Best posts made by Lokki

That was an interesting video. I've corrected a couple ambiguous portions of your post, those who want to google Kristin can.

So in the video she's referencing 125kHz RFID which is a little different to 13.56MHz NFC. It's possible to do a similar thing (I modified a tag a while back with an LED instead of an IC wafer) but you'd have to play around with it to see if you got consistent results with cards.

With the rings though, totally different story.
You get a little bit of cross talk due to the proximity of the two inlays already but if you were to try to add in something like this to the ring itself things get a little more complicated - you'd have to have a system to switch it on and off if it's in the ring. Or to switch the IC out for the LED, lets say, because running the LED as well as the wafer doesn't leave much power for the thing you actually want to do and makes it slightly more difficult to get a good read. It'd have to be done in such a way that it didn't ruin the tuning of the antenna so that you could still read the ring when you want to. It's difficult. And all this inside the body of the ring.
You could go the other way by wearing an extra, ring cover over the top of the real ring but now it's just getting really inconvenient. Ring cover has to be large enough to go over the top of real ring, ring cover is going to be chunky and feel really off.

Hi guys!

After some discussion with John about the disposition of QA visual failed rings, he's once more shown his (and the NFC Ring Team's) crazy generosity!

Whether you are an original kickstarter backer, a crazed inventor or a sentient houseplant with talents in the field of making we would like you to share your inventions here with a reward of one ring per demonstrated invention!
I know, it's crazy right? But it's real. If you invent 12 awesome things and share them with us here then you will receive 12 QA visual failed rings!

We ask that you start a thread on the forums concerning your idea and share the build with us, providing code and diagrams where possible so that others can also build based on your ideas. Pictures and video would be great!
I will need you to help out with the cost of postage and packaging but will keep that to as much of a minimum as possible.

So, NFC community, start your inventing engines and GO!

Please note, these rings will be a random assortment in size and style and will have visual defects that prevented them from being used to fulfill paid orders. They're not perfect but they're still awesome!

EDIT:

We will also accept useful guides, how-tos and FAQ in various forms - message me or reply on this thread to sort something like that out!

Using a single inlay to switch modes, temporary installation in the car.

So, after a discussion on IRC with first @mbm and then @johnyma22 this happened:

Click the link if embedding is on the fritz.

Heh, I guess that'd do it too!
I just got my microview units so I'm going to be altering the car starter to incorporate one of those instead of the microduino, the microview has an inbuilt oled display, so I'll be able to do something nifty with that instead of the big string of LEDs across the dash to show mode.

I'm going to give away my ring vouchers when they come, I've had a chat to John about it and he says that's ok, so the next thing is how to go about it. What do you guys think?

Edit: I'm doing this because I'd prefer to have more people exposed to the ring and support John and the team by backing/buying rings myself. So, ideally the rings would go to people who aren't already backing on kickstarter or due vouchers from the previous kickstarter.

"NFC Sesame", dude. That's what it needs to be called. And +1 on the entire concept. It needs to happen.

Ok, this looks like a misunderstanding here - it's expected that a new user who wants to use the NFC Ring Unlock App will also install the NFC Ring Control App.
The Control App has a "Register" button in it, this registers your ring with your email address at which point you enter the password you'd like to use.
Once this has happened you can then Register the Unlock App and use it.

@luki7151 and @jasok2 - the main reason for the time that it took to create a "fiber" ring is because carbon fiber proved impossible to use due to the RF blocking effects of the carbon in carbon fiber.

You'll mostly see/hear John refer to the new rings as simply fiber. There's no carbon there, no detrimental effects on the RF field and most importantly no difference in usable range.
That's the end result of John's huge commitment to R&D that I think he's too modest about - because carbon fiber was no good, John researched and developed his own custom weave fiber!

