Adafruit Pn532 Rfid NFC

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Adafruit PN532 RFID/NFC Breakout and Shield

Created by lady ada

Last updated on 2015-01-29 09:00:15 AM EST

Guide Contents
Guide Contents

Overview

Breakout Wiring

Wiring the Breakout for SPI

Shield Wiring

11

Solder the Headers

11

Using the Adafruit NFC Shield with I2C

12

Using with the Arduino Leonardo and Yun

13

Arduino Library

15

Which Library?

15

I2C Library FOR USE WITH THE SHIELD ONLY

15

SPI Library FOR USE WITH THE BREAKOUT BOARD ONLY

15

Testing MiFare

15

About NFC

17

NFC (Near Field Communication)

17

Passive Communication: ISO14443A Cards (Mifare, etc.)

17

Active Communication (Peer-to-Peer)

17

NFC Data Exchange Format (NDEF)

18

Reading

18

MiFare Cards & Tags

20

MiFare Classic Cards

20

EEPROM Memory

20

4 Block Sectors

20

16 Block Sectors

22

Accessing EEPROM Memory

22

Note on Authentication

22

Example of a New Mifare Classic 1K Card

23

MiFare Ultralight Cards

25

EEPROM Memory

25

Lock Bytes (Page 2)

26

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OTP Bytes (Page 3)

26

Data Pages (Page 4-15)

26

Accessing Data Blocks

27

Read/Write Lengths

27

About the NDEF Format

28

NDEF (NFC Data Exchange Format)

28

NDEF Messages

28

NDEF Records

28

Record Header (Byte 0)

29

Type Length

30

Payload Length

30

ID Length

30

Record Type

30

Record ID

30

Payload

30

Well-Known Records (TNF Record Type 0x01)

31

URI Records (0x55/'U')

31

Test Records

32

Smart Poster Records

32

Example NDEF Records

32

Using Mifare Classic Cards as an NDEF Tag

33

Mifare Application Directory (MAD)

33

Mifare Application Directory 1 (MAD1)

34

Mifare Application Directory 2 (MAD2)

34

MAD Sector Access

34

Storing NDEF Messages in Mifare Sectors

34

TLV Blocks

35

Memory Dump of a Mifare Classic 1K Card with an NDEF Record

36

NDEF Records

38

Using with LibNFC

40

Using the PN532 Breakout Boards with libnfc

libnfc In Linux (Ubuntu 10.10 used in this example)

40

40

Step One: Download libnfc

40

Step Two: Configure libnfc for PN532 and UART

40

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Step Three: Build and install libnfc

41

Step Four: Check for installed devices

41

Step Five: Poll for an ISO14443A (Mifare, etc.) Card

42

libnfc With Mac OSX Lion

42

Download and build libnfc and configure if for PN532 UART (making the code changes
above before running make):
42
If everything worked out, switch to the examples folder and see if you can find the
PN532 and wait for an appropriate tag:

43

FAQ

44

Downloads

49

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Overview

Hey! So this is not a full tutorial, its just a quickstart guide while we do more research into
RFID/NFC. There's a lot of info here but not everything is explained in detail. We hope to fill
out the tutorial but there's not a lot of good information about NFC so it's taking a bit of time!

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Breakout Wiring
This part of the tutorial is specifically for the Breakout board. We show how to use it with SPI.
The breakout also supports TTL serial and I2C but we don't have a tutorial for using it that
way as SPI is the most cross-platform method to communicate
If you're using the shield, check the next page

Wiring the Breakout for SPI


The PN532 chip and breakout is designed to be used by 3.3V systems. To use it with a 5V
system such as an Arduino, a level shifter is required to convert the high voltages into 3.3V.
If you have a 3.3V embedded system you won't have to use the shifter of course!
To begin, we'll solder in the header to the breakout board. You'll need two small 3-pin pieces
of header and one 8-pin piece. You can break these off of a large piece.

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Solder the two small pieces to the SEL0 and SEL1 pads. These are interface selectors for
the chip. Depending on how the jumpers are inserted the chip will talk in TTL serial, i2c or
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SPI. Also solder a strip to the end so you can plug it into a breadboard.

Wire up the 4050 level shifter chip to the Arduino as shown. The notch in the 4050 is at the
'top' in this image.
Arduino digital pin 2 is connected to 4050 pin 9 (orange wire)
Arduino digital pin 3 is connected to 4050 pin 11(yellow wire)
Arduino digital pin 4 is connected to 4050 pin 14 (green wire)
On the breakout board
3.3Vin is connected to the Arduino 3.3V pn
SCK is connected to 4050 pin 10 (orange wire)
MISO is connected to Arduino pin 5 (blue wire)
MOSI is connected to 4050 pin 12 (yellow wire)
SSEL is connected to 4050 pin 15& (green wire)
GND connects to Arduino gro und (black wire)
Also connect 4050 pin #1 to 3.3V and pin #8 to gro und.
Click to see a larger image. The red power wire should be connected to the 3.3v pin on the
Arduino!

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Also, we need to select SPI as the interface so on SEL1 place the jumper in the ON position.
for SEL0 place the jumper in the OFF position.
That's it! Later on you can change what Arduino pins you are using but for the beginning test
we suggest matching our wiring.

If you are using the shield in I2C mode, you will also need to add two 1.5K pullups on
the SCL/SDA lines, since the breakout and the Arduino don't include the pullups. Simply
solder or add a 1.5K resistor between SCL and 3.3V, and SDA and 3.3V, and then
connect the breakout as you normally would.

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Shield Wiring
Solder the Headers
The first step is to solder the headers to the shield. Cut the header strip to length and insert
the sections (long pins down) into an Arduino. Then place the shield on top and solder each
pin.

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Using the Adafruit NFC Shield with I2C


The Adafruit NFC shield is designed to be used using the I2C by default. I2C only uses two
pins (Analog 4 and 5 which are fixed in hardware and cannot be changed) to communicate
and one pin as an 'interrupt' pin (Digital 2 - can be changed however). What is nice about I2C
is that it is a 'shared' bus - unlike SPI and TTL serial - so you can put as many sensors as
you'd like all on the same two pins, as long as their addresses don't collide/conflict. The
Interrupt pin is handy because instead of constantly asking the NFC shield "is there a card in
view yet? what about now?" constantly, the chip will alert us when a NFC target comes into
the antenna range.
The shield is drop-in compatible with any Classic Arduino (UNO, Duemilanove, Diecimilla, etc
using the ATmega168 or '328) as well as any Mega R3 or later.
Mega R2 Arduinos work as well but you need to solder a wire from the
(http://adafru.it/aUS)SDA (http: //adafru.it/aUS)
and (http://adafru.it/aUS)SCL (http: //adafru.it/aUS) pin holes to the Mega's I2C pins on
Digital #20 and #21 (http://adafru.it/aUS)

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Using with the Arduino Leonardo and Yun


The IRQ pin is tied to Digital pin #2 by default. However, on the Arduino Leonardo and
Yun, digital #2 is used for I2C which will not work. If using with a Leonardo or Yun, cut
the trace beween the IRQ pin and Digital #2 and solder a wire from IRQ pin to Digital #4
or higher. Then change the example code so the the IRQ pin is declared as the new pin
(say #6) not #2

Here are some photos of setting the IRQ pin to digital 6. First, use a sharp hobby knife to cut
the trace from IRQ to 2

Solder a wire from IRQ to #6

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Arduino Library
Which Library?
We have two libraries (hopefully will be merged into one shortly) for the Adafruit NFC boards.
One library is for SPI interfacing and one is for I2C. Both have the same functionality,
capability and function names they just differ in whether they talk to the PN532 chip with I2C
or with SPI. For the breakout, we assume you'll be using the SPI library. For the shield, we
assume you'll be using the I2C library.
Both libraries have the ability to read MiFare cards, including the hard-coded ID numbers, as
well as authenticate and read/write EEPROM chunks

I2C Library FOR USE WITH THE SHIELD ONLY


Download the PN532 I2C library from github (http://adafru.it/aSW). Uncompress the folder
and rename the folder Adafruit_NFCShield_I2C. Inside the folder you should see the
Adafruit_NFCShield_I2C.cpp and Adafruit_NFCShield_I2C.h files. Install
theAdafruit_NFCShield_I2C library foler by placing it in your
arduinosketchfolder/libraries folder. You may have to create the libraries subfolder if
this is your first library. You can read more about installing libraries in our
tutorial (http://adafru.it/aYG).
Restart the Arduino IDE. You should now be able to select File > Examples >
Adafruit_NFCShield_I2C > readMifare sketch. Upload the sketch to your Arduino with
the shield plugged in.

