I like to learn things through doing projects since I trust my hands more than my mind most of time. I am new for NFC technology, so I plan to learn NFC applications through this project. The project name is PiBook Tracker. The basic idea of the project is to use NXP PN7120 controller on Raspberry Pi 3B platform to create a book reading tracker system. The selected books will be attached with NTAG215 chips or similar technology tags. I will use the features from PN7120 for the tracking system. The core features of PN7210 are read/write NTAG215 chips, however there are more features than that from NXP website (Ref[1]). I will cover this part at the next blog.
I got a set of NFC controller kit manufactured by NXP from Newark.com recently. The part number is OM5577/PN7120SM as below:
https://www.newark.com/nxp/om5577-pn7120sm/nfc-controller-board-arduino-bbb/dp/06AC2433?CMP=AFC-ECIA
Software: I plan to use Raspbian OS for Raspberry Pi and Python for the user interface application development. I might add more tools with the project development going in the future.
Here is my Raspberry Pi and PN7120 controller:
Before I dive into the details of the project, I would like to review the applications of NFC technology first. I use the information from NXP website since I am going to use its PN7210 controller on this project. What is NFC? NFC is Near Field Communication, which was designed for intuitive and simple communication between two electronic devices. Simple is the best. NTAG 213, NTAG 215, and NTAG 216 were developed by NXP as early as 2013 (Ref[2]). There are many user cases presented by NXP and other major IC companies such as ST Semiconductor. I wish I have NFC parts from ST Semiconductor at hand now, then I will try to use ST Semiconductor parts for this project too. Here is a spreadsheet of common NFC user cases from NXP (Ref[3]):
PiBook Tracker project will use Zero-power configuration case for the design.
I will demonstrate how to use PN7120 with NTAG216 chip on next blog.
Ref[1]: https://www.nxp.com/products/rfid-nfc/nfc-hf/nfc-readers/nfc-controller-with-integrated-firmware-and-nci-interface-for-home-appliances:PN7120
Ref[3]:https://www.nxp.com/design/training/nfc-use-cases:TIP-NFC-USE-CASES