Getting started


Install libusb

The libusb library provides generic access to USB devices. Linux distributions usually have this installed, otherwise it should be available through the standard package manager (beware not to choose the old version 0.x).

Windows users will have a little work to (i) install the Microsoft WinUSB driver and (ii) place a copy of the libusb library into the system folder. Microsoft provides Instructions to install WinUSB but a much simpler approach is to use the Zadig Windows application (download and run zadig, select your device and choose the WinUSB driver to install). The libusb library for Windows can be downloaded from libusb (Downloads -> Latest Windows Binaries) as a 7z archive. Just unpack and copy MS64\dll\libusb-1.0.dll to C:\Windows\System32 and MS32\dll\libusb-1.0.dll to the C:\Windows\SysWOW64 directory.

Install Python and nfcpy

Python is usually installed on Linux, otherwise can be downloaded at Windows users may grab an installer at Choose the latest 2.x version, nfcpy is not yet ready for Python 3.

With Python installed use pip to install the latest stable version of nfcpy. This will also install the required libusb1 and pyserial modules.

$ pip install -U nfcpy

Windows users may have to use C:\Python27\Scripts\pip.exe.

Verify installation

Check if all is correctly installed and nfcpy finds your contactless reader (Windows users may have to use``C:Python27python.exe``).

$ python -m nfc

If all goes well the output should tell that your your reader was found, below is an example of how it may look with an SCL3711:

This is the latest version of nfcpy run in Python 2.7.12
on Linux-4.4.0-47-generic-x86_64-with-Ubuntu-16.04-xenial
I'm now searching your system for contactless devices
** found SCM Micro SCL3711-NFC&RW PN533v2.7 at usb:002:024
I'm not trying serial devices because you haven't told me
-- add the option '--search-tty' to have me looking
-- but beware that this may break existing connections

Common problems on Linux (access rights or other drivers claiming the device) should be reported with a possible solution:

This is the latest version of nfcpy run in Python 2.7.12
I'm now searching your system for contactless devices
** found usb:04e6:5591 at usb:002:025 but access is denied
-- the device is owned by 'root' but you are 'stephen'
-- also members of the 'root' group would be permitted
-- you could use 'sudo' but this is not recommended
-- it's better to add the device to the 'plugdev' group
   sudo sh -c 'echo SUBSYSTEM==\"usb\", ACTION==\"add\", ATTRS{idVendor}==\"04e6\", ATTRS{idProduct}==\"5591\", GROUP=\"plugdev\" >> /etc/udev/rules.d/nfcdev.rules'
   sudo udevadm control -R # then re-attach device
I'm not trying serial devices because you haven't told me
-- but beware that this may break other serial devs
Sorry, but I couldn't find any contactless device

Open a local device

Any data exchange with a remote NFC device needs a contactless frontend attached and opened for communication. Most commercial devices (also called NFC Reader) are physically attached through USB and either provide a native USB interface or a virtual serial port.

The nfc.ContactlessFrontend manages all communication with a local device. The open method tries to find and open a device and returns True for success. The string argument determines the device with a sequence of components separated by colon. The first component determines where the device is attached (usb, tty, or udp) and what the further components may be. This is best explained by example.

Suppose a FeliCa S330 Reader is attached to a Linux computer on USB bus number 3 and got device number 9 (note that device numbers always increment when a device is connected):

$ lsusb
Bus 003 Device 009: ID 054c:02e1 Sony Corp. FeliCa S330 [PaSoRi]
>>> import nfc
>>> clf = nfc.ContactlessFrontend()
>>> assert'usb:003:009') is True    # open device 9 on bus 3
>>> assert'usb:054c:02e1') is True  # open first PaSoRi 330
>>> assert'usb:003') is True        # open first Reader on bus 3
>>> assert'usb:054c') is True       # open first Sony Reader
>>> assert'usb') is True            # open first USB Reader
>>> clf.close()  # previous open calls implicitly closed the device

Some devices, especially for embedded projects, have a UART interface that may be connected either directly or through a USB UART adapter. Below is an example of a Raspberry Pi 3 which has two UART ports (ttyAMA0, ttyS0) and one reader is connected with a USB UART adapter (ttyUSB0). On a Raspberry Pi 3 the UART linked from /dev/serial1 is available on the GPIO header (the other one is used for Bluetooth connectivity). On a Raspberry Pi 2 it is always ttyAMA0.