SPI Library FOR USE WITH THE BREAKOUT BOARD ONLY


Download the PN532 SPI library from github (http://adafru.it/aSX). Uncompress the folder and
rename the folder Adafruit_PN532. Inside the folder you should see the
Adafruit_PN532.cpp and Adafruit_PN532.h files. Install the Adafruit_PN532 library
foler by placing it in your arduinosketchfolder/libraries folder. You may have to create
the libraries subfolder if this is your first library. You can read more about installing libraries
in our tutorial (http://adafru.it/aYG).
Restart the Arduino IDE. You should now be able to select File > Examples >
Adafruit_PN532 > readMifare sketch. Upload the sketch to your Arduino wired as in our
tutorial

Testing MiFare
In the serial monitor, you should see that it found the PN532 chip. Then you can place your
tag nearby and it will display the 4 byte ID code (this one is 0xAE 0x4C 0xF0 0x6C) and then
the integer version of all four bytes together. You can use this number to identify each card.
Recently NXP made so many cards that they actually ran through all 4 Bytes (2^32) so the
number is not guaranteed to be absolutely unique. However, the chances are extremely slim
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you will have two cards with the same ID so as long as you aren't using these cards for
anything terribly important (like money transfer) its fine to use the number as a unique
identifier

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About NFC
NFC (Near Field Communication)
NFC (Near Field Communication) is a set of short-range (typically up to 10cm) wireless
communication technologies designed to offer light-weight and secure communication
between two devices. While NFC was invented by NXP (Phillips at the time), Nokia and Sony,
the main body behind the NFC 'standard' today is the NFC Forum (http://adafru.it/aSy), who
are responsible for publishing and maintaining a variety of standards relating to NFC
technology.
NFC operates at 13.56MHz, and is based around an "initiator" and "target" model where the
initiator generates a small magnetic field that powers the target, meaning that the target
does not require a power source. This means of communication is referred to as Passive
Co mmunicatio n, and is used to read and write to small, inexpensive 13.56MHz RFID tags
based on standards like ISO14443A. Active co mmunicatio n (peer-to-peer) is also
possible when both devices are powered, where each device alternately creates its own
magentic field, with the secondary device as a target and vice versa in continuous rotation.

Passive Communication: ISO14443A Cards (Mifare, etc.)


While the PN53x family of transceivers from NXP are compatible with a number of 13.56MHz
RFID card standards, by far the most popular standard is ISO14443A. A variety of
manufacturers produce ISO14443A compatible cards or chips, but the most common are
based around the Mifare family from NXP. Mifare Classic and Mifare Ultralight are probably
the most frequently encountered and useful for basic projects, though many tags with
improved security and encryption also exist (Mifare DESFire, etc.). All of the tags sold at
adafruit.com are Mifare Classic 1K, meaning that they contains 1K (1024 bytes) of
programmable EEPROM memory which can be read and modified in passive mode by the
initiator device (the PN532).
While all ISO14443A cards share certain common characteristics on the highest level
(defined by the four part standard), each set of Mifare chips (Classic, Ultralight, Plus, DESFire,
etc.) has it's own features and peculiarities. The two most common formats are described
below.
Mifare Classic (http://adafru.it/cl7): These cards are extremely common, and contain
1K or 4K of EEPROM, with basic security for each 64 byte (1K/4K cards) or 256 byte (4K
cards) sector.
Mifare Ultralight (http://adafru.it/cl7): Contains 512 bytes of EEPROM, including 32-bits
of OTP memory. These tags are inexpensive, often come in sticker format and are are
frequently used for transportation ticketing, concert tickets, etc.

Active Communication (Peer-to-Peer)


Active or "Peer-to-Peer" communication is still based around the Initiator/Target model
described earlier, but both devices are actively powered and switch roles from being an

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Initiator or a Target during the communication. When one device is initiating a conversation
with the other, it enables it's magnetic field and the receiving device listens in (with it's own
magnetic field disabled). Afterwards, the target/recipient device may need to respond and
will in turn activate it's own magnetic field and the original device will be configured as the
target. Despite two devices being present, only one magnetic field is active at a time, with
each device constantly enabling or disabling its own magnetic field.
ToDo: Add better description of active mode, but I need to test it out a bit first myself!

NFC Data Exchange Format (NDEF)


The NFC Data Exchange Format (NDEF) is a standardised data format that can be used to
exchange information between any compatible NFC device and another NFC device or tag.
The data format consists of NDEF Messages and NDEF Reco rds. The standard is
maintained by the NFC Forum and is freely available for consultation but requires accepting a
license agreement to download (http://adafru.it/aSA).
The NDEF format is used to store and exchange information like URIs, plain text, etc., using a
commonly understood format. NFC tags like Mifare Classic cards can be configured as NDEF
tags, and data written to them by one NFC device (NDEF Records) can be understood and
accessed by any other NDEF compatible device. NDEF messages can also be used to
exchange data between two active NFC devices in "peer-to-peer" mode. By adhering to the
NDEF data exchange format during communication, devices that would otherwise have no
meaningful knowledge of each other or common language are able to share data in an
organised, mutually understandable manner.
The NDEF standard includes numerous Reco rd Type Definitio ns (RTDs) that define how
information like URIs should be stored, and each NDEF device, tag or message can
contained multiple RTDs. Standard RTD definitions are described in "NFC Record Type
Definition (RTD) Specification maintained by the NFC Forum.
* NDEF Overview (http://adafru.it/cl7): This page offers a more detailed explanation of NDEF,
including how Mifare Classic cards can be used to store NDEF messages.
NOTE: The dedicated NDEF page is still a work in progress and some information is
currently incomplete.

Reading
For more details about NFC/RFID and this chip we suggest the following fantastic resources:
RFID selection guide (http://adafru.it/aSC) - a lot of details about RFID in general
Nokia's Introduction to NFC (http://adafru.it/aSD)- a lot of details about NFC in general
NXP S50 chip datasheet (http://adafru.it/aSE) , the chip inside MiFare classic tags
NXP PN532 Short Form Datasheet (http://adafru.it/aSF)
NXP PN532 Long Form Datasheet (http://adafru.it/aSG)
NXP PN532 User Manual (http://adafru.it/aSH)

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NXP PN532 App Note (http://adafru.it/aSI)


Using PN532 with libnfc (http://adafru.it/aSJ)
NFC Glossary (http://adafru.it/aSK)

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MiFare Cards & Tags


MiFare is one of the four 13.56MHz card 'protocols' (FeliCa is another well known one) All of
the cards and tags sold at the Adafruit shop use the inexpensive and popular MiFare Classic
chipset

MiFare Classic Cards


MIFARE Classic cards come in 1K and 4K varieties. While several varieties of chips exist, the
two main chipsets used are described in the following publicly accessible documents:
MF1S503x Mifare Classic 1K data sheet (http://adafru.it/aSL)
MF1S70yyX MIFARE Classic 4K data sheet (http://adafru.it/aSM)
Mifare Classic cards typically have a 4-byte NUID that uniquely (within the numeric limits of
the value) identifies the card. It's possible to have a 7 byte IDs as well, but the 4 byte
models are far more common for Mifare Classic.

