty trivial to implement a simple text tag writer and accompanying UI.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA Premium App

kenvan19 said:
Hmm that would be really cool. Embed a tag in my doorframe and set it to enable/disable wifi so I never have to do it by hand lol. Put one it my car steering wheel to turn on BT...you're a genius sir!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I overlooked that entirely. I'll add toggle support as well.
I don't have tags to test writes tonight, but if my kids cooperate I'll try to get a UI and the associated logic set up over the next few days. Then when the tags arrive I'll get some video/screenshots up for people to are how it all works.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA Premium App

Ok, toggle support is in. I created a UI to start with tonight for tag building. The known SSIDs and app list aren't populated yet - I'll get to that some time this week. It needs cleaned up a bit as well, but it's a start for now.
It does looks like auto BT pairing isn't part of the API, so that my be out of the feature list. But enabling Wifi Tethering and associating with a known SSID should be no problem.

is it worth using something like the locale or tasker app? and working with them? They already have a good task maker GUI..?

pratishk said:
is it worth using something like the locale or tasker app? and working with them? They already have a good task maker GUI..?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't use either and wouldn't want to rip off a UI from them. We really need a very small subset of what those apps appear to offer for building tags and our use case doesn't seem to fit into what those apps do very well.
Moving forward I'll likely pull the "add" into a separate view to make it cleaner, as well as the write dialog. This is just a starting point currently to write the tags when I receive them.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA Premium App

sounds good anyhow, look forward to hearing more about the app...

New SS up with a cleaner UI using multiple views.

Think your giving the million doller idea away buddy. This could change everything essentially if you think about it? I won't have to touch anything on my phone for cretin things like turning on and off wifi or turning in Bluetooth when I get in car. Going to desktop mode when I get to work. Think u should make a good Buck off of this. Good luck.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App

this would be an awesome app. i'd buy it.

mattyg151 said:
this would be an awesome app. i'd buy it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds good
I plan on putting a free version up here and a version on the market you can buy as a donate version.
I completed all of the wifi tethering stuff, as well as configuration options. I've got the write code in place (in theory - no tags to test on yet). Updated UI screenshots in the OP.
I've got a few more small additions to make and then it's just waiting for tags to arrive in the mail for testing.

Do RFID tags work with this technology? Lots on ebay but no NFC specific.

Here's another retailer. $1 a piece NFC labels:
http://www.tagage.net/tagage-shop/

instigator008 said:
Here's another retailer. $1 a piece NFC labels:
http://www.tagage.net/tagage-shop/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have an order with them - they are in Finland. I placed the order last week and have no response from them yet (not even a confirmation email) my card however was charged.
I also ordered a few tags from here: http://www.sparkfun.com/products/10128
These have shipped it seems and should be here in the next few days.
I am eagerly waiting as I'd like to finish this up

Sony Smart Tags

I thought I'd order some smart tags to see what the first decent NFC apication I've come across can do.
Initially I was pretty impressed. Turn on NFC, wave the phone near a tag and Smart Connect pops up asking what you want the tag to trigger. Each event in Smart Connect has begin and end actions - begin is triggered by NFC detecting a tag and end is handled on the phone when you stop the event (there is Smart Connect item in the notification bar to make this really easy.)
So far so good, it's all really easy and slick to use.
The only problem is that the NFC detection only currently works if the phone screen is unlocked and on. This means if I want to leave a tag in the car to switch on my BT and start my navigation app, then I can't just get in and swipe the phone near it... I've got to unlock the phone first! Niggle!
For a first outing, this is still good so hopefully Sony will offer the ability to use tags without unlocking the phone at some point in the future.
Just thought I'd share in case anyone else is thinking of making a purchase.

On sgs3 it was the same as far as I remember and some custom roms had option in settings to work while screen off. Hopefully, for you, it will be ported/done for Xperia T also (aokp had that option and some other cm10 derivates)
Sent from my LT30p

If you want to take better advantage of NFC's potential, I'd recommend buying some generic tags and downloading NFC Task Launcher from the Play store. Generic tags are cheaper, has higher capacity, and NFC Task Launcher can do a lot more than Smart Connect. Combine it with Tasker and you can do some seriously cool ****.

yesyesimanoob said:
If you want to take better advantage of NFC's potential, I'd recommend buying some generic tags and downloading NFC Task Launcher from the Play store. Generic tags are cheaper, has higher capacity, and NFC Task Launcher can do a lot more than Smart Connect. Combine it with Tasker and you can do some seriously cool ****.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Where can you get generic tags, any link maybe?

