Touchatag RFID Reader

Touchatag is a RFID Reader

About Touchatag

Touchatag is a RFID tag reader from Touchatag. It is a cheap set consisting of an ACR122U USB tag reader and MiFare Ultralight RFID tags.

It is available here or for Europe here.

Remember: Always put a tag on the reader, otherwise you might encounter problems!

Check hardware version

lsusb shows the device:

Bus 003 Device 004: ID 072f:2200 Advanced Card Systems, Ltd 

lsusb -v shows also the firmware version bcdDevice:

idVendor           0x072f Advanced Card Systems, Ltd
idProduct          0x2200 
bcdDevice            1.00

The Version this howto is about is the above ACS ACR122U PICC firmware 1.0.

Install Touchatag

First install this:

# pacman -S pcsclite ccid

Test Touchatag

To test the device run:

# sudo pcscd -f

If you encounter a problem like this:

# pcscd -f

ccid_usb.c:859:ccid_check_firmware() Firmware (1.00) is bogus! Upgrade the reader firmware or get a new reader.
ifdhandler.c:104:IFDHCreateChannelByName() failed
readerfactory.c:1050:RFInitializeReader() Open Port 200000 Failed (usb:072f/2200:libusb:006)
readerfactory.c:233:RFAddReader() ACS ACR122U PICC Interface init failed.

The libnfc README suggests to do this:

If your Touchatag or ACR122 device fails being detected by PCSC-lite daemon (pcsc_scan doesn't see anything) 
then try removing the bogus firmware detection of libccid: edit libccid_Info.plist configuration file 
(usually /etc/libccid_Info.plist) and locate "<key>ifdDriverOptions</key>", turn "<string>0x0000</string>" 
value into 0x0004 to allow bogus devices and restart pcscd daemon.

Warning: if you use ACS CCID drivers (acsccid), configuration file is located in something like: 
/usr/lib/pcsc/drivers/ifd-acsccid.bundle/Contents/Info.plist

Optional: Test tags

# pacman -S pcsc-tools

Put a tag on the reader and try to scan your Touchatag:

# /etc/rc.d/pcscd start
# pcsc_scan

You should get something like this:

PC/SC device scanner
V 1.4.17 (c) 2001-2009, Ludovic Rousseau <ludovic.rousseau@free.fr>
Compiled with PC/SC lite version: 1.6.6
Scanning present readers...
0: ACS ACR122U 00 00

Mon Mar 21 18:16:07 2011
 Reader 0: ACS ACR122U 00 00
  Card state: Card inserted, Shared Mode, 
  ATR: 3B BE 95 00 00 41 03 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 02 90 00 

ATR: 3B BE 95 00 00 41 03 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 02 90 00
+ TS = 3B --> Direct Convention
+ T0 = BE, Y(1): 1011, K: 14 (historical bytes)
  TA(1) = 95 --> Fi=512, Di=16, 32 cycles/ETU
    125000 bits/s at 4 MHz, fMax for Fi = 5 MHz => 156250 bits/s                                                                
  TB(1) = 00 --> VPP is not electrically connected
  TD(1) = 00 --> Y(i+1) = 0000, Protocol T = 0 
-----
+ Historical bytes: 41 03 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 02 90 00
  Category indicator byte: 41 (proprietary format) 

Possibly identified card (using /usr/share/pcsc/smartcard_list.txt):
3B BE 95 00 00 41 03 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 02 90 00
        touchatag SAM card

Install tagEventor

tagEventor runs in the background and executes scripts when a tag enters or leaves your tag reader.

Download a binary version or compile your own.

Run tagEventor to test your installation:

# tagEventor -v 1

The scripts are located in /etc/gtagEventor. Read the tagEventor documentation on how to use them.