EEPROM Memory
Mifare Classic cards have either 1K or 4K of EEPROM memory. Each memory block can be
configured with different access conditions, with two seperate authentication keys present
in each block.
Mifare Classic cards are divided into section called secto rs and blo cks. Each "sector" has
individual access rights, and contains a fixed number of "blocks" that are controlled by these
access rights. Each block contains 16 bytes, and sectors contains either 4 blocks (1K/4K
cards) for a total of 64 bytes per sector, or 16 blocks (4K cards only) for a total of 256 bytes
per sector. The card types are organised as follows:
1K Cards - 16 sectors of 4 blocks each (sectors 0..15)
4K Cards - 32 sectors of 4 blocks each (sectors 0..31) and 8 sectors of 16 blocks
each (sectors 32..39)

4 Block Sectors
1K and 4K cards both use 16 sectors of 4 blocks each, with the bottom 1K of memory on the
4K cards being organised identically to the 1K models for compatability reasons. These
individual 4 block sectors (containing 64 byts each) have basic security features are can
each be configured with seperate read/write access and two different 6-byte authentication
keys (the keys can be different for each sector). Due to these security features (which are
stored in the last block, called the Secto r Trailer), only the bottom 3 blocks of each sector
are actually available for data storage, meaning you have 48 bytes per 64 byte sector
available for your own use.
Each 4 block sector is organised as follows, with four rows of 16 bytes each for a total of 64bytes per sector. The first two sectors of any card are shown:
Sector Block Bytes

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------ ----- --------------0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

3
2
1
0

[-------KEY A-------] [Access Bits] [-------KEY B-------] Sector Trailer


[
Data
] Data
[
Data
] Data
[
Data
] Data

3
2
1
0

[-------KEY A-------] [Access Bits] [-------KEY B-------] Sector Trailer


[
Data
] Data
[
Data
] Data
[
Manufacturer Data
] Manufacturer Block

Secto r Trailer (Blo ck 3)


The sector trailer block contains the two secret keys (Key A and Key B), as well as the
access conditions for the four blocks. It has the following structure:
Sector Trailer Bytes
-------------------------------------------------------------0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
[
Key A
] [Access Bits] [
Key B
]

For more information in using Keys to access the clock contents, see Accessing Data Blocks
further below.
Data Blo cks (Blo cks 0..2)
Data blocks are 16 bytes wide and, depending on the permissions set in the access bits,
can be read from and written to. You are free to use the 16 data bytes in any way you wish.
You can easily store text input, store four 32-bit integer values, a 16 character uri, etc.
Data Blo cks as "Value Blo cks"
An alternative to storing random data in the 16 byte-wide blocks is to configure them as
"Value Blocks". Value blocks allow performing electronic purse functions (valid commands
are: read, write, increment, decrement, restore, transfer).
Each Value block contains a single signed 32-bit value, and this value is stored 3 times for
data integrity and security reasons. It is stored twice non-inverted, and once inverted. The
last 4 bytes are used for a 1-byte address, which is stored 4 times (twice non-inverted, and
twice inverted).
Data blocks configured as "Value Blocks" have the following structure:

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Value Block Bytes


-------------------------------------------------------------0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
[ Value ] [ ~Value ] [ Value ] [A ~A A ~A]

Manufacturer Blo ck (Secto r 0, Blo ck 0)


Sector 0 is special since it contains the Manufacturer Block. This block contains the
manufacturer data, and is read-only. It should be avoided unless you know what you are
doing.

16 Block Sectors
16 block sectors are identical to 4 block sectors, but with more data blocks. The same
structure described in the 4 block sectors above applies.
Sector Block Bytes
Description
------ ----- -------------0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

32

15
[-------KEY A-------] [Access Bits] [-------KEY B-------] Sector Trailer 32
14
[
Data
] Data
13
[
Data
] Data
...
2
[
Data
] Data
1
[
Data
] Data
0
[
Data
] Data

Accessing EEPROM Memory


To access the EEPROM on the cards, you need to perform the following steps:
1. You must retrieve the 4-byte NUID of the card (this can sometimes be 7-bytes long as
well, though rarely for Mifare Classic cards). This is required for the subsequent
authentication process.
2. You must authenticate the sector you wish to access according to the access rules
defined in the Sector Trailer block for that sector, by passing in the appropriate 6 byte
Authentication Key (ex. 0xFF 0xFF 0xFF 0xFF 0xFF 0xFF for new cards).
3. Once authenication has succeeded, and depending on the sector permissions, you
can then read/write/increment/decrement the contents of the specific block. Note that
you need to re-authenticate for each sector that you access, since each sector can
have it's own distinct access keys and rights!

Note on Authentication
Before you can do access the sector's memory, you first need to "authenticate" according
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to the security settings stored in the Sector Trailer. By default, any new card will generally be
configured to allow full access to every block in the sector using Key A and a value of 0xFF
0xFF 0xFF 0xFF 0xFF 0xFF. Some other common keys that you may wish to try if this doesn't
work are:
0XFF 0XFF 0XFF 0XFF 0XFF 0XFF
0XD3 0XF7 0XD3 0XF7 0XD3 0XF7
0XA0 0XA1 0XA2 0XA3 0XA4 0XA5
0XB0 0XB1 0XB2 0XB3 0XB4 0XB5
0X4D 0X3A 0X99 0XC3 0X51 0XDD
0X1A 0X98 0X2C 0X7E 0X45 0X9A
0XAA 0XBB 0XCC 0XDD 0XEE 0XFF
0X00 0X00 0X00 0X00 0X00 0X00
0XAB 0XCD 0XEF 0X12 0X34 0X56

Example of a New Mifare Classic 1K Card


The follow memory dump illustrates the structure of a 1K Mifare Classic Card, where the data
and Sector Trailer blocks can be clearly seen:
[--------------------------Start of Memory Dump--------------------------]
------------------------Sector 0------------------------Block 0 8E 02 6F 66 85 08 04 00 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 ?.of?...bcdefghi
Block 1 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
Block 2 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
Block 3 00 00 00 00 00 00 FF 07 80 69 FF FF FF FF FF FF .......?i
------------------------Sector 1------------------------Block 4 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
Block 5 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
Block 6 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
Block 7 00 00 00 00 00 00 FF 07 80 69 FF FF FF FF FF FF .......?i
------------------------Sector 2------------------------Block 8 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
Block 9 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
Block 10 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
Block 11 00 00 00 00 00 00 FF 07 80 69 FF FF FF FF FF FF .......?i
------------------------Sector 3------------------------Block 12 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
Block 13 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
Block 14 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
Block 15 00 00 00 00 00 00 FF 07 80 69 FF FF FF FF FF FF .......?i
------------------------Sector 4------------------------Block 16 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
Block 17 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
Block 18 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................

