Recommendations for best NFC signal?

faelanstevie

Hi,
I have a regular-sized NEO that I keep on my keyring. I have about six OATH secrets stored in it, and trying to read it with my Samsung Galaxy S4 is pretty difficult unless I remove it from the ring. A few questions:

Has anyone else had similar issues with the S4? Is it known to have weak NFC?
Is this a common problem with the NEO?
What are people doing to get around it? Should I hang the NEO off a smaller ring instead of having it attached directly to the large ring?
Where is the NFC antenna in the NEO?
Is the NFC antenna on the battery in the S4? Is it worth trying to replace the battery to see if it fixes the problem? (It's a work phone and IT will replace the battery on request, so the only cost is actually walking over there.)
GPG and OATH over USB work fine, by the way (Arch Linux). I had to write a script that kills scdaemon, then waits a few seconds before starting yubioath-desktop-disable-systray. Next time I use it for GPG, scdaemon starts up automatically and I get prompted again for my PIN, which is fine.

I didn't find the right solution from the internet.
References:
https://forum.yubico.com/viewtopic.php=26&t=1618
Explainer production

DuncanNFCRing

@faelanstevie

Soryr to hear your having issues with your Yubikey Neo. Whilst not one of our products, they are a very convenient form of authentication.

In answer to your questions :

It appears that like all phones, the S4 has a "sweetspot" where NFC detection and reading is at its best. It does however appear that the S4's spot is quite narrow :

https://forum.nfcring.com/topic/9/samsung-galaxy-s4

Best to check the Yubikey forums.
Any NFC device will be affected and possible detuned by localised metalic objects, keys and keyrings included.
Embedded in the battery.
Worth a shot !