If my phone could trigger actions without being "under my actual monitoring" (On and unlocked) in reaction to NFC tags, I 'd consider that quite unsafe.
At least, there should be some kind of restriction system, like : you can trigger actions only on this particular list of "declared secure by the user" tags.
Maybe the software Yesyesimanoob (what a funny user name, sorry) speaks of can do it, i don't know.
Nickola

yesyesimanoob said:
If you want to take better advantage of NFC's potential, I'd recommend buying some generic tags and downloading NFC Task Launcher from the Play store. Generic tags are cheaper, has higher capacity, and NFC Task Launcher can do a lot more than Smart Connect. Combine it with Tasker and you can do some seriously cool ****.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Had a bit of a scare when my mate who has an SGS3 swiped his phone near one of my tags and his NFC task launcher detected and reprogrammed my tag so I couldn't use it.
Luckily Smart Tag Maker on the Play Store can fix them but it's a bit crap if just anyone can reprogramme them.

vid200 said:
Where can you get generic tags, any link maybe?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I get mine from tagsfordroid.com (US). I don't really know international sources well enough to suggest a reliable one, sorry, but the tagsfordroid.com ones are just rebranded "Mifare Classic" tags, so you might want to look for that. They have about 700+ bytes of usable capacity, so you can put more on a single tag than the Sony ones (48 bytes).
---------- Post added at 04:27 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:24 PM ----------
emuX said:
Had a bit of a scare when my mate who has an SGS3 swiped his phone near one of my tags and his NFC task launcher detected and reprogrammed my tag so I couldn't use it.
Luckily Smart Tag Maker on the Play Store can fix them but it's a bit crap if just anyone can reprogramme them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure about the Smart Tags as I don't have one, but NFC Task Launcher can make a generic tag read-only, so once you've programmed it, no one (including yourself) can reprogram it ever again.
---------- Post added at 04:31 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:27 PM ----------
nickola said:
If my phone could trigger actions without being "under my actual monitoring" (On and unlocked) in reaction to NFC tags, I 'd consider that quite unsafe.
At least, there should be some kind of restriction system, like : you can trigger actions only on this particular list of "declared secure by the user" tags.
Maybe the software Yesyesimanoob (what a funny user name, sorry) speaks of can do it, i don't know.
Nickola
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You have to be rooted to get NFC to work while the screen is off, and that's only available for certain devices right now, with a custom APK. Maybe it will come to the Xperia T eventually, who knows.

nickola said:
If my phone could trigger actions without being "under my actual monitoring" (On and unlocked) in reaction to NFC tags, I 'd consider that quite unsafe.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed that blanket access for all tags would be bad so some sort of control would be required (e.g. You can enable certain tags to work without unlocking the phone - such as the Blue (car) tag.)

It is really cool but I have no idea how can it be used to make me convenient because before you scan the nfc tag, you should open your screen and unlock it.

niuzhd said:
It is really cool but I have no idea how can it be used to make me convenient because before you scan the nfc tag, you should open your screen and unlock it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Works best when you want to trigger multiple actions. For example, when I get into my car, I swipe a tag to activate in-car mode, which involves:
- Maximize media volume
- Lower notification volume
- Activate gesture media controls (via a Tasker profile, or alternatively you can try the app Wave Control for this)
- Activate SMS reader/auto-responder
Swipe the same tag again before exiting car to disable car mode.

yesyesimanoob said:
Works best when you want to trigger multiple actions. For example, when I get into my car, I swipe a tag to activate in-car mode, which involves:
- Maximize media volume
- Lower notification volume
- Activate gesture media controls (via a Tasker profile, or alternatively you can try the app Wave Control for this)
- Activate SMS reader/auto-responder
Swipe the same tag again before exiting car to disable car mode.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you using Smart Connect or NFC task launcher? (My smart connect doesn't switch the options off when you swipe a 2nd time.)

emuX said:
Are you using Smart Connect or NFC task launcher? (My smart connect doesn't switch the options off when you swipe a 2nd time.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
NFC Task Launcher. It has an option to create a "switch", which will alternate between two series of tasks each time you swipe it. Of course this means you're writing more data to the tag, which the Sony Smart Tags are probably too small to contain and hence Smart Connect doesn't provide the option.

I ordered these: http://www.amazon.com/NFC-Tag-Bundl...qid=1350520268&sr=8-1&keywords=tags+for+droid
They came quickly despite not being Prime Eligible. The quality is very nice and I look forward to testing them out when I get my phone later this month,

2 pices:
Ebay link

In case anyone is interested, I worked out how to write protect my Smart tags so they can't be hijacked by anyone who wants to write to them.
First, you need to read the existing content. (I used NFC Tag Writer by NXP, as it allows you to copy the content straight to the clipboard.) I then used NFC Writer by Tagstand to write the same content again but with the write protect option set. I had to write the content twice to be able to write protect - first in the normal way (no option to protect) then again via history with the option to lock in top right of the screen.
I've now locked all mine so they will always be the correct IDs for SmartConnect.