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Block 19 00 00 00 00 00 00 FF 07 80 69 FF FF FF FF FF FF .......?i
------------------------Sector 5------------------------Block 20 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
Block 21 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
Block 22 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
Block 23 00 00 00 00 00 00 FF 07 80 69 FF FF FF FF FF FF .......?i
------------------------Sector 6------------------------Block 24 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
Block 25 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
Block 26 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
Block 27 00 00 00 00 00 00 FF 07 80 69 FF FF FF FF FF FF .......?i
------------------------Sector 7------------------------Block 28 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
Block 29 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
Block 30 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
Block 31 00 00 00 00 00 00 FF 07 80 69 FF FF FF FF FF FF .......?i
------------------------Sector 8------------------------Block 32 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
Block 33 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
Block 34 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
Block 35 00 00 00 00 00 00 FF 07 80 69 FF FF FF FF FF FF .......?i
------------------------Sector 9------------------------Block 36 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
Block 37 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
Block 38 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
Block 39 00 00 00 00 00 00 FF 07 80 69 FF FF FF FF FF FF .......?i
------------------------Sector 10------------------------Block 40 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
Block 41 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
Block 42 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
Block 43 00 00 00 00 00 00 FF 07 80 69 FF FF FF FF FF FF .......?i
------------------------Sector 11------------------------Block 44 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
Block 45 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
Block 46 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
Block 47 00 00 00 00 00 00 FF 07 80 69 FF FF FF FF FF FF .......?i
------------------------Sector 12------------------------Block 48 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
Block 49 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
Block 50 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
Block 51 00 00 00 00 00 00 FF 07 80 69 FF FF FF FF FF FF .......?i
------------------------Sector 13------------------------Block 52 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
Block 53 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
Block 54 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
Block 55 00 00 00 00 00 00 FF 07 80 69 FF FF FF FF FF FF .......?i
------------------------Sector 14-------------------------

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------------------------Sector 14------------------------Block 56 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................


Block 57 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
Block 58 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
Block 59 00 00 00 00 00 00 FF 07 80 69 FF FF FF FF FF FF .......?i
------------------------Sector 15------------------------Block 60 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
Block 61 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
Block 62 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
Block 63 00 00 00 00 00 00 FF 07 80 69 FF FF FF FF FF FF .......?i
[---------------------------End of Memory Dump---------------------------]

MiFare Ultralight Cards


MiFare Ultralight cards typically contain 512 bits (64 bytes) of memory, including 4 bytes (32bits) of OTP (One Time Programmable) memory where the individual bits can be written but
not erased.
MF0ICU1 MiFare Ultralight Functional Specification (http://adafru.it/aSN)
MiFare Ultralight cards have a 7-byte UID that uniquely identifies the card.

EEPROM Memory
MiFare Ultralight cards have 512 bits (64 bytes) of EEPROM memory, including 4 byte (32 bits)
of OTP memory. Unlike Mifare Classic cards, there is no authentication on a per block level,
although the blocks can be set to "read-only" mode using Lock Bytes (described below).
EEPROM memory is organised into 16 pages of four bytes eachs, in the following order:
Page Description
---- -----------0
Serial Number (4 bytes)
1
Serial Number (4 bytes)
2
Byte 0: Serial Number
Byte 1: Internal Memory
Byte 2..3: lock bytes
3
One-time programmable memory (4 bytes)
4..15 User memory (4 bytes)

Here are the pages and blocks arranged in table format:


Page Block 0 Block 1 Block 2 Block 3
----- --------------------------------------0
[
Serial Number
]

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1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15

[
Serial Number
]
[Serial] - [Intern] - [ Lock Bytes ]
[ One Time Programmable Memory
[
User Data
]
[
User Data
]
[
User Data
]
[
User Data
]
[
User Data
]
[
User Data
]
[
User Data
]
[
User Data
]
[
User Data
]
[
User Data
]
[
User Data
]
[
User Data
]

Lock Bytes (Page 2)


Bytes 2 and 3 of page 2 are referred to as "Lock Bytes". Each page from 0x03 and higher
can individually locked by setting the corresponding locking bit to "1" to prevent further write
access, effectively making the memory read only.
For more information on the lock byte mechanism, refer to section 8.5.2 of the datasheet
(referenced above).

OTP Bytes (Page 3)


Page 3 is the OTP memory, and by default all bits on this page are set to 0. These bits can
be bitwise modified using the MiFare WRITE command, and individual bits can be set to 1,
but can not be changed back to 0.

Data Pages (Page 4-15)


Pages 4 to 15 are can be freely read from and written to, provided there is no conflict with
the Lock Bytes described above.
After production, the bytes have the following default values:
Page Byte Values
---- ---------------------0
1
2
3
4
0xFF 0xFF 0xFF 0xFF
5..15 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00

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Accessing Data Blocks


In order to access the cards, you must following two steps:
1. 'Connect' to a Mifare Ultralight card and retrieve the 7 byte UID of the card.
2. Memory can be read and written directly once a passive mode connection has been
made. No authentication is required for Mifare Ultralight cards.

Read/Write Lengths
For compatability reasons, "Read" requests to a Mifare Ultralight card will retrieve 16 bytes
(4 pages) at a time (which corresponds to block size of a Mifare Classic card). For example,
if you specify that you want to read page 3, in reality pages 3, 4, 5 and 6 will be read and
returned, and you can simply discard the last 12 bytes if they aren't needed. If you select a
higher page, the 16 byte read will wrap over to page 0. For example, reading page 14 will
actually return page 14, 15, 0 and 1.
"Write" requests occur in pages (4 bytes), so there is no problem with overwriting data on
subsequent pages.

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About the NDEF Format


NDEF (NFC Data Exchange Format)
The NFC Data Exchange Format (NDEF) is a standardised data format that can be used to
exchange information between any compatible NFC device and another NFC device or tag.
The data format consists of NDEF Messages and NDEF Reco rds. The standard is
maintained by the NFC Forum and is freely available for consultation but requires accepting a
license agreement to download (http://adafru.it/aSA).
The NDEF format is used to store and exchange information like URIs, plain text, etc., using a
commonly understood format. NFC tags like Mifare Classic cards can be configured as NDEF
tags, and data written to them by one NFC device (NDEF Records) can be understood and
accessed by any other NDEF compatible device. NDEF messages can also be used to
exchange data between two active NFC devices in "peer-to-peer" mode. By adhering to the
NDEF data exchange format during communication, devices that would otherwise have no
meaningful knowledge of each other or common language are able to share data in an
organised, mutually understandable manner.
Some helpful app notes and white papers relating to NDEF are listed below:
NFC Data Exchange Format (NDEF) Technical Specification (http://adafru.it/aSA)
(requires accepting the license terms)
NFC Record Type Definition (RTD) Specification (http://adafru.it/aSA) (requires
accepting the license terms)
NXP White Paper - NFC Forum Type Tags (http://adafru.it/aSO)

NDEF Messages
NDEF Messages are the basic "transportation" mechanism for NDEF records, with each
message containing one or more NDEF Records.

NDEF Records
NDEF Records contain a specific payload, and have the following structure that identifies the
contents and size of the record:
Bit 7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ -----[ MB ] [ ME ] [ CF ] [ SR ] [ IL ] [
TNF
]
[
[
[

TYPE LENGTH

PAYLOAD LENGTH
ID LENGTH

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RECORD TYPE

ID

]
]

PAYLOAD

Record Header (Byte 0)


The record header contains a number of important fields, including a 3-bit field that identifies
the type of record that follows (the Type Name Fo rmat or TNF):
TNF: Type Name Fo rmat Field
The Type Name Format or TNF Field of an NDEF record is a 3-bit value that describes the
record type, and sets the expectation for the structure and content of the rest of the record.
Possible record type names include:
TNF Value Record Type
--------- ----------------------------------------0x00
Empty Record
Indicates no type, id, or payload is associated with this NDEF Record.
This record type is useful on newly formatted cards since every NDEF tag
must have at least one NDEF Record.
0x01

Well-Known Record
Indicates the type field uses the RTD type name format. This type name is used
to stored any record defined by a Record Type Definition (RTD), such as storing
RTD Text, RTD URIs, etc., and is one of the mostly frequently used and useful
record types.

