Nokia 6212 and NFCIP-1 protocol

[mikeTT]

Hi everyone!

I have a question regarding the implementation of NFCIP-1 on Nokia 6212:
Does said Nokia phone implement to the letter the passive mode (phone is the initiator) from the NFCIP-1 spec?

The problem I have is as follows:
I have an NFCIP-1 device that can be read by the Nokia phone. Works great, no problems whatsoever.
Now I want to replace the phone with a PN512 chip connected to my PC. And everything goes fine, until I send the ATR_REQ command, which fails every time. I have no documentation for the NFCIP device, so I can't tell where's the problem. Although if I could send the frames in exactly the same way as the Nokia 6212, then this should work (as it works with the phone).
I know this is very low level, and most of you will suggest to upgrade to PN53x as it takes care of the whole anticollision stuff, but this is not an option for me. I need to go through the anticollision manually and with the PN512 chip as this is the only chip available to me.

Can anyone share some light on the subject?

Cheers,
MikeTT

[p_w]

Hi MikeTT

The PN512 is a pure "Transceiver"-Chip, meaning it doesn't handle the complete NFC-IP1 protocol activation automatically.
In Card-mode it supports a dedicated "AntiCollision"-command according to ISO 14443-3A. This command handles
the Req-A, Anticollision and the Select-command autonomously for you (of course you have to fill it's transmission buffer upfront with the corresponding data).
Once the anticollision was done and the Reader sent the ATR_REQ (or maybe also a RATS-command when using T=CL) you're in charge to fill the transmission buffer of PN512 manually with the ATR_RES by writing the FIFO-register. That's also valid for following DEP-exchanges or other commands.

Upgrading to PN53x would make it much more simple as those devices handle the NFC-IP1 activation on their own; For DEP-exchanges you simply use a kind of "Get/Set"-Data commands.

To sum up:
1.) When using PN512 you have to read/write all it's registers on your own to exchange data
2.) As the PN53x devices use an embedded firmware, you don't need to read/write the registers - you simply communicate with it by using the proprietary host protocol.

Maybe you can also check the datasheet of PN512. NXP has recently uploaded it on their website (unencrypted).

Hope that helped a bit,
Patrick