ST25R3911 Long time to read tag

[RFlod.2]

I want to trigger a RFID reading at certain intervals using ST25R3911 and from this I want a RFID reading to be done within 1 second.

When I try this in RFAL (using democode for polling):

err = rfalNfcDiscover( &discParam );
if( err != RFAL_ERR_NONE )
{
printf("Err %d!\n\r", (int)err);
return false;
}
state = DEMO_ST_START_DISCOVERY;

It takes about 10 second to do a RFID reading which is way too long.

When analyzing what RFAL is doing this is what I see when checking gNfcDev.state in rfalNfcWorker:

void rfalNfcWorker( void )
{
    ReturnCode err;
   
    rfalWorker();                                                                     /* Execute RFAL process  */
    
    printf("State %d\n\r", (int)gNfcDev.state);
    switch( gNfcDev.state )
    {   

RFAL_NFC_STATE_POLL_TECHDETECT - about 5 seconds

RFAL_NFC_STATE_POLL_COLAVOIDANCE - about 4 seconds

Which is obvisously too long for a user to hold an RFID card in front of the reader. What is RFAL doing and how can I reduce time from request reading to reading done within 1 second? I see several timers are created in state 10 = RFAL_NFC_STATE_POLL_TECHDETECT 

.State 10
Timer 30 ms
.State 10
Timer 1154 ms
#Timer# 154 ms
.State 10
Timer 30 ms
.State 10
Timer 5 ms
.State 10
Timer 1000 ms
T#imer 1 ms
.Timer 1001 ms
Stat#e 10
#.State 10
.State 10

And in state 11 = RFAL_NFC_STATE_POLL_COLAVOIDANCE  several timers of 1000 ms are created:

.State 11
Timer 5 ms
.State 11
Timer 1000 ms
T#imer 1 ms
.State 11
Timer 1000 ms
##.State 11
.State 11
.State 11
.State 11
Timer 1000 ms
#.State 11
.State 11
.State 11
.State 11
Timer 1000 ms
##.State 11
.State 11
.State 11
.State 11
Timer 1000 ms
#.State 11

[Ulysses HERNIOSUS]

Hi,

the timing should be defined by parameters inside discParam. What is the totalDuration set in there?

On our demos if you set reasonable values for totalDuration, maybe >100ms then the demo will achieve that timing pretty accurately.

If you wish for a certain value then also the frequency of rfalWorker(), SPI speed and accuracy of platformTimer()/Delay() will affect the actual timing. Maybe some issue here in your implementation. Best if you could share a logic analyzer trace of SPI lines + IRQ line.

BR, Ulysses

[RFlod.2 · Accepted solution]

Total duration is as in example 1000

 if( err == RFAL_ERR_NONE )
    {
        rfalNfcDefaultDiscParams( &discParam );
        
        discParam.devLimit      = 1U;
        
        ST_MEMCPY( &discParam.nfcid3, NFCID3, sizeof(NFCID3) );
        ST_MEMCPY( &discParam.GB, GB, sizeof(GB) );
        discParam.GBLen         = sizeof(GB);
        discParam.p2pNfcaPrio   = true;

        discParam.notifyCb             = demoNotif;
        discParam.totalDuration        = 1000U;
        discParam.techs2Find           = RFAL_NFC_TECH_NONE; 

Timing in platform

#define platformTimerCreate( t )                      timerCalculateTimer(t)                        /*!< Create a timer with the given time (ms)     */
#define platformTimerIsExpired( timer )               timerIsExpired(timer)                         /*!< Checks if the given timer is expired        */
#define platformTimerDestroy( timer )                                                               /*!< Stop and release the given timer            */
#define platformDelay( t )                            HW_TIM_Delay( t )                                /*!< Performs a delay for the given time (ms)    */

#define platformGetSysTick()                          HW_TIM_GetTick()                                 /*!< Get System Tick ( 1 tick = 1 ms)            */

My functions HW_TIM_Delay and HW_TIM_GetTick works in 1 ms resolution.

rfalworker is exectued every 200 ms.

I do not think it is SPI speed which is the problem.

[RFlod.2]

I changed rfalworker to run at every loops. Now reading is about 1 second. Thanks!

[Ulysses HERNIOSUS]

Typically Logic analyzer trace let's one see multiple potential reasons. Here the reason is already obvious: You need to call the rfalNfcWorker() much more frequently. E.g. once every 1ms or even in a dense loop - could also be done depending on the state the RFAL is in.

Br, Ulysses