0x02

MIME Media Record


Indicates the payload is an intermediate or final chunk of a chunked NDEF Record

0x03

Absolute URI Record


Indicates the type field contains a value that follows the absolute-URI BNF
construct defined by RFC 3986

0x04

External Record
Indicates the type field contains a value that follows the RTD external
name specification

0x05

Unknown Record
Indicates the payload type is unknown

0x06

Unchanged Record
Indicates the payload is an intermediate or final chunk of a chunked NDEF Record

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IL: ID LENGTH Field


The IL flag indicates if the ID Length Field is preent or not. If this is set to 0, then the ID Length
Field is ommitted in the record.
SR: Sho rt Reco rd Bit
The SR flag is set to one if the PAYLOAD LENGTH field is 1 byte (8 bits/0-255) or less. This
allows for more compact records.
CF: Chunk Flag
The CF flag indicates if this is the first record chunk or a middle record chunk.
ME: Message End
The ME flag indicates if this is the last record in the message.MB: Message BeginThe MB flag
indicates if this is the start of an NDEF message.

Type Length
Indicates the length (in bytes) of the Record Type field. This value is always zero for certain
types of records defined with the TNF Field described above.

Payload Length
Indicates the length (in bytes) of the record payload. If the SR field (described above) is set
to 1 in the record header, this value will be one byte long (for a payload length from 0-255
bytes). If the SR field is set to 0, this value will be a 32-bit value occupying 4 bytes.

ID Length
Indicates the length in bytes of the ID field. This field is present only if the IL flag (described
above) is set to 1 in the record header.

Record Type
This value describes the 'type' of record that follows. The values of the type field must
corresponse to the value entered in the TNF bits of the record header.

Record ID
The value of the ID field if an ID is included (the IL bit in the record header is set to 1). If the IL
bit is set to 0, this field is ommitted.

Payload
The record payload, which will be exactly the number of bytes described in the Payload
Length field earlier.

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Well-Known Records (TNF Record Type 0x01)


Probably the most useful record type is the "NFC Fo rum Well-Kno wn Type" (TNF Type
0x01). Record types that adhere to the "Well-Defined" type are each described by
something called an RTD or Reco rd Type Definitio n. Some of the current Well-Defined
RTDs are:

URI Records (0x55/'U')


The "Well Known Type" for a URI record is 0x55 ('U'), and this record type can be used to
store a variety of useful information such as telephone numbers (tel:), website addresses,
links to FTP file locations, etc.
URI Records are defined in the document "URI Record Type Definition" from the NFC Forum,
and it has the following structure:
Name
Offset Size
Description
--------- -------------Identifier Code 0
1 byte See table below
URI Field
1
N bytes The rest of the URI (depending on byte 0 above)

The URI Identifier Co de is use to shorten the URI length, and can have any of the
following values:
Value Protocol
----- -------0x00
No prepending is done ... the entire URI is contained in the URI Field
0x01
http://www.
0x02
https://www.
0x03
http://
0x04
https://
0x05 tel:
0x06
mailto:
0x07
ftp://anonymous:anonymous@
0x08
ftp://ftp.
0x09
ftps://
0x0A
sftp://
0x0B smb://
0x0C
nfs://
0x0D
ftp://
0x0E
dav://
0x0F
news:
0x10
telnet://
0x11
imap:
0x12
rtsp://

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0x13
0x14
0x15
0x16
0x17
0x18
0x19
0x1A
0x1B
0x1C
0x1D
0x1E
0x1F
0x20
0x21
0x22
0x23

urn:
pop:
sip:
sips:
tftp:
btspp://
btl2cap://
btgoep://
tcpobex://
irdaobex://
file://
urn:epc:id:
urn:epc:tag:
urn:epc:pat:
urn:epc:raw:
urn:epc:
urn:nfc:

Following the URI Identifier Code is the URI Field. This field provides the URI as per RFC
3987 and contains the rest of the URI after the value corresponding to the URI Identifier is
prepended (unless the URI ID is 0x00, in which case the complete URI will be contained in the
URI Field).

Test Records
To Do

Smart Poster Records


To Do

Example NDEF Records


Well Kno wn Reco rds
URI Reco rd
An example of a URI record is shown in "Memory Dump of a Mifare Classic 1K Card with an
NDEF Record" below.

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Text Reco rd
To Do

Smartpo ster Reco rd


To Do

Abso lute URI Reco rd


To Do

Using Mifare Classic Cards as an NDEF Tag


Mifare Classic 1K and 4K cards can be configured as NFC Forum compatible NDEF tags, but
they must be organised in a certain manner to do so. The requirements to make a Mifare
Classic card "NFC Forum compliant" are described in the following App Note from NXP:
AN1304 - NFC Type MIFARE Classic Tag Operation (http://adafru.it/aSP)
While the App Note above is the authoritative source on the matter, the following notes may
also offer a quick overview of the key concepts involved in using Mifare Classic cards as
NFC Forum compatible 'NDEF' tags:

Mifare Application Directory (MAD)


In order to form a relationship between the sector-based memory of a Mifare Classic card
and the individual NDEF records, the Mifare Applicatio n Directo ry (MAD) structure is
used. The MAD indicates which sector(s) contains which NDEF record. The definitive source
of information on the Mifare Application Directory is the following application note:
AN10787 - MIFARE Application Directory (MAD) (http://adafru.it/aSQ)
For reference sake, the two types of MADs (depending on the size of the card in question)
are defined below:

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Mifare Application Directory 1 (MAD1)


MAD1 can be used in any Mifare Classic card regardless of the size of the EEPROM,
although if it is used with cards larger than 1KB only the first 1KB of memory will be
accessible for NDEF records.
The MAD1 is stored in the Manufacturer Sector (Sector 0x00) on the Mifare Classic card.

Mifare Application Directory 2 (MAD2)


MAD2 can only be used on Mifare Classic cards with mo re than 1KB o f sto rage (Mifare
Classic 4K cards, etc.). It is NOT compatible with cards containing only 1KB of memory!
The MAD2 is stored in sectors 0x00 (the Manufacturer Sector) and 0x10.

MAD Sector Access


The sectors containing the MAD1 (0x00) and MAD2 (0x00 and 0x10) are protected with a
KEY A and KEY B (if you're not familiar with this concept, consult the Mifare Classic summary
elsewhere in the PN532/NFC wiki). To ensure that these sectors can be read by any
application, the following common KEY A should always be used:
Public KEY A of MAD Sectors
--------------------------------------------------BYTE 0 BYTE 1 BYTE 2 BYTE 3 BYTE 4 BYTE 5
0xA0
0xA1
0xA2
0xA3
0xA4
0xA5

The MAD sector may optionally be write-protected using KEY B if you wish to limit the ability
of customers to modify the card contents. The public KEY A will ensure that they can always
read the data.

Storing NDEF Messages in Mifare Sectors


NDEF messages/records may be stored in any sector of the Mifare card, other than the
sector(s) use by the MAD or sectors beyond the 1K range if a MAD1 table is used.
When a sector is used to store NDEF records, it is referred to as an NFC Sector. As with the
MAD Sector(s) described above, these sectors must always be accessible in at least readonly mode, and as such a common public KEY A also exists for NFC Sectors, though it is not
the same KEY A used in the MAD sector(s):
Public KEY A of NFC Sectors
--------------------------------------------------BYTE 0 BYTE 1 BYTE 2 BYTE 3 BYTE 4 BYTE 5
0xD3
0xF7
0xD3
0xF7
0xD3
0xF7

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In order to store an NDEF Message on the Mifare Classic card, the message needs to be
wrapped inside something called a TLV Blo ck. The basic structure of a TLV Block is
described below.

