Home Assistant How To - make NFC Tag Reader with PN532 & ESPHome

[@davidwalker575]

Sadly this doesn't seem to work with a RPI. ESPHome Dev fails on start up because of a 'Cryptography' dependency :( very sad indeed.

[@jesserockz]

A PR was merged earlier reverting esptool which seemed to have been causing this issue: github.com/esphome/issues/issues/1702

[@BeardedTinker]

Sorry for a bit of delay David, but I wasn't wasting time :D Contacted Andrea (original author of the tagreader), he contacted ESPHome devs, and here is the answer: Yes there are issues with the cryptography package. But it might be related to an esptool upgrade. It was downgraded back this morning so he might be able to try again now on dev Can you please pull now new dev version and try again? If it works (or fails), please drop me a line... Thanks!!!

[@albertly69]

I finished this project with a few caveats following this video so read this if you plan to do it. First D1 instead should be connected to SCK and D2 should be connected to SDA. Next if you follow his wiring by connecting the buzzer to D8 and led to D7 you have to change the buzzer pin output in the code to D8 and LED pin output to D7 as well. Last if you are thinking about 3D printing the case linked, then you won't be able to fit the buzzer that he linked down to buy. The buzzer is too big so either make your own case or buy a smaller buzzer.

[@seanmcdonald656]

Great video. Love the details of the wiring. I am going to try this out. Thank you very much

[@BeardedTinker]

Glad it helped and have fun with the project!!!

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Great how to guide and breakdown my friend! 😅

[@BeardedTinker]

Thank you!!! 😉 Had so much fun doing it!

[@EverythingSmartHome]

I bet, it was a video I was going to make because I saw there wasn't one I could send people to when they asked how to build, but now I have one I can point people at! 🙏

[@BeardedTinker]

@@EverythingSmartHome Don't let this stop you! There are a tons of videos that cover same topic, but you can put your angle on it, focus on something that you think is important - that's great thing about YT - you can add your personal twist!

[@wolfgangbracke6871]

That was a very interesting video. Even if I can't use it, I always enjoy looking at your posts!

[@BeardedTinker]

I appreciate that Wolfgang! Thank you very much!

[@mikesmods317]

Outstanding Job THANK YOU!! I have built two of them and I am addicted LOL. Can you please explain how / where I would add one more RGB led in the yaml only to be used only in automations?

[@dougle03]

Excellent - Might add a button to wake the reader up for a scan then it can go back to sleep and be run for an extended time on a battery. No need for it to be constantly alive... Just a thought...

[@BeardedTinker]

That's great idea Peter! Thanks!!

[@SlackerLabs]

Great Video! This was perfect for helping me fill in some gaps with a project I have been thinking through

[@BeardedTinker]

I have also takeaway from the video - now I'll improve my other ESPHome devices with connection information to track if devices are available or not. It's great how little things in one project help sometimes in something different.

[@adonno]

Thanks for the shoutout M8

[@BeardedTinker]

Thank you 😉

[@dos1593]

Great Video and instructions ! I actually ended up making one. Thanks ! My Android phone also has NFC , but each time i scan it , it produces a new tag ID , hence making phone NFC unusable. Is there a workaround ?

[@BeardedTinker]

Thank you very much for the comment! I know I've seen a way to get static NFC tag, but can't remember where I've seen it. It's a security thing same as random MAC address. Browsed today but couldn't find it. If I do I'll post a link.

[@asopok]

I am planning of doing one for myself but I don't have a 3d printer. Is there any suggestions of a case I can put them in?

[@BeardedTinker]

Unfortunately, no. For this one I haven't seen any boxes of similar size.

[@PileofKyle]

This was an awesome how to! thanks!

[@BeardedTinker]

Thank you Kyle, much appreciated!! 😃

[@sharktamer]

you mentioned using a smart watch with this, which one do you have?

[@BeardedTinker]

Misunderstanding there - I said RFID watch, not smart watch :) This is rfid wristband that looks like watch, but it's just RFID tag. But I do use Huawei GT watch myself.

[@sharktamer]

@@BeardedTinker ah yeah, I did misunderstand, I thought when you were adding the tags from your two different sources that one of them was the smart watch you mentioned. Can your huawei watch scan tags for ha automations?

