Does anyone know where a good source for NTAG 12C chips is? I plan to get my XSIID installed soon and plan to use it for various projects around the house, but want to have some backup cards or fobs for friends and family to be able to activate them too. Thanks for your help!
3 Likes
@Satur9 let’s talk about making a DT card… basically like the biz cards you made but with DT silkscreen data… product URL… etc. Let’s explore costing on making a bulk of them.
3 Likes
Yeah, can do. I already sent some of my cards to devilclarke and Leumas95, but that’s not really viable for everybody. I can design a DT one and get assembly quoted out. If we added an LED the total BOM would still only be 2 parts so the cost would be pretty low
4 Likes
Let’s do it, with led.
2 Likes
Actually, let’s put smt pads as well as througholes for LEDs … and a full row of pin througholes like the biz cards have… don’t want to presume for the customer… maybe they don’t want the led to steal power for whatever they want to work on
3 Likes
Yeah the cards work great and are a lifesaver or at least a potential implant saver. I’m quite envious of them tbh, I don’t need business cards but I’m tempted to try make some light up ones 
2 Likes
I’ll put a White SMT LED in parallel with the VOUT pin, and put a little jumper you can cut with an xacto if you want all the available power
4 Likes
I know this increased the BOM significantly, but would it be possible to get SMT LEDs in the 4 colours offered in the xSIID? Could even have them in little xSIID sized silkscreens as a ‘promo’ of the chips (of course with the option to cut a trace to disable individual ones)
1 Like
For what purpose? They’re not going to be in implants, everything will be flat on a PCB. People know what different color LEDs look like
2 Likes
For the same reason DT shows all the colours on their website image - it’s visual - it makes it both a test card and a promo flyer in one. If we were talking about getting a supplier to do normal plastic cards its certainly not worth doing, but if we’re already talking a PCB with silkscreen and one LED on it, its probably wouldn’t be that expensive and would be cool!
The sort of thing you can show people for visual impact, DT partners could have on display at their stores, etc…
I know for the technical purpose of a test card they are pointless, but i think it’d be a cool idea nevertheless.
I think of it like when HID does translucent ‘demo cards’ that show off the antenna and chip - it doesn’t serve a purpose, other than to look cool and show off the ‘powerful next-gen’ technology inside.
1 Like
I’ll find out if the chip can output enough to power 4 leds
2 Likes
It’s the difference between a demo card and a test card. A demo card has useless features to be fancy. A test card simulates the regular setup as closely as possible
2 Likes
That’s a fair point. Perhaps a compromise would be to have the LED’s running at 1/4 the current each so the equivalent load is the same? I think it’d make for a nicer test card anyway as I tend to find blinding lights on test devices annoying.
But more than happy to be overruled, just thought I’d throw my ramblings into the hat and see what sticks!
2 Likes
Maybe four different versions for different colors? I don’t know if four different cards would be easier or harder than all four on each chip, but then it would be identical to the individual XSIID
Generally you want to avoid getting different versions where you can. More SKUs is a higher minimum order quantity, more room in the warehouse, more work to make sure they don’t get mixed up and the wrong one sent out. Worth it for implant colours, but doubt it’d be worth it for a test card.
I prefer the single white LED personally. Simple, clean, closer match to the xSIID. Your not going to be buying one of these to show off and it’s going to significantly reduced the brightness of each one. Hell I’m happy with the ones with no LED just the output pins. Can’t believe I of all people are advocating for less blinky… Recently was looking into running multiple LEDs off the I2C plus, you’d also need resistors so your going to jump up the BOM a lot I think.
1 Like
@Satur9 how would you feel about sharing the PCB design files. Been meaning to learn surface mount soldering and it would let people customise it if they could be botherd.
The single white LED is the best compromise between functionality, cost, and user experience. Many people cannot solder on their own SMT LED, so having one on there that can be easily deactivated is the best option. If you want a different color LED, desolder the one that’s on there and put on a different one.
The problem with 4 different color LEDs is that it will be ~40mA of current when the chip struggles to supply 15mA. And it won’t be just an additional 3 components that need to be designed in and populated, it will be an additional 7 because each LED will need resistors because they have different forward voltages. One white LED will not require a resistor because the chip will never exceed the 3.5V forward voltage it requires.
3 Likes
Or just colour it with some sort of tinted resin/pen/film
1 Like