Support for Broadcom NFC Controller

Question

Guys - I'm working with the Proximity APIs to read data from NFC tags. I have tablet which has the NXP NFC controller and it works well with reading tags (haven't tried the writing part extensively). I got another tablet which has Broadcom NFC Controller and when I run the C# sample provided, I can only capture the device arrived/departed events but it doesn't fire any events related to message subscription. The same tag (with the same code) is read properly by the NXP controller based device. Is this a support issue with the Win8 APIs that it can receive values only from NXP controllers and not anything else or am I missing something here. Really need some help here!! Let me know.

Thanks

Easwar

Answer 1

Do you know what type of the tag you are using.  There are some non standard proprietary tags (for example the ones that Microsoft was giving out at Build) that will not work with Broadcom, or any other supplier.  Hopefully they will not be used on the market.

Answer 2

It's a MIFARE 1K tag...I don't think it's a non-standard tag because it works with the NXP NFC Controller as well as with my Android phone.

Answer 3

Unfortunately MIFAIR 1K tag is NXP proprietary.  It won’t work with a RIM phone for example, or with some other Android devices.  The only standard tags are NFC forum 1-4.  NXP has MIFARE Ultralight which is a standard NFC forum type 2 tag.

Answer 4

Thank You Victor!

Answer 5

Hi Victor - Thanks for the pointer. I'll try with one of the standard tags and see if that helps. What I did find out was that there was a problem irrespective of the tag with the Broadcom controller using the Win8 RT Proximity APIs. I think the vendor apps given by Broadcom probably reads/writes to these tags properly.

Thanks

Easwar