Scotty: I hate durian so much. I don't know why I did this.
[Music]
I'm here in Yiwu today with Collin Abroadcast who's behind the camera right now.
We're checking out some cool markets and we've stumbled across a Tutu market
which apparently, is an employee-less convenience store
a-la-what Amazon is doing in the US, but judging how they did this sign is,
I think this might predate the Amazon shops.
So I wanted to give it a try.
Umm... I think, let's see
Please open the door of the QR code.
I think we have to scan this QR code to open the door.
Can I borrow your phone? Mine's out of batteries
Okay, so let's see.
Scan the QR code.
[door clicks open]
[Collin laughs delightedly]
That's awesome and it talks!
[Automated Voice]
Okay, so...
Now...
Oh wow. Okay, so everything's got what looks like RFID stickers on them
and so I guess we just choose what we want.
I'm gonna get... Oh, you can buy a Budweiser in here.
No age restrictions in China
Actually, I kind of think it's beer o'clock. You want beer?
Collin: Yeah, let's do. Scotty: All right. Okay.
Collin: I was gonna be like, yeah, can you give me one?
So get two Budweisers.
Scotty: Did you want anything else to drink? Collin: A water for sure, yeah.
Scotty: Look, there's an RDIF reader here
So we put this stuff here.
Oh Shit, okay. So it's putting each of these things as I set it down.
Scotty: We have to scan it?
Collin: Yeah, so scan it with my wallet
Collin: So yeah. Scotty: Scan
Scotty: And then buy?
Collin: Yep.
Collin: Let me input password. Scotty: Okay, yeah.
[Automated Voice talking in Mandrin]
Scotty: and the screen now...
[Automated Voice talking in Mandrin]
I'm sure that's saying thank you for your purchase.
So yeah, I mean you could sell anything in here anything you can put a sticker on.
So now,
Let's see. We got to the door
Oh it automatically opened, that's amazing!
That's awesome.
So okay, I want to see what's inside these stickers because these look pretty cool.
So
Wow look at these. Okay. So this looks like it's printed straight on to the sticker
and then maybe just has like a little RFID chip
right in the middle there.
I'm gonna put these in my wallet; take them back to Shenzhen.
I want to look at this under the microscope and see what's really going on here
from like a an icy perspective because this is tiny.
These must be really cheap to make because these are very different from like the RFID tags
you would see in like smart cards for opening doors and that kind of thing.
This is really cool.
I'm now back in my apartment in Shenzhen
and I brought with me a few tags and I- I thought we would take them apart
And see how they work.
Here's the tag.
I'm just gonna peel this open.
Wow.
Okay
That is the tag right there.
So this is super interesting, this of course is an RFID tag and RFID needs an antenna.
So that basic idea is that you have a chip that is powered by
The electricity that it gets from radio waves
So it has an antenna that collects electricity it powers the chip and then the chip
Modifies sends out its own radio waves with the energy it's gathered from the antenna on the antenna. It's magic.
But usually RFID tags have actual copper coil wires and this one appears to be printed with some sort of like
silver paint on
the actual sticker but in the middle here is a little black dot and I think that that
is the actual so I want to look at this under the microscope this little
Dot right here that that I think is the chip. They don't know if it's very easy to show how big it is
It's quite small. These tweezers are pretty thin and you can see how big they are next to it. Okay, so there's something underneath they're
Trying to cut out that thing.
So it's a little wafer of silicone* here, [*Silicon, not Silicone]
the basic deal is that this is a bare wafer.
So it is a bare piece of silicon that has two copper pads on it and then it looks like... here.
It looks like some sort of metallic paint
and that just is painted on top and touches the copper pads here and here
And that makes up the antenna and that's an entire functioning circuit, which is incredible.
I Don't really know what to do next. I'd love to be able to read it
And figure out how to talk to it.
I Don't have a reader, uhh...
You know what? I have a friend
Who or two friends who are doing stuff with NFC and I think maybe they have some gear
Well, I have gear for NFC obviously, but I think they also have some RFID gear
So let me let me talk to them on WeChat and see maybe I can go over to their office and we
Take a look at this. All right, I got ahold of Stuart and he said yes, they have the kind of gear
They think I need to be able to figure out what this chip is and be able to read it and I can come by
Their office tomorrow.
Well, I'm headed out to my friend Stuart's office and unfortunately, it's rush hour.
So it's it's clear right now, but we'll see how it goes.
Stuart is a, I don't know, a logistics guy, I guess? Operations guy?
He deals with a lot of factories around an NFC product
and they have a lot of test gear for NFC but they also have some stuff that should work with RFID.
so hopefully using their test gear in their lab, we can figure out what the heck these tags are and maybe even what chips inside
[chill electronic music playing]
Alright I finally made it out here traffic wasn't too bad
But I just got a WeChat message from Stuart saying pick up some assorted ice-cream surprise us
He doesn't know what he's in for yeah
We were here the other day and there were some very surprising options.
It's blueberry and chocolate that actually be good.
The last time I was out here there was like pea flavored and
Gosh, all sorts of stuff. That's what I was looking for. Durian. He's aren't red
He said this and then Laurie's gonna regret it even more
Chocolate matcha, that looks pretty good get one that looks like a pineapple
[chill electronic music playing]
Okay, [???]