[@nehajain2974]

Another great video.. really learning a lot from you. I ordered NFC stickers to use with homeassistant... so suppose I have one automation linked with one nfc sticker that will open the garage door. Would I be able to know that whose phone was used to scan the nfc sticker ??? Kindly reply

[@BeardedTinker]

Hi Neha and thank you so much for the comment! Yes, each time NFC tag is scanned via mobile device, it will trigger event. This event has two variables in it and one of them is device_id - which you can use to create custom notification based on what device was used. So you're good to go :)

[@nehajain2974]

@@BeardedTinker thank you for the reply...

[@johnraahauge4552]

In the video you connect SDA to D1, but in the adonno schematic SDA is connected to D2. Which is correct?

[@BeardedTinker]

Good catch John! Even Andrea didn't catch this one. Yes, D1 pin on D1 mini is clock SCK and D2 pin is data SDA.

[@mlo7238]

Can it be done using rc 522 module? This one just have spi bus. Does the esphome code change so much? And can I do it with only tageeader options without needing a buzzer or led?

[@BeardedTinker]

For the RC522 - it should be possible, but best bet is to check with original author of the project - just ask here in issues github.com/adonno/tagreader/issues In regard to LED and buzzer - sure, I don't think you need to do anything special with the ode, you can disable/comment out LED part and also buzzer part. I'm still running it with same original code without buzzer.

[@mortenhenriksen8078]

Nice video. Do you know og is possible to add more than one tag to the NFC Reader module. I can se you only buy with one tag in the link to aliexpress

[@BeardedTinker]

Yes you can! Tags when read will be added to Home Assistant tag list and you can have as many as you like (to sure if it can be millions, but hundred or so should be ok I guess) and assign to specific tasks or automation.

[@johnraahauge4552]

Nice project. I ran out of regular D1 Minis, but had a D1 Mini Lite (8285 based) laying around. Couldn't make it work with that one though, so I have some regular D1 minis on the way.

[@BeardedTinker]

YT doesn't like me - posted answer and it disappeared. Don't have 8285 boards. But when you get 8266 it should work like charm. One thing I wish would be to have better power management and to be able to run it out of battery (for ex. 18650) for longer - but then you can't have device working all the time and fast response with sleep activated.

[@Michele-ue5eu]

@@BeardedTinker Maybe a button to wake up from deep sleep whould work fine, you have it under the cover where you place your card and when you press the card against it it activates as normal

[@BeardedTinker]

Great idea Michele. Just have to measure how long does it take to connect to WiFi, as this takes longest time.

[@Wookie74]

@@BeardedTinker I am new to this, so where would you solder the button and what is to add in the script?

[@PileofKyle]

Followed your excellent tutorial and made two tag readers. Have you tried two of these in one home assistant setup yet? I can only seem to get one working at a time. the only thing I changed in the tagreader.yaml was the device name and friendly name. Is there something else to edit in the tagreader.yaml to for home assistant to differentiate between the two? Both readers show up in esphome, and the entiry IDs. When trying to read a tag, only the first reader will work. Tested both individually to confirm they're working.

[@BeardedTinker]

That's a good question Kyle. No, I haven't tried 2 at a time. Just checked code once again, and yes, only those two values should be changed. I see that you've posted issue on GitHub and Andrea will be definitely able to answer you that.

[@PileofKyle]

​@@BeardedTinker Thanks for looking into this, I appreciate it!

[@OldAbio]

@@PileofKyle Did you find a solution for this? I also try to use multiple readers... Getting them in HA and ESPhome is not hard, but making two (or more) working at the same time seems impossible.

[@markomatesic5394]

Hello. Where did you get the STL for the case? Thanks.

[@BeardedTinker]

I got it from Andrea Donno's GitHub github.com/adonno/tagreader

[@chharoatchin18]

Very helpful. It worked, but ESPHOME detected as Offline. So I can't update via OTA. How can I fix it?

[@BeardedTinker]

I suspect that you have mDNS issues - internally network can't resolve tagreader to IP address it is using. If you can't resolve mDNS issue, you can try adding following lines to the ESPHome code for tag reader. In the wifi: section, under ssid/password, add following: manual_ip: static_ip: 192.168.2.55 gateway: 192.168.1.1 subnet: 255.255.252.0 Of course, change to match your network and IP address you want to use for this device.

