So, finally, I got the chance to try out the 2023 NFC stickers. It’s not because I do not have a NFC enabled device or anything but I think it’s very likely I bought them on a whim. At that time, I was very interested with the concept of turning them into a tapable or non-contact Business Card and I had to choose between RFID or, NFC.
I won’t bore you with the technical details about NFC as there are a lot of information on the Internet (and because I don’t know much about them, anyway). To me, NFC was a relatively new technology and has yet to be widely implemented. I chose NFC over RFID because if I use the latter on most of my models in the future, RFID might be an issue as they can be detected/activated over a long range. With NFC, imagine each model’s information and WebPage link can be accessed by tapping on the Phone…
NFC213 vs NFC215 vs NFC216
They are mostly the same except for the amount of storage. The most common NFC213 has about 144 bytes, the NFC215 has more while the rare and expensive NFC216 has so much more.
| Item | Ntag213 | Ntag215 | Ntag216 |
| User Memory | 144 Bytes | 504 Bytes | 888 Bytes |
| Max URL | 136 Chars | 488 Chars | 872 Chars |
| Cost | Cheap | Medium | Expensive |
The above table was taken from Shenzen Xinyetong Technology.
THE ‘NFC TOOL’ APP
To program, and read the NFC Sticker, you can either use your Mobile Phone or a dedicated USB Reader/Writer. So, I downloaded the ‘NFC Tool‘ App from Google Play and right off the bat, I was able to program the sticker with my Xiaomi 14T Pro. The straightforward navigation took me a few seconds to get used to it and after that, it was a simple matter of copying the Piscean Works LinkTree URL and pasting it onto the App. With that done, I just invoke to program segment, tap the sticker and that’s it.
Although not necessary, I might want to consider getting a separate USB NFC reader/ writer some time in the near future.
TESTING
I was able to scan the sticker with my Xiaomi over a 6mm acrylic barrier. However, because most phones have a protective casing and/or protruding camera lens, the NFC sticker needs to be placed on top of a ‘plateau-like’ area. The data transfer was almost instantaneous and after asking permission, my Xiaomi then opened the Linktree link.
Of course after two years, there are other version of the NFC213 Sticker and the more costlier ones would have a LED in it.