pi@raspberrypi ~ $ ls -l /dev/tty[ASU]* /dev/serial?
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root          5 Dez 21 18:11 /dev/serial0 -> ttyS0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root          7 Dez 21 18:11 /dev/serial1 -> ttyAMA0
crw-rw---- 1 root dialout 204, 64 Dez 21 18:11 /dev/ttyAMA0
crw-rw---- 1 root dialout   4, 64 Dez 21 18:11 /dev/ttyS0
crw-rw---- 1 root dialout 188,  0 Feb 24 12:17 /dev/ttyUSB0
>>> import nfc
>>> clf = nfc.ContactlessFrontend()
>>> assert'tty:USB0:arygon') is True  # open /dev/ttyUSB0 with arygon driver
>>> assert'tty:USB0:pn532') is True   # open /dev/ttyUSB0 with pn532 driver
>>> assert'tty:AMA0') is True         # try different drivers on /dev/ttyAMA0
>>> assert'tty') is True              # try all serial ports and drivers

A special kind of device bus that does not require any physical hardware is provided for testing and application prototyping. It works by sending NFC communication frames across a UDP/IP connection and can be used to connect two processes running an nfcpy application either locally or remote.

In the following example the device path is supplied as an init argument. This would raise an exceptions.IOError with errno.ENODEV if it fails to open. The example also demonstrates the use of a with statement for automatic close when leaving the context.

>>> import nfc
>>> with nfc.ContactlessFrontend('udp') as clf:
...     print(clf)
Linux IP-Stack on udp:localhost:54321

Read and write tags

NFC Tag Devices are tiny electronics devices with a comparatively large (some square centimeters) antenna that serves as both an inductive power receiver and for communication. The energy is provided by the NFC Reader Device for as long as it wishes to communicate with the Tag.

Most Tags are embedded in plastics or paper and can store data in persistent memory. NFC Tags as defined by the NFC Forum have standardized memory format and command set to store NFC Data Exchange Format (NDEF) records. Most commercial NFC Tags also provide vendor-specific commands for special applications, some of those can be used with nfcpy. A rather new class of NFC Interface Tags is targeted towards providing NFC communication for embedded devices where the information exchange is through NFC with the microcontroller of the embedded device.


It is quite easy to make an NFC field detector. Just a few turns of copper wire around three fingers and the ends soldered to an LED will do the job. Here’s a video.

NFC Tags are simple slave devices that wait unconditionally for any reader command to respond. This makes it easy to interact with them from within a Python interpreter session using the local contactless frontend.

>>> import nfc
>>> clf = nfc.ContactlessFrontend('usb')

The clf.sense() method can now be used to search for a proximity target with arguments set for the desired communication technologies. The example shows the result of a Type F card response for which the nfc.tag.activate() function then returns a Type3Tag instance.

>>> from nfc.clf import RemoteTarget
>>> target = clf.sense(RemoteTarget('106A'), RemoteTarget('106B'), RemoteTarget('212F'))
>>> print(target)
212F sensf_res=0101010701260CCA020F0D23042F7783FF12FC
>>> tag = nfc.tag.activate(clf, target)
>>> print(tag)
Type3Tag 'FeliCa Standard (RC-S960)' ID=01010701260CCA02 PMM=0F0D23042F7783FF SYS=12FC

The same Type3Tag instance can also be acquired with the clf.connect() method. This is the generally preferred way to discover and activate contactless targets of any supported type. When configured with the rdwr dictionary argument the clf.connect() method will use Reader/Writer mode to discover NFC Tags. When a Tag is found and activated, the on-connect callback function returning False means that the tag presence loop shall not be run but the nfc.tag.Tag object returned immediately. A more useful callback function could do something with the tag and return True for requesting a presence loop that makes clf.connect() return only after the tag is gone.

>>> tag = clf.connect(rdwr={'on-connect': lambda tag: False})
>>> print(tag)

An NFC Forum Tag can store NFC Data Exchange Format (NDEF) Records in a specifically formatted memory region. NDEF data is found automatically and wrapped into an NDEF object accessible through the tag.ndef attribute. When NDEF data is not present the attribute is simply None.

