Error Subscribing For Binary NFC Messages On Sony Duo 11

Question

I was trying out some code regarding NFC tags on the Sony Duo 11 but I've hit some roadblocks

1. I can't seem to detect blank tags. Formatting and preinserting data into the tag from an Android phone makes it work though

2. While I could subscribe to the "WritableTag" and "WindowsUri" messages, I can't seem to subscribe for the "Windows" and "NDEF" messages. Attempting to subscribe for "Windows" returns a message akin to "This message is not supported by the device" and subscribing to "NDEF" generates a "File Not Found" exception for some reason.

Anyone else have better luck with this?

Answer 1

The Windows platform requires all tags to be formatted to the correct standard before you can use them. As Android has open/lower level support for NFC it is able to prepare blank tags for use which we unfortunately can't do on Windows.

In regards to your second question, can you please post some code that you are trying? When subscribing to NDEF records you need to provide the type and namespace correctly for this to work.

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Answer 2

So Windows can't deal with RAW tags.. great.. so one of these days I'm gonna have to answer someone who comes up to me about NFC usage in Windows and I'm gonna have to tell them to keep a spare Android device around to manage them... fun!!!

As for the second part I was just trying to do this

 oProx.SubscribeForMessage("NDEF", Sub(oDev As Windows.Networking.Proximity.ProximityDevice,
                                                    oMsg As Windows.Networking.Proximity.ProximityMessage)
                                                  Dim results = Windows.Security.Cryptography.CryptographicBuffer.ConvertBinaryToString(Windows.Security.Cryptography.BinaryStringEncoding.Utf16LE, oMsg.Data)
                                                  InsertLog("Got NDEF Message :" & results)
                                              End Sub)

The subscribe call fails immediately with a File Not Found Exception

Answer 3

A little follow up on this issue, I just got an Acer W510. And it has NO PROBLEMS subscribing to the NDEF and Windows messages. Which means I can only come to one conclusion

Welcome to Vendor Hell!

Now we'll have to worry about who has the proper NFC hardware implementation for better tag access!

I'll give the Sony another try again and see if I get it to work properly.