PN532

Driver for the PN532 NFC chip. Provides an event and promise-based API, and requires either:

• node-serialport
• node-i2c (WIP)

This implementation does not require libnfc, and should work on both X86 (32-bit or 64-bit) and ARM (RPi / Beaglebone) systems

Tested on a Mac OSX 10.9 system using a UART/FTDI cable to an Adafruit breakout board and on a BeagleBone using UART. I2C support is currently a WIP at the moment.

API is subject to change until the 1.0.0 release

Install

npm install pn532

and npm install serialport or npm install i2c

Example

UART (using node-serialport)

var pn532 = require('pn532');
var SerialPort = require('serialport').SerialPort;
 
var serialPort = new SerialPort('/dev/tty.usbserial-AFWR836M', { baudrate: 115200 });
var rfid = new pn532.PN532(serialPort);

I2C (using node-i2c)

var pn532 = require('pn532');
var i2c = require('i2c');
 
var wire = new i2c(pn532.I2C_ADDRESS, {device: '/dev/i2c-1'});
var rfid = new pn532.PN532(wire);

Scan a tag

rfid.on('ready', function() {
    rfid.scanTag().then(function(tag) {
        console.log('tag:', tag.uid);
    });
});

Poll for a tag

rfid.on('ready', function() {
    console.log('Listening for a tag scan...');
    rfid.on('tag', function(tag) {
        console.log('tag:', tag.uid);
    });
});

Retrieve the firmware version

rfid.on('ready', function() {
    rfid.getFirmwareVersion().then(function(data) {
        console.log('firmware: ', data);
    });
});

Read and write tag data (using ndef library)

Tested using NTAG203 tags. Should support other NTAG and Mifare Ultralight tags. Mifare Classic tags are currently NOT supported, but could be in the future.

Read

rfid.on('ready', function() {
    rfid.on('tag', function(tag) {
        rfid.readNdefData().then(function(data) {
            var records = ndef.decodeMessage(Array.from(data));
            console.log(records);
        });
    });
});

Write

rfid.on('ready', function() {
    rfid.scanTag().then(function(tag) {
        var messages = [
            ndef.uriRecord('http://www.google.com'),
            ndef.textRecord('test')
        ];
        var data = ndef.encodeMessage(messages);
 
        rfid.writeNdefData(data).then(function(response) {
            console.log('Write successful');
        });
    });
});

Examples

Examples are available under the examples directory

Debug logging

PN532_LOGGING=debug node examples/card_scan.js

Note for using UART on a Raspberry Pi 3

If you are using this library on a Raspberry Pi 3, you will likely encounter an issue with the device sending or receiving data over UART due to some hardware and configuration changes with regards to the serial port.

TLDR workaround:

1. Add core_freq=250 in the /boot/cmdline.txt
2. Use /dev/ttyS0 instead of /dev/ttyAMA0

For details on why these changes are needed, see here and here

Links

• Datasheet
• User manual