nickola said:
If my phone could trigger actions without being "under my actual monitoring" (On and unlocked) in reaction to NFC tags, I 'd consider that quite unsafe.
At least, there should be some kind of restriction system, like : you can trigger actions only on this particular list of "declared secure by the user" tags.
Maybe the software Yesyesimanoob (what a funny user name, sorry) speaks of can do it, i don't know.
Nickola
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's called "Turn NFC Off". It's built into every Android with NFC.

dragon_76 said:
It's called "Turn NFC Off". It's built into every Android with NFC.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not exactly. If NFC is OFF (and it definitely is on my phone), there is no reaction to any smart tag.
What I meant is, that there should be a possibility to specify a list of "user tags", the same way you can declare a Mac Addresses list on your WiFi access point/ISP router.
Anyway I've given up on using NFC.
Nickola

Smart Tags are much more beautiful than general ones...But may I ask how much u spent on them?I found them very cheap in local stores and thought that they were not original ones.

nickola said:
Not exactly. If NFC is OFF (and it definitely is on my phone), there is no reaction to any smart tag.
What I meant is, that there should be a possibility to specify a list of "user tags", the same way you can declare a Mac Addresses list on your WiFi access point/ISP router.
Anyway I've given up on using NFC.
Nickola
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
NFC doesn't serialise chips. Any "user tag" could be cloned, passive devices being much more difficult than active. RFID, and NFC by extension, were designed to be simple. The fact that companies or individuals have chosen to use the technology in a way that may compromise security is irrelevant to the technology. Its biggest security feature is that it requires physical access within just a few centimetres, and it requires one device to be "smart" and know what to do with any information in a tag.
You can always put a little tinfoil hat on your phone to match your own...

To be honest, I never pay much attention to Smart Tag until I saw this thread, LOL

[Q] Regular NFC Stickers in lieu of Skip

Apologies if it has been asked - didn't find it in a quick search. Anyone used a regular NFC sticker successfully instead of a 20 skip? I really like the idea but would easily make my own. I have tons of tectiles and NFC stickers just kicking around. Heck, even NFC keychains that I'm not using...

I haven't tried it, but if someone can scan a Skip with a phone without the Skip unlock we can make our own.
The Skip is a regular NFC chip with a code, I *think* it is '*motoskip########'
I forget the exact format, but that is close.

According to official docs, you can use non-Skip tags only if you've initially used a Skip tag to activate the app.
Sent from my Moto X

johnny grep said:
According to official docs, you can use non-Skip tags only if you've initially used a Skip tag to activate the app.
Sent from my Moto X
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I suspect they aren't white listing UUIDs in the app itself so it's either a payload on the tag (which should be fairly simple to replicate in theory) or they are calling home to verify UUIDs. I may have to buy one if I keep the moto x just to find out for sure which is accurate (if someone else doesn't first).

I got a SKIP and you can't scan it with the moto x because the skip app intercepts NFC read.
When I scanned the Skip with a SGS4 the tag payload was close to '*motoskip########'
But since I don't have an non-motox to test with at the moment I can't check right now.
Let me see if I can later. And the Skip comes with 4 tages, the clip on (which I lost on the first day, right after dropping my X) and 3 stickers.
As far as I know any of the 4 can be the master so you shouldn't need anything special.
If I remember correctly the tags are 64kb NXP NFC chips.
#LearnFromMyFail Don't buy a Cellphone while on Vacation

Yoshiofthewire said:
I got a SKIP and you can't scan it with the moto x because the skip app intercepts NFC read.
When I scanned the Skip with a SGS4 the tag payload was close to '*motoskip########'
But since I don't have an non-motox to test with at the moment I can't check right now.
Let me see if I can later. And the Skip comes with 4 tages, the clip on (which I lost on the first day, right after dropping my X) and 3 stickers.
As far as I know any of the 4 can be the master so you shouldn't need anything special.
If I remember correctly the tags are 64kb NXP NFC chips.
#LearnFromMyFail Don't buy a Cellphone while on Vacation
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just for reference, you don't need *any* skip tags to set up skip. When you set up the NFC lock screen you get the option to tap your skip to enable. If you use a standard tag (I used an already encoded NTAG203) it will erase this tag and over-write the data set with the appropriate data set. This will then serve as your "master" nfc tag (it's also encoded as a skip tag).
The dump looks like it's an external mime: urn:nfc:ext:motorola.com:xring with a data set that is numeric (I haven't done any sort of testing to find any correlation between the payload, device id, uuid, etc but it's a numeric data set.

[Q] Can I use Z1 as nfc/mifare tag?

Can I copy the information on my mifare tag to the phone and use my phone as a tag?
There are a lot of apps for reading/cloning tags and similar but I don't want one more tag, I want one less.

i
F_Spindel said:
Can I copy the information on my mifare tag to the phone and use my phone as a tag?
There are a lot of apps for reading/cloning tags and similar but I don't want one more tag, I want one less.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No
as i know phone nfc sensor can read and it s not for writing like NFC tags
but u can use ur phone in other ways with some apps like Trigger & etc
:good: