everhack Stuff I've been messing with, or just thinking about.

AVR HID RFID, take 1…

I've been slowly making progress building my own AVR RFID according to the instructions in this blog: http://scanlime.org/2011/05/duct-tape-rfid-tag-1/

After building the assembly code for HID tag type, I obtained a ATTiny85 and a handful of ATMega168s. I wanted to prototype first with the Tiny85s, but I have a cheap and plentiful source for the 168s and wanted to use those if possible: http://store.atxhackerspace.org/

Building the code for the ATMega168 turned out to be challenging, as I kept getting the same compiler error over and over and just couldn't fix it with any of the most common suggestions I found by googling:

 

C:AppDataLocalTemp/cc69IjcD.o: In function `loop': (.text+0x1d12): relocation truncated to fit: R_AVR_13_PCREL against `no symbol'

This comment gave me the clue:

http://www.avrfreaks.net/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&p=764390

"... IOW, you are trying to RJMP to a location that
cannot be reached that way. .."

Researching rjmp vs jmp I found this thread..

http://www.avrfreaks.net/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=printview&t=21053&start=0

I changed the "rjmp loop" to "jmp loop" and it compiles now. Whether it works or not, we'll see

Back to the Tiny85, I got one and soldered it to a $2 Surfboard from Frys. This was my first experience hand soldering SMD components and it was pretty challenging but I managed to do a pretty good job. This was a little crazier by the fact that I had purchased 0203-sized (grain of sand) sized parts without thinking it through.

In the end, I was able to successfully solder the 2 caps in place on the surfboard. (Circled in red)

To make the antenna, I laboriously made a 66mm form out of cardboard, started winding it, and noticed a nearby beer can. Just for fun, I measured the beer can and it turned out to be... 66 mm! What are the odds?

I wound approximately 100 turns of 30 gauge magnet wire (or maybe 98... or 102... , slipped it off the can, and stuck it to a clear packing tape backing. I soldered a 1x4 male 0.1 header strip flat against the contacts to connect the bus pirate probes up to for (very slow) programming purposes.

Ultimately, unfortunately my first test was a failure. Swiping the "badge" by the hackerspace and my office readers does not result in a beep. I'm certain the hackerspace badge is the right type. After looking closer, I realized I had attached the capacitor in series with the antenna rather than in parallel.

After fixing the error this morning (with a parts-bin capacitor roughly 100 times larger than the original , the badge still does not garner a beep from the card reader.

 

I have to say, I'm pretty pleased with myself for just getting this far, it does look pretty neat even when it doesn't work.

Next steps: probe the antenna leads with the oscilloscope while trying to read the badge to check for resonance; also go back to the formula and try to recalculate the antenna length. Perhaps using a heavier-gauge wire or a slightly incorrect number of turns of wire resulted in a change in the resonant frequency? (I don't really know what I'm doing here yet, just learning as I go

I'll also probably also attempt to build my own reader at some point using these instructions here by the same author: http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?105889-World-s-simplest-RFID-reader