TLV Blocks
TLV is an abbreviation for three different fields: T for Tag Field, L for Length Field and V for
Value Field. A TLV Block consist of one or more bytes, depending on which of these three
fields is present. Note that the TLV Block will always be at least one byte since the T Field is
mandatory in every case.
Tag Field
The Tag Field (or T Field) is the only mandatory field, and uses a single-byte to identify the
type of TLV block accordingly to a pre-determined table of values:
TLV Block Types
Block Type Value Description
------------- ----- -------------------------------------NULL
0x00 These blocks should be ignored
NDEF Message 0x03 Block contains an NDEF message
Proprietary 0xFD Block contains proprietary information
Terminator 0xFE Last TLV block in the data area

Length Field
The Length Field (or L Field) contains the size (in bytes) of the value field. The Length Field
can be organised in two different ways, using either one or three bytes.
The one byte format simple contains a single byte value from 0x00..0xFF.
The three byte format consists of the following format:
Byte 0:
Always 0xFF to indicate that we are using the three byte format
Byte 1..2: Can be a value between 0x00FF and 0xFFFE

Both the one byte and three byte format must be supported for NFC Forum and NDEF
compatability.
Value Field
The Value Field (or V Field) is only present if the Length Field (described above) is present
and not equal to 0x00. If the Length Field is not equal to 0, the Value Fields will contain N
bytes of data in the format indicated by the T Field above.
The value field is where the payload (an NDEF Message, for example) is stored.
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Terminato r TLV
The Terminator TLV is the last TLV block in the data area, and consist of a single byte: 0x0FE
(see the TLV Block Type table above). This TLV Block in mandatory.

Memory Dump of a Mifare Classic 1K Card with an NDEF


Record
[
Start of Memory Dump
]
------------------------Sector 0------------------------Block 0 3E 39 AB 7F D3 88 04 00 47 41 16 57 4D 10 34 08 >9 ?..GA.WM.4.
Block 1 14 01 03 E1 03 E1 03 E1 03 E1 03 E1 03 E1 03 E1 .........
Block 2 03 E1 03 E1 03 E1 03 E1 03 E1 03 E1 03 E1 03 E1 ........
Block 3 00 00 00 00 00 00 78 77 88 C1 00 00 00 00 00 00 ......xw?......
------------------------Sector 1------------------------Block 4 00 00 03 11 D1 01 0D 55 01 61 64 61 66 72 75 69 ......U.adafrui
Block 5 74 2E 63 6F 6D FE 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 t.com..........
Block 6 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
Block 7 00 00 00 00 00 00 7F 07 88 40 00 00 00 00 00 00 ...... .?@......
------------------------Sector 2------------------------Block 8 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
Block 9 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
Block 10 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
Block 11 00 00 00 00 00 00 7F 07 88 40 00 00 00 00 00 00 ...... .?@......
------------------------Sector 3------------------------Block 12 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
Block 13 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
Block 14 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
Block 15 00 00 00 00 00 00 7F 07 88 40 00 00 00 00 00 00 ...... .?@......
------------------------Sector 4------------------------Block 16 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
Block 17 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
Block 18 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
Block 19 00 00 00 00 00 00 7F 07 88 40 00 00 00 00 00 00 ...... .?@......
------------------------Sector 5------------------------Block 20 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
Block 21 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
Block 22 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
Block 23 00 00 00 00 00 00 7F 07 88 40 00 00 00 00 00 00 ...... .?@......
------------------------Sector 6------------------------Block 24 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
Block 25 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
Block 26 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
Block 27 00 00 00 00 00 00 7F 07 88 40 00 00 00 00 00 00 ...... .?@......
------------------------Sector 7------------------------Block 28 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................

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Block 29 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
Block 30 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
Block 31 00 00 00 00 00 00 7F 07 88 40 00 00 00 00 00 00
------------------------Sector 8------------------------Block 32 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
Block 33 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
Block 34 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
Block 35 00 00 00 00 00 00 7F 07 88 40 00 00 00 00 00 00
------------------------Sector 9------------------------Block 36 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
Block 37 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
Block 38 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
Block 39 00 00 00 00 00 00 7F 07 88 40 00 00 00 00 00 00
------------------------Sector 10------------------------Block 40 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
Block 41 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
Block 42 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
Block 43 00 00 00 00 00 00 7F 07 88 40 00 00 00 00 00 00
------------------------Sector 11------------------------Block 44 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
Block 45 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
Block 46 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
Block 47 00 00 00 00 00 00 7F 07 88 40 00 00 00 00 00 00
------------------------Sector 12------------------------Block 48 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
Block 49 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
Block 50 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
Block 51 00 00 00 00 00 00 7F 07 88 40 00 00 00 00 00 00
------------------------Sector 13------------------------Block 52 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
Block 53 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
Block 54 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
Block 55 00 00 00 00 00 00 7F 07 88 40 00 00 00 00 00 00
------------------------Sector 14------------------------Block 56 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
Block 57 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
Block 58 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
Block 59 00 00 00 00 00 00 7F 07 88 40 00 00 00 00 00 00
------------------------Sector 15------------------------Block 60 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
Block 61 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
Block 62 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
Block 63 00 00 00 00 00 00 7F 07 88 40 00 00 00 00 00 00
[
End of Memory Dump
]

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................
...... .?@......
................
................
................
...... .?@......
................
................
................
...... .?@......
................
................
................
...... .?@......
................
................
................
...... .?@......
................
................
................
...... .?@......
................
................
................
...... .?@......
................
................
................
...... .?@......
................
................
................
...... .?@......

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NDEF Records
The above example contains two records, both located in sector 1 (sector 0 contains the
MAD).
Reco rd 1
The first record on the card can be identified by looking at the first byte of block 4 in sector
1.
Block 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 Char Value
----- ----------------------------------------------- -----------04
00 00
..

Every record on the Mifare card starts with the TLV Blo ck (described above), and the first
byte of the TLV Block (the Tag Field) indicates that this is a NULL Blo ck type (value
0x00). The second byte is the Length Field, and is 0. Since there is no payload for this
record (Length = 0), the third byte of the TLV block is not present (the Value Field).
This record was likely inserted when the card was first formatted to ensure that at least one
record is present.
Reco rd 2
The second record on the card starts at byte 0x02 of block 4 and continues into block 5.
Block 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 Char Value
----- ----------------------------------------------- -----------04
03 11 D1 01 0D 55 01 61 64 61 66 72 75 69 ..U.adafrui
05 74 2E 63 6F 6D
t.com

Starting with the TLV Blo ck data in the first two bytes, we can determine the following:
Byte(s) Value Description
------- ----- ----------04:02
0x03 Field Type (0x03 = NDEF Message)
04:03
0x11 Length Field (17 bytes)

This indicates to us that the record contains an NDEF Message (value 0x03), and that the
message is 17 bytes long (0x11 in hexadecimal = 17 in decimal value). This means that our
NDEF message is contained in the next 17 bytes (04:04..05:04). The NDEF record can then
be analysed as follows:
Byte(s)
-------