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/12/ukrainian-startup-xe-claims-to-have-solved-wireless-charging/

And this is why it's frustrating when people insist on doing everything through the comments sections in kickstarter.
Update 6/update 7 is when the change happened to allow the smaller sizing, the reason behind it isn't specifically mentioned on the update (apart from the size of blank titanium rod) but was talked about in other places including the comments section.
Prototypes were in stainless steel. Inlays were redesigned completely to suit titanium. These were well documented changes. Being prototypes there is the understanding that the prototype is not the final version. Changes in design from prototype to release are neither fair nor unfair, they're done to maximise performance while retaining visual style. Form does still follow function.
Remember during the project, back when (as I mentioned just before) the possibility of smaller sizes was raised?
This was only possible because of the inlay change, otherwise the minimum circumference of the ring would be larger. Because of the larger inlay which was shown to work less well on a wide range of devices the decision was made to alter the design to incorporate two of the same smaller Inlays with the added benefits of better, more consistent read on mobile devices and the possibility of smaller sizes.

I honestly fail to see the need to 'support my claim' to anything, you received a reasonable response to your feedback on the ring redesign based on my understanding. I spend a lot of my time reading and watching videos and basically understanding as much as I can about the things I'm passionate about, this includes the nfc ring. You then receive the benefit of condensed knowledge which is used by me to help out. I don't expect thanks for this but now you're hovering on the edge of rudeness. My time is volunteered simply because I love this project and believe in it. I'm not here to be blamed for the fall of the Roman empire - if you want to do that then I'd expect you to be paying my salary as an RF and electronics technician with decades of experience in the fields.

Just to reiterate - despite the confusing nfcring team tags on lafunamor's and my accounts we are volunteer help.

So feel free to continue to ask questions or provide more actual feedback, I will help where I can, but please remember to be polite in your interactions with those who are here only to help.

I have just used the Hammer of Ban on spammer jimmyjjohn, for anyone who noticed his spam post disappearing and who wanted to know what caused a deletion and a ban. I don't enjoy ruling with an iron fist but I don't think anyone here is interested in paying him for Nokia unlocking (which is free to do anyway).

On newer versions of Android I've had to run a seperate app from play store to remove the lock screen.
You should also be able to add your NFC ring as a trusted device and unlock from the stock lock screen that way.

Ah, there's your problem - it's not set to I2C mode.

See the little bank of two physical switches right near the I2C connection points? switch 1 needs to be in the UP position for on.

I'd say "watch this space", dude.

@asbath, no problemo. I think that returns procedure might need amending, there's not going to be like for like replacement of PVD rings (I forget what you had).

@Simon-Bohlin yes, all currently NTAG203 Inlays.

Yeah, it's a more heavy duty tag in them, the most I can get out of it is that it's an NXP ic which is "blocked" from scanning by NXP taginfo.

Before making a request for help with your particular issue it would help us help you better if you were to pause for a moment and consider logically what you need and what information you'll need to provide in order for us to understand whats happening.

• Does your ring work? With what devices does it work, and from how great a distance?
• Are you building something with a raspberry pi or arduino? What are you using and how is it set up?
• Have you tested the ring on something else, perhaps someone else's phone?
• If you're building something and having trouble with the ring working, have you gone back to basics and checked that all your modules actually function correctly?
• Could it be as simple as messy wiring, or switched wires?

Just remember, the more information we have the easier it will be to help you!

Ok, so this is a long video (I hate doing videos, I really do) showing the method I use to get a ring to read consistently. There is a Mifare Classic card included for comparison, and I've also shown what can happen to read distance and quality merely by twisting the wires from the microduino uno to the PN532 reader.
To explain something with the rings, the smaller the ring size the more pronounced the curve of the inlay - this can also affect read quality, but using a better read method will compensate for this. Ring orientation will also affect how well and how far you can read the ring.
At the moment I don't really feel up to explaining RF propagation waves and why you get better read areas in different places but that is definitely worth looking at for at least an explanation of why things could be different for you. Proximity of other devices, metal, even your hand can affect this. I have a post here on this.

The bare inlays that came with your order should behave more or less the same as a comparably sized keytag or sticker. The lack of a metal surrounding lets them interact a little more readily with the RF field generated by the active device.
I believe silver isn't the best as it might be slightly reflective to RF, you'd have to ask @johnyma22 to clarify that. Black, transparent and white should be comparable in performance and behaviour.