askin / gnetplus

Python module for interfacing with the Mifare RFID card reader

gnetplus.py

Python module for interfacing with the Mifare RFID card reader

• The reader is the PCR310U Promag contact-less card reader made by GIGA-TMS Inc gigatms.com.tw.

• The module gnetplus.py can be invoked on the command line or be a module in a python program.

• On a Linux machine, no additional drivers or libraries are needed as the PCR 310U is detected as "Prolific Technology, Inc. PL2303 Serial Port" which is a USB-serial device.

Communicating with the reader:

When the reader is plugged into a Linux machine such as a Raspberry Pi, Fedora etc, a new serial USB port is assigned. Check the command "dmesg" for the actual assignment of the port. It would look something like

              /dev/ttyUSBNNN where N is a number.  

/dev/ttyUSB0 is an example. You MUST know what the port assignment is before invoking the gnetplus.py program or it will throw up an exception/error.

The syntax to invoke the script is:

             % python gnetplus.py /dev/ttyUSB0

replace the 0 with the right number assigned.

The card to use:

The cards that work with this reader are the ISO14443A Card Type, MIFARE(r) Ultra-Light/1K/PRO Cart Types.

Example output:

• when the reader is inserted into a USB port, the following is a snippet of the dmesg output indicating the port assigned:

  usb 6-1: new full-speed USB device number 6 using uhci_hcd usb 6-1: New USB device found, idVendor=067b, idProduct=2303 usb 6-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0 usb 6-1: Product: USB-Serial Controller D usb 6-1: Manufacturer: Prolific Technology Inc. pl2303 6-1:1.0: pl2303 converter detected usb 6-1: pl2303 converter now attached to ttyUSB3

The key info is the ttyUSB3 as seen above. The full path to the port is /dev/ttyUSB3 for the example above.

• invoke the python module as:

   python gnetplus.py /dev/ttyUSB3
  

• bring a compliant card close to the reader and reader will beep as well as light up the left LED on the reader.

• on the screen, you will see messages like the following:

  $ python gnetplus.py /dev/ttyUSB3

  Tap card again. Found card: 0x19593d65 Tap card again. Found card: 0x19593d65 Tap card again. Tap card again. Tap card again. Tap card again. Found card: 0x19593d65

• the script returns either the "Tap card again." message or a message "Found card: 0xNNNNNNNN" where NNNNNNNN is the serial number of the card that it was able to detect.

• the script shows how you can communicate with the reader and does not provide any writing to the smart card functions.