>>> assert tag.ndef is not None
>>> for record in tag.ndef.records:
...     print(record)
NDEF Uri Record ID '' Resource ''

The tag.ndef.records attribute contains a list of NDEF Records decoded from tag.ndef.octets with the ndeflib package. Each record has common and type-specific methods and attributes for content access.

>>> record = tag.ndef.records[0]
>>> print(record.type)
>>> print(record.uri)

A list of NDEF Records assigned to tag.ndef.records gets encoded and then written to the Tag (internally the bytes are assigned to tag.ndef.octets to trigger the update).

>>> import ndef
>>> uri, title = '', 'nfcpy project'
>>> tag.ndef.records = [ndef.SmartposterRecord(uri, title)]

When NDEF data bytes are written to a Memory Tag then the tag.ndef object matches the stored data. In case of an Interface Tag this may not be true because the write commands may be handled differently by the device. The only way to find out is read back the data and compare. This is the logic behind tag.ndef.has_changed, which should be False for a Memory Tag.

>>> assert tag.ndef.has_changed is False

An NFC Interface Tag may be used to realize a device that presents dynamically changing NDEF data depending on internal state, for example a sensor device returning the current temperature.

>>> print(tag)
Type3Tag 'FeliCa Link (RC-S730) Plug Mode' ID=03FEFFFFFFFFFFFF PMM=00E1000000FFFF00 SYS=12FC
>>> assert tag.ndef is not None and tag.ndef.length > 0
>>> assert tag.ndef.records[0].type == 'urn:nfc:wkt:T'
>>> print('Temperature 0: {}'.format(tag.ndef.records[0].text))
Temperature 0: +21.3 C
>>> for count in range(1, 4):
...     while not tag.ndef.has_changed: time.sleep(1)
...     print('Temperature {}: {}'.format(count, tag.ndef.records[0].text))
Temperature 1: +21.0 C
Temperature 2: +20.5 C
Temperature 3: +20.1 C

Finally the contactless frontend should be closed.

>>> clf.close()

Documentation of all available Tag classes as well as NDEF class methods and attributes can be found in the nfc.tag module reference. For NDEF Record class types, methods and attributes consult the ndeflib documentation.

Emulate a card

It is possible to emulate a card (NFC Tag) with nfcpy but unfortunately this only works with some NFC devices and is limited to Type 3 Tag emulation. The RC-S380 fully supports Type 3 Tag emulation. Devices based on PN532, PN533, or RC-S956 chipset can also be used but an internal frame size limit of 64 byte only allows read/write operations with up to 3 data blocks.

Below is an example of an NDEF formatted Type 3 Tag. The first 16 byte (first data block) contain the attribute data by which the reader will learn the NDEF version, the number of data blocks that can be read or written in a single command, the total capacity and the write permission state. Bytes 11 to 13 contain the current NDEF message length, initialized to zero. The example is made to specifically open only an RC-S380 contactless frontend (otherwise the number of blocks that may be read or written should not be more than 3).

import nfc
import struct

ndef_data_area = bytearray(64 * 16)
ndef_data_area[0] = 0x10  # NDEF mapping version '1.0'
ndef_data_area[1] = 12    # Number of blocks that may be read at once
ndef_data_area[2] = 8     # Number of blocks that may be written at once
ndef_data_area[4] = 63    # Number of blocks available for NDEF data
ndef_data_area[10] = 1    # NDEF read and write operations are allowed
ndef_data_area[14:16] = struct.pack('>H', sum(ndef_data_area[0:14]))  # Checksum

def ndef_read(block_number, rb, re):
    if block_number < len(ndef_data_area) / 16:
        first, last = block_number*16, (block_number+1)*16
        block_data = ndef_data_area[first:last]
        return block_data

def ndef_write(block_number, block_data, wb, we):
    global ndef_data_area
    if block_number < len(ndef_data_area) / 16:
        ndef_data_area[first:last] = block_data
        return True

def on_startup(target):
    idm, pmm, sys = '03FEFFE011223344', '01E0000000FFFF00', '12FC'
    target.sensf_res = bytearray.fromhex('01' + idm + pmm + sys)
    target.brty = "212F"
    return target

def on_connect(tag):
    print("tag activated")
    tag.add_service(0x0009, ndef_read, ndef_write)
    tag.add_service(0x000B, ndef_read, lambda: False)
    return True

with nfc.ContactlessFrontend('usb:054c:06c1') as clf:
    while clf.connect(card={'on-startup': on_startup, 'on-connect': on_connect}):
        print("tag released")

