ACR122U NFC Peer to Peer demo not working

Question

I've got an ACR122U NFC card reader and ACR122T token from ACS. I'm trying to run their NFC Peer to Peer demo.

I've installed the ACR122U SDK, mysql and connector, set up the database, and added the escape command to the registry.

When I try to run the peer to peer demo I carry out the following steps (with resultant log results shown)

Insert NFC ACR122T into USB port.

Open the Smart Poster application and click initalise with reader 0. Log:

D1: 2:04:57 PM Program ready

D1: 2:05:02 PM Succesful connection to : ACS ACR122U PICC Interface 0 Direct Mode

D1: 2:05:02 PM << FF 00 48 00 FF

D1: 2:05:02 PM Code: 1

Description: Undocumented error.

D1: 2:05:02 PM << FF 00 51 00 00

D1: 2:05:02 PM Code: 1

Description: Undocumented error.

Insert ACR122U card reader into second USB port with Mifare card on the reader

Open NFC Device application and click initialise with reader 1

D2: 2:05:07 PM Program ready

D2: 2:05:11 PM Succesful connection to : ACS ACR122U PICC Interface 1 Direct Mode

D2: 2:05:11 PM << FF 00 48 00 FF

D2: 2:05:11 PM Code: 1

Description: Undocumented error.

D2: 2:05:11 PM << FF 00 51 00 00

D2: 2:05:11 PM Code: 1

Description: Undocumented error.

Enter text into send field in Smart Poster application

Click Activate Smart Poster

Place ACR122U reader with Mifare card onto ACR122T reader

Click 'Read' button in NFC Device application

Logs from NFC Smart Poster Application after this: D1: 2:14:29 PM Entering passive mode

D1: 2:14:29 PM << FF 00 00 00 27 D4 8C 00 08 00 12 34 56 40 01 FE A2 A3 A4 A5 A6 A7 C0 C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6 C7 FF FF AA 99 88 77 66 55 44 33 22 11 00 00

D1: 2:14:29 PM Code: 1

Description: Undocumented error.

Logs from NFC Device App:

D2: 2:14:31 PM Entering active mode

D2: 2:14:31 PM << FF 00 00 00 0A D4 56 01 02 01 00 FF FF 00 00

D2: 2:14:31 PM Code: 1

Description: Undocumented error.

It seems like the initial connections to the devices aren't even working properly. I have however been able to write to a Mifare card using the ACR SDK Visitor Management system app (I can write to the Mifare card with the ACR122U reader and the registration app, and read back from it using the ACR122U reader and the exhibitor app, and I can also read this same data from the card using an Android NEXUS S phone. So it would appear that the drivers are working OK (at least for writing/reading Mifare format data).

Why is the ACR122U Peer to Peer demo not working?

Answer 1

Well there's nothing like going to the trouble of asking a question to make you figure out the answer. For anyone else that goes down the path of trying this, the issue was:

• The documentation seems to imply that its ok to use the standard microsoft USB CCID PCSC drivers which are already part of the windows 7 operating system and are applied by default when the ACR122U/T reader is connected, HOWEVER, I tried installing the ACR PICC drivers that are supplied with the SDK anyway, and after doing this it resolved the problem.

Also if anyone ever finds this fairly obscure topic of interest, there is a video on youtube here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucfNZW9GSk0 showing how to install/run the peer-to-peer demo.

(I followed all of these steps accurately, but it didn't work until I installed the actual ACR drivers from the SDK dvd rather than using the default microsoft drivers). As mentioned above I was able to write Mifare data to the card using the default microsoft drivers though.