Spoiler alert, the PicoPass works pretty well!
Start of the actual project-y part
That was actually a lot easier than I was anticipating at every step, but I already made a whole topic, so here’s a guide-type-thing:
Gonna break this down into a few sort of chapters:
- Extracting the chip from the card
- Swapping chips on the board
- Converting chip B from LF to HF
- Results
Gimp file with some pictures and notes on it, if you want to do this yourself (Change file extension to .xcf):
Project.txt (13.2 MB)
Not really necessary though
Extracting the chips
Soak the donor card in acetone for a while, eventually it’ll start to wrinkle up and sort of dissolve in layers. I used some tweezers to pick the layers off
Eventually you should be able to see an outline of the chip, this was on layer 2 for me. I recommend using a flashlight to locate the chip prior to beginning the bath so you know where to keep an eye on before hand
Keep picking away at the layers over the chip, careful not to be too rough on the chip
Done!
Swapping the chips
Some simple soldering/desoldering
I like to solder one pad on components like this, and then remelt the solder and slide the chip in, then you can easily solder the other pad
2LF/2HF > 1LF/3HF
Chip B can be pretty easily converted from LF to HF
Cut the trace at purple, and make sure the two yellow have no continuity. Then just run a wire along green
I used a small drill bit to cut that trace
Make sure the wire is small enough to fit in the case. This was a little tighter than I intended
Results
I haven’t done any real measurements yet, maybe after I do this again with the UG4, but:
The Flipper reads the picopass super easy, and my HID MultiClass reader (with an MFGC on it) can get a read from ~1.5 inches eyeballed
Overall, I’m very happy with that for like an hour of tinkering