ACR122U USB NFC Tag Reader & Writer

Title: NFC software for WindowsThought I’d share a review of this. Like many NFC is new to me and I wanted to play around with it. My Android phone has it and I’m seeing a lot more online about it lately. As a Windows user I wanted to see what NFC could do there. Windows 8 has support for NFC but really only for the Windows Store apps. This is the only desktop NFC software that I could find. I don’t use the store apps much, but they are worth checking out too. Either way you need the NFC hardware and chips which is this product. There are many options to choose from which can be a bit confusing. This NFC reader, which is really just the ACR122 U, seems to be fairly common.ProsHardware: The NFC reader installed well; just plugged it right in and Windows Update installed the drivers. The hardware itself looks pretty good; just light plastic. It does have a light that displays the status of the reader which is quite helpful. There are other stand-up models that some people might like better, but this works well on my desk as you can just set the tag on it.Software: The package doesn’t include the software; you have to download it online. It’s free software so anyone can try it out before. The Gototags software installed without any issue. I had a bit of experience with NFC from using my phone and found many of the same concepts to be there. It’s easy to create records on tags and erase them. The basic actions are supported like opening urls and Outlook contacts.Chips: The nTags that come with this are pretty good. They have a sticky back so you can think of them as stickers. There isn’t a lot of memory capacity, enough for what I need though.ConsHardware: There seems to be a bit of delay after you write each tag which is a bit annoying. Supposedly it supports Mac but there isn’t any software to test with so I can’t be sure there.Software: The software has some small bugs in it. After reading a bunch of tags it would occasionally show an error message. Not a huge issue as it will work if you try again but it’s annoying. Others have said there is a daily usage limit. I never ran into this limit so it wasn’t an issue for me.Chips: The chips aren’t very durable. You couldn’t put them in your pocket or anything like that. I might pick up some key chains or the plastic tags.Overall it’s a great kit, especially considering it’s the only good software for Windows I could find. The price is a bit cheapr than the other sellers and theirs doesn’t come with any software. Might want to pick up some additional tags.

I plugged in the reader and windows was able to detect it and install the correct drivers. Reader works great I can scan my tags and they come up just fine. The tags that came with it are sticker tags and not chips like what is displayed. Not a huge problem for me but not what was expected.There was no actual software with the package. All I got was a printed strip of paper that says to goto their website and download their software. So I did that. Didn't give me the option to change my install path but that's just a personal pet-peeve, not something I am really counting against it. Once I opened the software I hit the new file button to start a new file and immediately got an error. So I looked through the documentation on their website and manually setup an encoding file. I try to import it in and get another error. At this point I'm looking for another software to do my NFC encoding with.If you're looking at this product, the scanner is on par price wise from every other scanner I could find which is fair since all you actually get is the scanner and the rest you have to do yourself.

does exactly what it is supposed tothe software is a bit flakey

I bought this a few years ago because i had experience writing NFC software and I am a Microsoft .NET developer.Unfortunately this has been sitting like a paper weight because out does not come with a .NET SDK, in fact no SDK at all! I should have invested my money in some other hardware instead.

The device itself is pretty plug and play and reads and writes the tags I already have reasonably well.The free software that comes with it is is pretty good, but is completely non-functional one there is no internet access. I don't follow the explanation for this.I have written NFC tags and then want to read them back later on and log them. I see no need for internet access, but was told by the support team that it is a neccesary requirement.Considering my sole purpose for the device was read tags in the field (with a laptop) this essentially renders the whole system useless. Such a shame because it would be great for my purposes otherwise.If you will always be on the web or will use some other software with it, then this product is probably great. Otherwise, i would get something else.Ben.

The software isn't amazing and the build quality is somewhere around Chinese McDonald's toy but, it works. I used it for a project demonstrating an NFC key card system, the software allowed me to output the contents of the card into any active text box without having to write some weird program to do it for me. It lets you batch write tags and gives you all the info you need. The software did sometimes fail to work but the reader was flawless. Testing showed the reader could work through obstructions fairly well, about 4" of nonmetal is about its limit though.It is a great kit

Working great for my project, although I will say I am not a big fan of the software since it only works with .bat files and can not launch jar file directly.

Waste of money. They don't tell you that you have the pay to use their software, plus a fee per tag that you write over a limit. The software is absolute trash, and $500 for access to the SDK (Software development Kit). As a software developer, companies like this make me cringe. They want me to pay to interface with their device, and then have my clients pay to purchase the device as well. SDKs should be FREE.