• Registered: 2010-05-10
  • Posts: 3

Topic: ACS ACR122U on OS X

Hi all!

I'm using an ACS ACR122U reader/writer on my MacBook Pro (running OS X 10.6). When I connect the reader to a free USB port the LED on the reader blinks several times in red.

When I try to use nfc-list for example, the tool says it can't find a connected NFC reader (with a tag placed on top of the reader). While executing nfc-list the LED blinks red one time, afterwards it throws the "Error connecting NFC reader" error.

I found a workaround to fix this problem. Using the "pcsctest" (libpcsc) command seems to work. It is able to find my reader and asks me to put a tag on top of it. With the tag on the reader the LED turns green and turns back to red when I remove the tag. After executing this command the reader still recognizes my tags, and the LED goes from green to red etc. When I'm fast I can execute nfc-list once successfully. If it still keeps saying it can't find the reader, I run pcsctest again and nfc-list will work once.

Can someone tell me what I'm doing wrong?

Thanks.

Last edited by zarafa (2010-05-11 18:12:34)

  • Registered: 2010-05-10
  • Posts: 3

Re: ACS ACR122U on OS X

I compiled libnfc with --enable-debug. The nfc-list example claims it cannot get my ACR122U's firmware.

Output:

DBG nfc.c:107: List avaible device using PN532_UART driver
DBG pn532_uart.c:95: Serial auto-probing have been disabled at compile time. Skipping autoprobe.
DBG nfc.c:116: No listing function avaible for ARYGON driver
DBG nfc.c:168: Looking for ACR122, found ACR122... Use it.
DBG acr122.c:208: Connecting to ACS ACR122U 00 00
DBG nfc.c:176: [ACS ACR122U 00 00 / ACR122U206] has been claimed.
 TX: ff  00  00  00  02  d4  02  
DBG nfc.c:185: Failed to get firmware revision for: ACS ACR122U 00 00 / ACR122U206
ERROR: Unable to connect to NFC device.

The product number on the back of the reader is ACR122U-A2NR. I don't know if this has anything to do with the firmware version.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

  • roel
  • Administrator
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2009-02-18
  • Posts: 151

Re: ACS ACR122U on OS X

Hey zarafa,

This is mainly because you are using the 2.0x (firmware) version of the ACR122U reader. Sadly it is not possible to change this firmware to the older 1.0x releases. The newer version do work, but they require use of a strange feature in the pc/sc protocol, namely the Escape Command.

More info about how to enable this (in linux?) is available here:
http://wiki.yobi.be/wiki/RFID#ACR122U_PICC

In Mac OS X there seems to be not much information about how to use this. So if you get it to work, please let us know, so we can add a fix/howto to this page. If you rather want to use a (more stable) older firmware version of this reader, try to get your hands on a touchatag wink

Let me know if you have more problems / comments.

Cheers,

  Roel

  • Registered: 2010-05-10
  • Posts: 3

Re: ACS ACR122U on OS X

Roel, thanks for your reply.

Because libpcsc-lite stopped working on OS X (libnfc doesn't compile against libpcs-lite 1.6.0?) I made a fresh Debian setup in a VM box on my Mac. It's running libpcsc-lite 1.5.5 and pcscd recognizes my ACR122U device. libnfc-1.3.4 compiled successfully.

I followed the instructions on the link you provided. I changed ifdDriverOptions values to 0x0001 and 0x0005 (in /usr/local/pcsc/drivers/ifd-ccid.bundle/Contents/Info.plist) but it doesn't seem to work. I still get the "Failed to get firmware revision" errors.

Last edited by zarafa (2010-05-12 15:32:07)

  • Registered: 2011-02-06
  • Posts: 1

Re: ACS ACR122U on OS X

Did you get anywhere with this ? I'm very new to NFC stuff, and I'm pretty...disheartened.

I bought an ACR122, which turned out to be an ACR122U when it arrived. So, the standard libnfc 'nfc-list' command doesn't see it.

I'm running on OSX, so I couldn't make use of the simple hack to edit libccid_Info.plist (as mentioned on http://code.google.com/p/libnfc/source/ … unk/README ).

I...think I'm supposed to go with ACS's own acsccid drivers, but their readmes are pretty worthless. It seems I'm supposed to get libusb from http://www.opensc-project.org/sca/ - but it doesn't have a libusb anymore, so once I've compiled the acsccid stuff, I've no idea what to do next.

Any help would be appreciated. I've burned six hours on this....and I'm left pretty confused.

John

  • Registered: 2011-02-25
  • Posts: 1

Re: ACS ACR122U on OS X

Maybe try the hack on /usr/libexec/SmartCardServices/drivers/ifd-ccid.bundle/Info.plist ?

  • rconty
  • Administrator
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  • Registered: 2009-04-22
  • Posts: 642

Re: ACS ACR122U on OS X

BigValen wrote:

I'm very new to NFC stuff, and I'm pretty...disheartened.

I bought an ACR122, which turned out to be an ACR122U when it arrived. So, the standard libnfc 'nfc-list' command doesn't see it.

To all new in NFC, please stop buying touchatag or ACR122U device, this device really have a poor support and is not really NFC with libnfc: emulation and P2P doesn't work correctly due to issues using PCSC.

Romuald Conty
  • Registered: 2011-12-30
  • Posts: 3

Re: ACS ACR122U on OS X

rconty
What reader would you recommend for buying, then?

UPD:
let me answer my question for rconty (he answered it before)
http://www.libnfc.org/community/post/2683/#p2683

Last edited by timdexter (2011-12-30 15:55:36)