This is a fully functional NFC Forum Type 3 Tag. With a separate reader or Android apps such as NXP Tag Info and NXP Tag Writer, NDEF data can now be written into the ndef_data_area and read back until the loop is terminated with Control-C.

Work with a peer

The best part of NFC comes when the limitations of a single master controlling a humble servant are overcome. This is achieved by the NFC Forum Logical Link Control Protocol (LLCP), which allows multiplexed communications between two NFC Forum Devices with either peer able to send protocol data units at any time and no restriction to a single application run in one direction.

An LLCP link between two NFC devices is requested with the llcp argument to clf.connect().

>>> import nfc
>>> clf = ContactlessFrontend('usb')
>>> clf.connect(llcp={}) # now touch a phone

When the first example got LLCP running there is actually just symmetry packets exchanged back and forth until the link is broken. We have to use callback functions to add some useful stuff.

>>> def on_connect(llc):
...     print llc; return True
>>> clf.connect(llcp={'on-connect': connected})
LLC: Local(MIU=128, LTO=100ms) Remote(MIU=1024, LTO=500ms)

The on_connect function receives a single argument llc, which is the LogicalLinkController instance coordinates aal data exchange with the remote peer. With this we can add client applications but they must be run in a separate execution context to have on_connect return fast. Only after on_connect returns, the llc can start running the symmetry loop (the LLCP heartbeat) with the remote peer and generally receive and dispatch protocol and service data units.

When using the interactive interpreter it is less convinient to program in the callback functions so we will start a thread in the callback to execute the* loop and return with False. This tells clf.connect() to return immediately with the llc instance).

>>> import threading
>>> def on_connect(llc):
...     threading.Thread(; return False
>>> llc = clf.connect(llcp={'on-connect': on_connect})
>>> print llc

Application code is not supposed to work directly with the llc object but use it to create Socket objects for the actual communication. Two types of regular sockets can be created with either nfc.llcp.LOGICAL_DATA_LINK for a connection-less socket or nfc.llcp.DATA_LINK_CONNECTION for a connection-mode socket. A connection-less socket does not guarantee that application data is delivered to the remote application (although nfcpy makes sure that it’s been delivered to the remote device). A connection-mode socket cares about reliability, unless the other implementation is buggy data you send is guaranteed to make it to the receiving application - error-free and in order.

What can be done with an Android phone as the peer device is for example to send to its default SNEP Server. SNEP is the NFC Forum Simple NDEF Exchange Protocol and a default SNEP Server is built into Android under the name of Android Beam. SNEP messages are exchanged over an LLCP data link connection so we create a connection mode socket, connect to the server with the service name known from the NFC Forum Assigned Numbers Register and then send a SNEP PUT request with a web link to open.

>>> import ndef
>>> socket = nfc.llcp.Socket(llc, nfc.llcp.DATA_LINK_CONNECTION)
>>> socket.connect('urn:nfc:sn:snep')
>>> records = [ndef.UriRecord("")]
>>> message = b''.join(ndef.message_encoder(records))
>>> socket.send("\x10\x02\x00\x00\x00" + chr(len(message)) + message)
>>> socket.recv()
>>> socket.close()

The phone should now have opened the web page.

The code can be simplified by using the SnepClient from the nfc.snep package.

>>> import nfc.snep
>>> snep = nfc.snep.SnepClient(llc)
>>> snep.put_records([ndef.UriRecord("")])

The put() method is smart enough to temporarily connect to for sending. There are also methods to open and close the connection explicitely and maybe use a different service name.


The Logical Link Control Protocol tutorial has more information on LLCP in general and how its used with nfcpy. The nfc.llcp package documentation contains describes all the API classes and methods that are available.