Value Description
----- -----------

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04:04

0xD1 This byte is the **NDEF Record Header**, and indicates that this is
an NFC Forum Well Known Record (0x01 in the first 3 bits),
and that this is the first and last record (MB=1, ME=1),
and that this is a short record (SR = 1) meaning the payload
length is less than or equal to 255 chars (len=one byte).
TNF = 0x01 (NFC Forum Well Known Type)
IL = 0 (No ID present, meaning there is no ID Length or ID Field either)
SR = 1 (Short Record)
CF = 0 (Record is not 'chunked')
ME = 1 (End of message)
MB = 1 (Beginning of message)
04:05
0x01 This byte is the **Type Length** for the Record Type Indicator
(see above for more information), which is 1 byte (0x55/'U' below)
04:06
0x0D This is the payload length (13 bytes)
04:07
0x55 Record Type Indicator (0x55 or 'U' = URI Record)
04:08
0x01 This is the **start of the record payload**, which contains the
URI Identifier ("http://www.") since this is a URI Well-Defined
Record Type (see Well-Defined Records above). This will be
prepended to the rest of the URI that follows in the rest of the
message payload
04:09..05:04 ... The remainder of the URI ("adafruit.com"), which combined with the
pre-pended value from byte 04:08 yields: http://www.adafruit.com

TLV Terminato r
Block 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 Char Value
----- ----------------------------------------------- -----------05
FE

The final byte (block 5, byte 5), with the value 0xFE, is the TLV Terminato r and indicates
that this is the end of the TLV Block.

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Using with LibNFC


Using the PN532 Breakout Boards with libnfc
libnfc (http://adafru.it/aSR) is a mature, cross-platform, open-source NFC library that can be
easily configured to work with the PN532 Breakout Board. While Linux is probably the easiest
platform to use libnfc with, it can be configured for the Mac and Windows as well, though you
may need to dig around on the libnfc Community Forums for some specific details on
compiling .dlls for Windows, etc.
If you want to test the PN532 Breakout Board out with libnfc, this simple tutorial should walk
you through the absolute basics of compiling and configuring libnfc, and using some of the
canned example SW included in the library.

This is only for using the PN532 breakout with an FTDI cable or FTDI Friend to a proper
computer. You cannot run LIbNFC on an Arduino or other microcontroller

libnfc In Linux (Ubuntu 10.10 used in this example)


Step One: Download libnfc
Download the latest version of libnfc from Google Code (http://adafru.it/aSS) (ex. "libnfc1.4.1.tar.gz") and extract the contents of the file as follows:
$ wget http://libnfc.googlecode.com/files/libnfc-x.x.x.tar.gz
$ tar -xvzf libnfc-x.x.x.tar.gz
$ cd libnfc-x.x.x

Step Two: Configure libnfc for PN532 and UART


libnfc currently only supports communication over UART, using any inexpensive USB to
UART adapter like the FTDI Friend or a TTL FTDI cable. Before compiling, however, you will
need to configure libnfc to include support for UART and the PN532 chipset, which can be
done with the following commmand (executing in the folder where the above archive was
unzipped):
$ ./configure --with-drivers=pn532_uart --enable-serial-autoprobe

No te: If you also wish to include debug output, you can add the 'enable-serial-autoprobe'
flag (minus the single quotes) to the configure options

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Step Three: Build and install libnfc


You can build and install libnfc with the following three commands, also run from the folder
where the original archive was unzipped:
$ make clean
$ make
$ make install

Step Four: Check for installed devices


Now that libnfc is (hopefully) built and installed, you can run the 'nfc-list' example to try to
detect an attached NFC board. Make sure the board is connected to the FTDI or USB/UART
adapter, and that it is connected to your PC, and run the following commands:
$ cd examples
$ ./nfc-list

This should list the devices that were detected

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Step Five: Poll for an ISO14443A (Mifare, etc.) Card


Next, you can use the 'nfc-poll' example to wait 30 seconds for an ISO14443A card or tag
and display some basic information about this card. In the examples folder that we changed
to above, run the following command:
$ ./nfc-poll

This should give you some basic information on any card that entered the magnetic field
within the specified delay.

libnfc With Mac OSX Lion


scott-42 was kind of enough to post some tips on getting libnfc working on a Mac using an
FTDI adapter. A couple simple changes to the code were required (as of v1.6.0-rc1), with
the details here (http://adafru.it/aP1).
Keeping in mind the code changes mentionned above, the following steps should get libnfc
compiling and working via an FTDI type adapter and UART on Lion (using libnfc 1.6.0_rc1):

Download and build libnfc and configure if for PN532 UART


(making the code changes above before running make):
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wget http://libnfc.googlecode.com/files/libnfc-1.6.0-rc1.tar.gz
tar -xvzf libnfc-1.6.0-rc1.tar.gz
cd libnfc-1.6.0-rc1
./configure --with-drivers=pn532_uart --enable-serial-autoprobe
sudo make
sudo make install

If everything worked out, switch to the examples folder and


see if you can find the PN532 and wait for an appropriate tag:
cd examples
Kevins-Mac-mini:examples kevin$ ./nfc-poll
/Users/kevin/libnfc-1.6.0-rc1/examples/.libs/nfc-poll uses libnfc 1.6.0-rc1 (r1326)
NFC reader: pn532_uart:/dev/tty.usbserial-FTE5WWPB - PN532 v1.6 (0x07) opened
NFC device will poll during 30000 ms (20 pollings of 300 ms for 5 modulations)
ISO/IEC 14443A (106 kbps) target:
ATQA (SENS_RES): 00 04
UID (NFCID1): 3e b9 6e 66
SAK (SEL_RES): 08

There are some dependencies to get libnfc running, but since it isn't an Adafruit project and
we can't really support it directly ourselves, you will probably have better luck looking at the
libnfc forums (http://adafru.it/aST) for Mac support. There are a few active users
developping on the Mac.

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FAQ
Some of the more common questions on the forums related to the PN532 NFC/RFID
Breakout (http://adafru.it/364) and NFC Shield (http://adafru.it/789).
Can I have multiple shields on one Arduino?
Nope, the I2C library can have only one address per bus and the address is not
adjustable! So one shield per Arduino please!
Can I read or write to Mifare tags with the PN532 and Adafruit Libraries?
Absolutely! The Adafruit libraries include functions to authenticate, read and write
individual blocks to Mifare Classic cards. Before you can read or write a block you need to
authenticate it with the appropriate key, and once the block is authenticated you can read
and write to your hearts content)!
For example, the key functions in the I2C library (http://adafru.it/aSW) (which was written
to go along with the NFC shield (http://adafru.it/789) since it defaults to I2C) are:
uint8_t mifareclassic_AuthenticateBlock (uint8_t * uid, uint8_t uidLen,
uint32_t blockNumber, uint8_t keyNumber,
uint8_t * keyData);
uint8_t mifareclassic_ReadDataBlock (uint8_t blockNumber, uint8_t * data);
uint8_t mifareclassic_WriteDataBlock (uint8_t blockNumber, uint8_t * data);

This is all you need to start reading and writing data, and you can verify the data using one of
many Android applications that support working with Mifare cards (a search for NFC will turn
up plenty).
What level of NDEF support is included in the libraries?
At the moment, all NDEF (http://adafru.it/aXr) features are experimental and incomplete.
Only very basic test code has been written to format a card for NDEF messages in a way
that any NFC-enabled Android phone should be able to understand it, and it was written
and an extremely simple proof of concept.
We would like to improve NDEF support for Mifare tags in the near future and some initial
planning has gone into this, but at the moment our suggestion is to stick to plain text and
'vanilla' Mifare Classic (http://adafru.it/aXs) reads and writes. You can read and write
Mifare Classic and Mifare Ultralight blocks from Android, and you don't need to used the
more complicated NDEF standard to simply pass data back and forth via a Mifare Classic
or Ultralight card.

