The instruction card says the clip requires power when setting up the RFID, so I’m guessing it programs the chip using a Bluetooth connection to the phone.
The active element inside. Held with a small amount of double sided tape. There’s some reinforcement on this side since all the chip to coil connections are on this spot.
Scanning it on Android shows an Infineon Unknown IC using ISO/IEC 1443-4 and Gemalto card manager.
That’s all I got. This seems to be as small or smaller than the available contactless options for custom conversion. I don’t have a particular want for conversion, but I thought it’d be fun to tear down and share.
This is very interesting! If I’m reading this correctly, this is a payment chip that you can change the card on? If this is the case, then this could allow you to change out cards when they expire and greatly increase the lifetime of the implant! I would be very interested in seeing this as a conversion and seeing if the clip could alter the chip through the skin.
Yes, the app gives you an option to have multiple cards in the app, but only one active on the chip at a time. It appears that you’d have to connect the implant to the Bluetooth reprogrammer to change the active card. It also allows you to disable the card on the chip via the app only, so I imagine it works something like Privacy.com where they’re acting as an intermediary card. I only have one Chase card and it’s failing after adding it to the app, but before accepting the TOS so I don’t think it’s fully active.
After some careful snipping an prying, I’ve removed the BT transmitter. It’s very thin, about 1mm, and has the flat flex RFID antenna soldered on and a small ceramic SMD antenna for BT, the USB port mid-mounted, and looks to be easily plasti-dipped for better portability and use if the band chip is implanted.
Wow, this is really cool. Thanks for all the detail too. My watch already has the ability to pay for things, but it would be awesome to see this as an implant. Great work on the detailed teardown and writeup.
I had a hell of a time getting it to accept any of my bank cards (worked with one of 7), and while I’ve only tried to pay with it twice, it failed both times. I think we’ll have to wait for a more reliable product,
Found a cheap band online and mine works great. Accepts all of my different chase cards and no issues with payment. I only wish you could have multiple cards loaded like the old “coin” card (you have a primary card, but you could change payment after transactions on their app by end of day)
I have a question; I was sewing my Timex pay into my watch band for a few weeks before sending it to DT. I used a piece of fabric and tried to make a little pocket on the inside to mimic what Timex did. With a 4-month-old and no sleep, I didn’t even think to sew 3 of the edges down, slide the chip in, and then sew the 4th… Anyway, as I was sewing, I had one missed needle poke, and it hit the antenna and now doesn’t work. Is there a way to fix this? or because the antenna was damaged, it’s a goner? (no bid deal either way I found this for 20 bucks so not a huge loss) An image is attached for reference and a red arrow shows where the needle poke is.
I am; I know some people have had some issues with Timex pay, so I wanted to test it out for a few weeks with my daily watch before doing a conversion. But if Amal is able to replace the antenna on it I might just have it done. I was working great before I tried to sew it into my watch band. Just felt super sketchy to pull out a little micro cihp in a store and scan it, I got a lot of weird look HAHHA
Carefully scrape off the kapton to expose the copper, then you can use a single strand of copper from a stranded wire and bridge the gap that way. I’ve repaired similar things that way in the past.
No one has removed the black potting material from around the chip to see what the package underneath looks like, but if it’s a bare die we really can’t convert it, it would need to be encapsulated as is.
Looking at it though, because it has info stamped on top, it might be a QFN which could be placed on a new antenna. I just haven’t gotten my hands on one to find out.
@Satur9 I posted that I accidentally poked a hole through the antenna trying to sew it into my everyday watch band (read above), so it’s currently not working. Do you want me to send it out? Not sure where you’re located, but I could get it out for you to look at. Or if you give me some guidance, I can take it apart and take some photos for you.
I’m in the US. It’s up to you. All we really need is to see the bottom of the chip where the pads are. You could try that if you’re comfortable. If you want to send it to me though I can investigate it pretty thoroughly.
