Tag Archives: nfc

Opal’s New Top-Up Machines and Single-Trip Tickets

Posted on April 1, 2016 by lui_gough

Sydney’s long march to a paper-ticket-less transport network just got one step closer with the announcement on 23rd March 2016 that they are trialing new top-up machines with single-trip tickets. While this was always considered as the next step, it’s … Continue reading →

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Random: Opal Card Stories, Tips & Central Station Upgrades

Posted on August 13, 2015 by lui_gough

The Opal Card is an automatic fare collection system based around NXP MiFare DESFire EV1 NFC cards and readers supplied by Cubic Transportation Systems (based on readers on the Oyster card network). It has been in use since December 2012 … Continue reading →

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The tarnished Opal continues to darken …

Posted on May 21, 2015 by lui_gough

Suffice it to say, followers would have realized the difficulties I have had in getting satisfactory responses from Opal for anything less than a trivial enquiry. While the last post has seen update upon update, it’s probably time to start … Continue reading →

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Nothin’ but a tarnished Opal: Problems continue …

Posted on April 29, 2015 by lui_gough

My quest towards getting my Opal concession card working has been thwarted again. As of the last posting, I was assured by Opal Customer Care that my card had indeed been activated and was ready for travel – both over … Continue reading →

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Oh No! Another Opal Card, but Opal Activation is Broken!

Posted on April 27, 2015 by lui_gough

The Concession Opal card saga continues. In the last chapter, my card was blocked from use and a new card was to be dispatched to me, by express post. This card would have to be activated and the credit from … Continue reading →

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Problem: Opal Top-Up Pending Collection – RIP, my Opal Card

Posted on April 24, 2015 by lui_gough

It’s probably self-evident by now, as a regular user of public transport (and an observant one at that), that I’ve been looking forward to receiving and getting onto the Opal system. While concession holders, including tertiary students, were left to … Continue reading →

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Rand: SSD Dying (or not?), Ankle CT, iMac Temp Sensor Hack, Fake Batteries, More Opal, etc.

Posted on March 7, 2015 by lui_gough

It’s been a while since the last random post, so here comes another, which is jam packed with carefully curated observations and events that have occurred since the last posting. Gough’s “almost” heart-attack Before anyone gets too scared, no, this … Continue reading →

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Random: Concession Opal, Storage Fails, element14 Blogs, etc.

Posted on February 16, 2015 by lui_gough

It’s been an age since I last had the time to write up a random post. Normally, if I’m feeling well, I’d be happy to churn one out every fortnight or thereabouts, but lately, I just didn’t quite have the … Continue reading →

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Random Post: Another Sydney Trains Meltdown, TfNSW E-mail Blunder, iOS8, Opal, etc.

Posted on September 21, 2014 by lui_gough

It’s been another busy week, but there’s really not that much variety of things to report on. The mind is still clouded with many observations and rants, so lets get them off my chest. Another Sydney Trains Meltdown It doesn’t … Continue reading →

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Weekend Assorted: Photowalk, Sydney Trains Rebranding, Opal, etc.

Posted on August 11, 2013 by lui_gough

Hello readers! Long time no blog. Lets start off with a bit of an assorted post with just a few random things. CNET Photowalk Last week, I only had the time to churn out a post about my photowalk day … Continue reading →

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Opal coming to Granville? New liveries on NRCs!

Posted on July 5, 2013 by lui_gough

Last night passing through Granville, I noticed the blanking plates on their ticket barriers. I didn’t have the time to stop for a shot – but this morning on the way into uni, I decided to pause for a sec … Continue reading →

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Opal and Train Stuff: Auburn Update, Screen Firmware, New Warratah Livery, etc.

Posted on July 3, 2013 by lui_gough

Opal Reader Installation at Auburn Station It’s interesting because the last time I went by Auburn Station, the crew were drilling in the holes for the new Opal reader/writer units. Yesterday and today, I travelled via Auburn Station and disappointingly, … Continue reading →

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Cityrail ticket barriers being upgraded for Opal – Western Line next?

Posted on June 28, 2013 by lui_gough

Another morning, another journey into uni – although this time, instead of travelling to my normally preferred station (Granville), because of the bus times, I travelled to Auburn. In my brief stay at Auburn station this morning (about 10:50am on … Continue reading →

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Tech Flashback: Tcard

Posted on June 23, 2013 by lui_gough

Since I was cleaning up the house because there’s a council clean-up on the way, and things had been flooded with sewage – I managed to unearth many old items I had kept and almost completely forgotten about. This is … Continue reading →

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Checking out NFC Smartposters

Posted on June 12, 2013 by lui_gough

To most consumers, NFC technology is still in its infancy. There really hasn’t been much to do with NFC for most people – you could write a few NDEF tags to trigger URLs, phone numbers, or even actions. And for … Continue reading →

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Opal Card trial expanding to the Train on 14th June

Posted on June 7, 2013 by lui_gough

As I’ve been a bit busy, this post comes a bit late – in fact, all of these things happened at the beginning of this week, but it’s still worth a mention. Apologies for the poor photos – I just … Continue reading →

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Spotted: Another soon-to-be Opal Ready Bus

Posted on March 13, 2013 by lui_gough

On the way to UNSW, I boarded another bus which was getting ready for the Opal readers to be installed. This one is Sydney Buses, bus number 4632 (or is it 4832, darn phone camera – can’t tell for sure … Continue reading →

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Sydney Buses Opal Card Readers Spotted!

Posted on March 5, 2013 by lui_gough

Just yesterday, I was travelling on a Sydney Buses service to UNSW when I spotted something different. There were these rounded rectangular boxes – two at the front and two at the rear. They are locked with a circular key … Continue reading →

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SCL3711 SCM Microsystems NFC Reader/Writer Teardown

Posted on February 2, 2013 by lui_gough

For my experiments with NFC-type cards, I needed a fairly cheap reader which is quite full-featured and compatible with libnfc (a library of NFC functions). This allows for fairly good low-level access to NFC hardware. While cheap readers are available … Continue reading →

Posted in Computing, Electronics | Tagged , | 4 Comments