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Proxmark3 antenna crafting workshop
Contents |
What is a Proxmark3?
It's a very cool RFID hacking tool you can get from Hackable Devices or proxmark3.com. To use it you will need appropriate antennas.
Kinds of antennas
There is a very nice low frequency antenna (switchable between 125.0 kHz and 134.0 kHz) available for EUR 25,- at HackableDevices.
You could also buy a (non switchable) low frequency or high frequency antenna (13.56 MHz) each for USD 59.- (plus USD 35.- shipping plus 19 % of import VAT on both amounts) at proxmark3.com. We don't think this makes much sense unless you are a complete muppet, because:
You could buy a cable from Hackable Devices for EUR 2.50, cut it in the middle and craft two separate high performance antennas for your Proxmark3 within 10 minutes.
What you need to craft a 13.56 MHz antenna
- Hirose to Hirose cable, 120 cm (if you want to build two antennas, otherwise shorter is ok)
- Knife, site cutter or pair of scissors
- Tape or shrinking tube with a small diameter (2 or 3 mm)
- Straw or something similar with a small diameter
- If twisting is not enough for you: solder iron and some solder
- A operational Proxmark3 connected to your computer and running the "hf tune" command
Crafting your own antenna
Very well then, you are going to build an antenna. That's an analog part, so you'll get the best results with your very own Proxmark3 connected to your very own (self made) antenna.
There are also very good description with exact specification out there which will give you detailed information on there to cut and how many cm to strip and so on (Hi Roel! Hope to see you next year again! :-).
But a lot of parts on the pcb are analog and have wide tolerances (or even worse - they might be populated on different boards with different values). So we have some fuzzy "noise" to handle here.
To make the perfect antenna for your Proxmark3 there is just one solution: Forget the millimeters, do not stick slavish to numbers but get a real feeling for the real analog stuff. This workshop will show you the best practices to do exactly that.
We hope to be able to tape the workshop and publish a little movie in the aftermath.
Location
Time
Day 3 (12/29/2010), 19:15 CET to 19:45 CET