Note: Please use the limited NDEF code with care. Formatting cards for NDEF support is
currently a one way operation, and should only be performed on cards you can
dedicate to NDEF use.
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Does the PN532 support peer to peer communication to talk with my smartphone?
Yes, the PN532 supports peer to peer communication, but the SW support for this isn't
implemented in the Adafruit libraries.
Peer to peer communication with Android is possible, for example, but the actual
implementation is quite complicated on the PN532 side. You need to go through a lot of
SW layers to communicate with Android in a way that it understands -- it would require
developing a full NDEF stack for the messages, SNEP and LLCP stacks, etc. -- which is
unfortunately well beyond the scope of what we can offer on a development board at this
price point.
All of the HW requirements for this are met with the Adafruit shield and breakout board,
but the stack implementation is non trivial and would require us to charge a significant
premium for these boards if we implemented this.
We've focused our energy on providing a reliable, proven, properly-tuned HW reference,
and enough of a SW building block to get everyone started, but there are too many holes
to fill in to cover everything NFC can do with a development board at this price point.
For an example of communicating with a phone via NFC, though, have a look at "Talking
With Your Arduino via NFC on Blackberry (http://adafru.it/aXt)" which uses the Adafruit
NFC Shield. The SW layers required for NFC-based P2P communication with a Blackberry
device are apparently much lower than on Android.
Does the PN532 support tag emulation?
Yes, but in reality it's impossible to implement since it requires an external 'secure
element (http://adafru.it/aXu)' that is very difficult to source (under export control and
general NDA from the few manufacturers of them). If you can get one we'd love to see it,
though!
Can the PN532 read Tag-It tags from TI?
No. The PN532 is designed to be used with ISO14443 (http://adafru.it/aSU) tags, with
Mifare Classic probably the most common general-purpose tag type in use. For more
information on supported tags
seehttp://www.libnfc.org/documentation/hardware/tags/iso14443 (http://adafru.it/aSV) or
search for information on the common Mifare tag family based on ISO1443A.
Can I set a delay calling readPassiveTargetID()?
No te: This question only applies to the I2C Library (http://adafru.it/aSW). The SPI
library (http://adafru.it/aSX) doesn't handle the timing the same way.
readPassiveTargetID() intentionally waits around in a blocking delay until a card enters the
magnetic field. The reason for this blocking delay is to ensure a well-understood
command/response flow. Once the magnetic field is activated and a read request is sent
via readPassiveTargetID, you can keep sending new commands to the PN532, but the
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moment a card or tag enters the field, the PN532 will send a response to the initial read
request, even if it's in the middle of some other response or activity. To avoid having to
debug this in SW, a blocking delay was implemented to keep the command/response
pattern as clear as possible.
As a workaround to this blocking-delay limitation,
setPassiveActivatio nRetries(maxRetries) was added to the latest NFC libraries to
allow you to set a specific timeout after read requests.
By default, the PN532 will wait forever for a card to enter the field. By specifying a fixed
number of retries via MxRtyPassiveActivatio n (see UM section 7.3.1 describing the
RFCo nfiguratio n register, specifically CfgItem 5) the PN532 will abort the read request
after specified number of attempts, and you can safely send new commands without
worrying about mixing up response frames. To wait forever, set MxRtyPassiveActivation
to 0xFF. To timeout after a fixed number of retries, set MxRtyPassiveActivation to
anything less than 0xFF.
Example Sketch:
#include <Wire.h>
#include <Adafruit_NFCShield_I2C.h>
#define IRQ (2)
#define RESET (3) // Not connected by default on the NFC Shield
Adafruit_NFCShield_I2C nfc(IRQ, RESET);
void setup(void) {
Serial.begin(115200);
Serial.println("Hello!");
nfc.begin();
uint32_t versiondata = nfc.getFirmwareVersion();
if (! versiondata) {
Serial.print("Didn't find PN53x board");
while (1); // halt
}
// Got ok data, print it out!
Serial.print("Found chip PN5"); Serial.println((versiondata>>24) & 0xFF, HEX);
Serial.print("Firmware ver. "); Serial.print((versiondata>>16) & 0xFF, DEC);
Serial.print('.'); Serial.println((versiondata>>8) & 0xFF, DEC);
// Set the max number of retry attempts to read from a card
// This prevents us from waiting forever for a card, which is

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// the default behaviour of the PN532.


nfc.setPassiveActivationRetries(0xFF);
// configure board to read RFID tags
nfc.SAMConfig();
Serial.println("Waiting for an ISO14443A card");
}
void loop(void) {
boolean success;
uint8_t uid[] = { 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0 }; // Buffer to store the returned UID
uint8_t uidLength;
// Length of the UID (4 or 7 bytes depending on ISO14443A card type)
// Wait for an ISO14443A type cards (Mifare, etc.). When one is found
// 'uid' will be populated with the UID, and uidLength will indicate
// if the uid is 4 bytes (Mifare Classic) or 7 bytes (Mifare Ultralight)
success = nfc.readPassiveTargetID(PN532_MIFARE_ISO14443A, &uid[0], &uidLength);
if (success) {
Serial.println("Found a card!");
Serial.print("UID Length: ");Serial.print(uidLength, DEC);Serial.println(" bytes");
Serial.print("UID Value: ");
for (uint8_t i=0; i < uidLength; i++)
{
Serial.print(" 0x");Serial.print(uid[i], HEX);
}
Serial.println("");
// Wait 1 second before continuing
delay(1000);
}
else
{
// PN532 probably timed out waiting for a card
Serial.println("Timed out waiting for a card");
}
}

Hey wait ... isn't there something funny with the SVDD pin?
Indeed, good eye! Unfortunately, both v1.0 and v1.3 of the breakout boards have a
problem on the schematic. SVDD is connected directly to VDD, but should be left floating
since it is used to power secure modules. This has no effect on the functionality of the
boards, but does cause some extra current to be drawn. It will be fixed on the next
revision of the board, but if you require the use of the secure modules (rare), you can
simply cut the trace to the left of C22, which is the cap connected to SVDD (just follow
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the trace straight up from pin 37).


Are there any special requirements to use the PN532 Breakout with the Due?
While the libraries do not officially support the Due yet, some customers have been able
to get them working with some minor changes to the library.
We recommend using the I2C libraries with both the shield and the breakout boards since
the I2C library represents the latest code from Adafruit, and the shield version should
work without too much effort.
There is one caveat combining the breakout, I2C and the Due, though: The Due
includes pullup resisto rs fo r I2C0 (SCL0 and SDA1), but there are no
pullups resisto rs o n SCL1 and SDA1. SCL1/SDA1 are the pins used as
replacements for the Uno I2C pins (the pins used on standard shields), so you will need to
add two 1.5K pullups on SCL1 and SDA1 to use the breakout board with I2C1 and the Due.
Simply solder two 1.5K resistors, one from SCL1 to 3V3 and another from SDA1 to 3.3V,
and then connect the board the same way you would with an Uno.
This issue o nly applies to the PN532 Breako ut bo ard since the PN532
shield includes I2C pullup resisto rs right o n bo ard.

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Downloads
SPI library is available from github (http://adafru.it/aSX)
I2C library is available from github (http://adafru.it/aSW)
Version 1.3 schematic (click to enlarge)

PN532 Breakout v1 Schematic


http://adafru.it/d7l
You can also grab the Eagle CAD PCB files from github:
https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit-PN532-RFID-NFC-Shield (http://adafru.it/dik)
https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit-PN532-RFID-NFC-Breakout (http://adafru.it/dil)

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