Hi there, first post.
I’ve had my xSIID + LED Implant for over a year now, and it scans just fine 95% of the time on iphones without a case. I usually still need to hold the top of their phone to position it correctly, but at least it works mostly well. The successful scan rate drops to about 10% if the iphone has a case on it, occasionally it’ll work but most times it doesn’t.
I have yet to get it to scan successfully more than a hand-full of times on other phone brands. I know that the scanners are in different locations on other phones, and we’ve experimented with it at home, but after several awkward failed attempts in public with strangers, it’s just made me not even want to try if they don’t have an iphone.
The chip is installed in the usual spot in the middle of the webbing of the hand next to the thumb. It’s close to the surface with it’s outline fairly apparent under the skin, so it can make good contact with the phone’s surface.The chip reads and can be written to easily so I don’t think the chip is malfunctioning at all.
It’s still fun as a gimmick even when it fails to scan in public, but I’d like to have something that scans more easily without me needing to ask what kind of phone they have before deciding whether to bring it up. I don’t know if it’s my particular chip or if I just need maybe a flex chip with a bigger antenna or something. Maybe I’m just expecting too much?
Any help or advice here would be super appreciated. Thanks!!
one good thing about iphones is that the NFC antenna is always reliably on the top notch of the phone, lock the phone hold it perpendicular and tap it to wake the screen and begin polling, super easy to send NDEF.
other phone brands are tricky as you have to know where the NFC antenna is, this varies wildly between brands and models. and what the best way to hold it against an implant, then you’ve got the people who have NFC turned off and don’t even know it,
the only way i can think to better your experience would be with a resonant repeater sticker (check DT store) that you can carry around to use to boost and guide the signal, this would still come with a degree of finding the right placement for the phone.
other than that you’d need an encyclopaedic knowledge of phone brands and where their NFC antennas are
Exactly my point, I don’t really want to memorize the scanner location for every phone. But even knowing where the iphone’s scanner is, it barely works if they have a case on (which most people do).
It would be nice to have something that at least close to the ease with which I tap my phone to pay. Maybe the antenna is just too small and I should have installed a different chip?
a flex would be an improvement but the seamless tap and go isn’t gonna happen, for android youd still need to know the placement at least roughly so it can hit the antenna to begin talking to it
and for ios you can totally just tap the top of the phone to the implant but the duty cycle for NFC polling is… much to be desired. which is why i always have the person lock their phone, put it up to the implant then tap the screen to wake it which starts the duty cycle again, instantly picking it up.
^^ that should help with the case issue too btw
this is also a thing for android but varies from model to model on how the dutycycle works,
i only use my implants for contact sharing if I’m using them as a party trick and have the time to fiddle with it, if its an android user i just give them a black ntag card with my link on it after showing them my blinky lights with my own phone, they’re still amazed at the wirelessness of it all.
Ehhh, depends on what you define as “close.” Is it fair to compare a horse to a car? They’re both transportation… Active transponders, such as when you’re doing payment with your phone, are waaaaaay more powerful than passive transponders. My CoM gets maybe 1/4" on a Clover terminal but my phone gets something approaching six inches.
That’s fair. But I kinda figured that the casual tap was kind of the point, using this implant as a pseudo business card, as many seem to do. Having to fiddle with it at the best of times kinda defeats the convenience of it a bit.
I still love having it, with no regrets at all, it’s a great conversation started. But I was definitely expecting a bit more performance.
For a very long time this is what I thought I wanted from this technology. I have never bothered because it’s so finicky–and Apple is Nazi regarding vCards.
Edit:
That being said, I use my Mega all day and love my CoM conversion.
I still have my contact info on my NExT. I use it for that purpose only rarely, but I have done so successfully. It’s in the same place as yours. My Pixel 8 picks it up great from the middle of the phone, and I kinda have to fiddle with other phones to get it to read.
Honestly, I thought that would be my best use for that implant, but using the LF side as my work ID and the HF UID as my password has changed my life. I use it daily and it simplifies both my work and personal life more than I can even explain. I also have an xSIID in my other hand, and that belongs to my partner. She occasionally tells me to give her my hand, and she will reprogram it, hiding secret messages, map locations, and other things that are silly, fun, and sickenly romantic.
I’m a pretty happy cyborg even if I hardly ever use my NExT vCard like I thought I would.
This is why I likely am not moving forward with an implant. I have heard from many of you about similar challenges. And perhaps its unfair to even call them challenges as its just a limit of the technology. Someone has a phone case, and you don’t know where the antenna is, and its also got some muscle in the way. My “fantasy” was to be able to touch someones phone, have an LED light up and dump some information on them. I am reviewing the flex, and still interested in the more hard core “payment” approach - we shall see. Thanks all!
If you just want to touch someone’s phone and it lights up that’s easy and doable.
Now to pass a payload to them without their interaction is the hard part.
You need to:
A). Know the position of the antenna for that model phone
B). That user must have NFC enabled on the phone
C) Phone must be unlocked.
If those three things are met, at most you’ll only be able to have the phone open a web page.
Now if you are worried about proper placement, you can always wear a glove with an RSP or MFGC taped to it and the implant dance is reduced significantly
Your viewpoint is understandable. I would say if you’re hoping for that type of performance, you’d have to go for one of the larger Flex implants.
I would have suggested the flexMT which I had previously and the performance was amazing;
almost like having a full sized card.
The problem you would have is, it is based on Mifare Classic and iPhone doesn’t play nicely.
An alternative would be the FlexMN.
The smaller flex version “wedge” was not a great performer which is why it is no longer available, However, I believe thelarger “disc” version works well, and is still available, (kinda, if its still sold in batches) but I personally don’t know enough about it to recommend it.
For it’s size, the FlexNT punches above its weight. It is an outstanding performer. But it may not give you what you are after, i just know I have no problem scanning mine.
I’m not sure if Dangerous Things has something planned like a large dedicated Flex implant with the sole purpose or at least the main purpose being a business card.
If so, it would be nice to have one that could store a decent sized image also.
The Apex is probably a better option because of the additional memory. But I’d totally use my xDF2 for that if I wasn’t in a part of the world where it would freak people out…