[@MegaSerif]

nice project. however I have a problem with mobile phone. My NFC android phone ( Nokia 4.2) generates each time I read it new code, so I am not able to store it and identify it lately. Has somebody any idea ? With tags and cards it is working flawlessly.

[@BeardedTinker]

I have no clue. There could be few things that may be wrong. At one point, I had other background app trying to take over NFC and that was an issue with me.

[@bandy8750]

Nice work! How do I turn off the PN532 module PWR LED?

[@BeardedTinker]

Hi Andras! Thanks for posting a comment. I'm not sure you can do that. I know some people on different project desoldered LED or damaged them to prevent it from always been on. But don't quote me on that 😂

[@bandy8750]

@@BeardedTinker Thank you👍. I think I'd rather make a darkened box😂.

[@BeardedTinker]

@@bandy8750 you can always put a bit of dark isolation tape on it - if it doesn't work, just add some more 🤣

[@bandy8750]

@@BeardedTinker 👌

[@MatthewBayard]

Could you just use an old phone? You would need a way to keep the screen on. Maybe you could use this as part of a video doorbell system.

[@BeardedTinker]

Yes, you probably could do that by using HA app that has tag reader functionality.

[@sygys]

Can this also be done with an esp32 wroom 32

[@BeardedTinker]

Sure - but you would have to create case for it - and of course verify PINs

[@RenL.e]

Nice !

[@BeardedTinker]

Thank you Rene! Much appreciated!!😃

[@landsale1212]

Hello can you do nfc programe

[@AnryRu]

does the device support ntag 215?

[@BeardedTinker]

Not really sure - you can check documentation for PN532 www.nxp.com/docs/en/nxp/data-sheets/PN532_C1.pdf

[@ilbasettone6669]

Can I use esp32 ?

[@BeardedTinker]

In theory, it should work, as it uses i2c -but I don't think libraries are available in ESPHome for that. You can check on Github with adonno - github.com/adonno/tagreader On the other hand, it will not fit in the case, that's for sure.

[@sygys]

windows 10 isnt recognizing the esp board. this is a nice tutorial but allot is left out of it.

[@BeardedTinker]

Thanks for the comment! If the board is not recognised there are few things that can be problem: esp board is dead, usb cable is dead, usb cable is power only one, no drivers installed, problem with user privilege's/access to com ports...

[@mohamedmagdy3433]

hi all i need code to control led esp Himself esp01_1m d1mini or eny code can add to all model im flash esphome

[@BeardedTinker]

Just code to control LED on board of ESP? If that, check this community.home-assistant.io/t/how-do-you-manually-control-the-onboard-blue-led-for-esp32/209399

[@mohamedmagdy3433]

@@BeardedTinker thinks my friend and thinks all home assistant user and developers this thinks of egypt

[@BeardedTinker]

Thank you Mohamed!!!

[@ortigonover]

Thanks for sharing! Unfortunately, I get the following errors while compiling esphome code (I just did copy and paste) " INFO Reading configuration /config/esphome/wemos3-nfc.yaml... Failed config substitutions: None name: tagreader friendly_name: TagReader Must be string, got . did you forget putting quotes around the value?. name_add_mac_suffix: True project: name: adonno.tag_reader version: 1.4 on_boot: priority: -10 then: - wait_until: api.connected: - logger.log: API is connected! - rtttl.play: success:d=24,o=5,b=100:c,g,b - light.turn_on: id: activity_led brightness: 100% red: 0% green: 0% blue: 100% flash_length: 500ms - switch.turn_on: buzzer_enabled - switch.turn_on: led_enabled" " Thanks in advance

[@BeardedTinker]

Try this repository code - github.com/adonno/tagreader/blob/master/tagreader.yaml I think there were some changes due to issues and changes in ESPHome. I needed to reflash it few months back and there was some change in libraries.

[@ortigonover]

@@BeardedTinker exactly!I think it hasn't been updated since ¿November 2020? and therefore doesn't work with the current esphome versions ... I did Copy and paste from his GitHub but same issues... Thanks a lot 🙏 for your message!!

[@BeardedTinker]

Found it - adonno.github.io/tagreader/ Check this link, it will install latest version directly from the web via USB cable.