MFRC522-python

Library for interfacing with the NFC reader Module MFRC522 on the Raspberry Pi.

mfrc522.py is a python port of the "Arduino RFID Library for MFRC522" (https://github.com/miguelbalboa/rfid). Additionally some code is based on mxgxw/MFRC522-python, ondryaso/pi-rc522 and pimylifeup/MFRC522-python.

There is a lot of documentation available at https://github.com/miguelbalboa/rfid with useful hints and informations.

NOTE: This is still work in progress and not all ported functions are verified working. Use at own risk!

simple_mfrc522.py is a small utility class to simplify interaction with the MFRC522.

What works?

Working:

• Communication (Crypto1) with MIFARE Classic 1k
• Communication with MIFARE Ultralight
• Firmware self check of MFRC522

Pins

Name	Physical pin #	BCM pin #
SDA	24	GPIO8
SCK	23	GPIO11
MOSI	19	GPIO10
MISO	21	GPIO9
IRQ	18	GPIO24
GND	6, 9, 20, 25	Ground
RST	22	GPIO25
3.3V	1,17	3V3

Requirements

This library requires Python 3 and depends on the following libraries:

• spidev
• RPi.GPIO

Installation

Install from GIT:

git clone https://github.com/chme/MFRC522-python.git
cd MFRC522-python
python3 setup.py install

Usage

This repository includes a couple of examples showing how to read, write, and dump data from a chip. Also take a look at the source code documentation in for MFRC522 and SimpleMFRC522.

Example program showing how to use MFRC522 to detect a card and dump its contents to stdout:

from mfrc522 import MFRC522

rfid = MFRC522()
rfid.pcd_init()                     # Init MFRC522
rfid.pcd_dump_version_to_serial()   # Show details of PCD - MFRC522 Card Reader details

while True:
    sleep(1)

    # Look for new cards
    if not rfid.picc_is_new_card_present():
        continue

    # Select one of the cards
    result, uid = rfid.picc_read_card_serial()
    if not result:
        continue

    # Dump debug info about the card
    print('New PICC')
    rfid.picc_dump_to_serial(uid)

Example program showing how to use SimpleMFRC522 to detect a card and dump its data decoded as utf-8 to stdout:

from mfrc522 import SimpleMFRC522

rfid = SimpleMFRC522()
rfid.init()                               # Init MFRC522

while True:
    status, uid, text = rfid.read_text()  # Blocks until a readable tag is present (assumes that data on the tag is utf-8 encoded text

    print('New PICC')
    print(text)

    rfid.wait_for_card_removed()          # Blocks until all tags are removed from the RFID reader

Logging

This library uses standard python logging. The following loggers are used enumerated by names:

Logger name	Description
mfrc522.log	Log errors and warnings
mfrc522.trace	Log method calls and steps (verbose - logs only in DEBUG level)
mfrc522.spi	Log SPI communication (very verbose - logs only in DEBUG level)

You may subscribe to these loggers for getting logging messages.

License

This code and examples are licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License 3.0.