Ice cream acquired. Time for some surprises
Surprise you.
That's what you meant, right?
That didn't last very long I I mean I did by four because I knew no one would eat that one
But I didn't think it was immediately
SCOTTY: That is what you meant to me to do, right? - Yeah
It's really really bad
SCOTTY: You're gonna try it?
I hate durian so much. I don't know why I did this
Larry you want some?
Larry: It's actually not that bad. Stuart: I'll do at least to be done.
To my defense I did get the rest of what I got I think will be good.
I fully expect that it's gonna look exactly like the packaging.
Stuart [laughing]:In case you were worried... Scotty: I wasn't. Stuart: ... that it was going to lose it's form
Stuart: We've got protective...
Oh, oh, I see protective. Oh, that's pretty good. Yeah, we need our ice cream and then dig into some electronics here
This is the putco tags that strip off the balls. I have taken these are the two
I'm not taken apart. And these are the two that I have taken apart. Okay?
THAT is the chip
So that's the IC and then have you looked at what the IC is? Have you got any info on the IC?
Scotty: no. no info.
Okay, so we could try and read it. But first if we put it on the tack tester.
We can see that the resonant frequency of the antenna and we can read it.
Scotty: That sounds like a good starting point. Stuart: OK cool today
Okay, two resonant frequency like
So it's not
NFC that's really quite weak. Yeah
They weren't on the reader
The reader was like big, right? And like a big area and you could just stick stuff down and these were hanging up like vertical off of it.
Yeah, it might be that the reader was giving out quite a lot
yeah, like quite a lot of power
Like a fairly quick transaction. Yeah, I believe that and a night reliable read as well. Yes. Wondering if can grab any tags to...
Actually, I have one my pocket. okay so there you can that that's standard NFC and it's actually cheaper height
Nothing
It was showing on here and then now it's not
here's an example of a card I've taken apart in the past
Similar construction. It's that printed on
Yeah, but look how different is to like there's a the could maker for the antenna is completely different
this one are interesting because
This one's out of a credit card. Yep, that's out of a credit card and it's kind of interesting because the IC
Actually doesn't get bonded to the antenna on this the IC you get a nice ian like a carrier package
Yeah, you don't you just have to place it next to each other. So it's super short range
So that's some of a lozenge from a Schengen Tom Oh, which is the the subway card here engine. Yeah
So yeah, that's got a packaged. I see ya there. Yeah, and it looks like it's probably got cat under that blob. Yep
And that should still work on the metro. Yeah, if I wanted to
Make your own. Yeah
yeah, it's one that of a
Paper tag paper train ticket, from Schenzen. Yeah, so this is kind of something
Huh like that I like how do you have salvaged all of the various NFC things from China?
Well, there's like daily life in China. Every time I get something that's new
You know like to check it out right like because these are disposable tickets. Yeah, so they have two each in now
Yeah, super cheap, right? Yeah, how is it? Yeah, how what's the antenna construction?
Well that that's why I thought these were so interesting right because
Like the margin on selling a bottle of water is not super high, right?
So if you're you can't be spending much per bottle of water for it to make sense. Yeah
Stuart: I'm curious to check this under the microscope to see if I can [trails off] Scotty: Yeah, yeah
Have you looked up this no one six seven is it over, you know, I haven't I
thought I looked this up but
And here we go. I know sales. RFID module or FCC test report
Okay, this is good
Surrounded by computers and browsing on a smartphone
Well, you know
Did you tie the test report your sales terminal
Point of sale terminal sounds wrong thing. Yeah, that does sound good. Actually. What did you just find? Look at this? I just found
impinge
Are six asset tracking tag logistic system labeled CTU Matt. Sure, what's good to me? I've that
working for you create 60 megahertz
Okay way the hell out of for the range that we were looking yeah, yeah, okay. Yeah, that's probably why yeah
Could we buy one we could pop into some temples. Oh
We've got some clothes
Bras summer Fanny men's underwear
This is the danger of
Taobao is that you go in looking for one thing for work and then all of a sudden you're looking at boxers or rods?
There they have crowns on them here. So
862 960 megahertz so that thing was total BS before the 8 megahertz
Yeah, read distance 1 meter
it also made sense that maybe they had a reader in the doorway that could read like the wall or something was reading and
And that was doing like like loss prevention make it like preventing theft
And that's why the antenna design was actually different. I feel pretty confident. We found the tag
I think that the only remaining question is like can we actually read the data on it? Can we buy some of these chips?
I just really want to know what the price like what it what is the
But also, maybe we can make our own
Just get some aluminum foil. And yeah, so an exacto knife and a tag reader not complicated
Speak to the dist speak to the guy that design manager speak to the person that design the antenna
Well, I'm sure it was hard to do the first time but I had an out myself. I
Think you should try. Yeah, so here we go. Okay. Oh
These are cheap six cents. So they're not super super cheap. I think that you should try and design your own antennas
I mean you said before it's gonna be easy, right?
To make my own take on the challenge not design it
Yes, yeah so I think you should make yerevan based on based on their design, yeah
Yeah, it's completely crazy, but I think it would be interesting to see because I think it'll be that part
Notice both of the guys that do this for a living are the ones laughing
Good good, so this is VNA software. This is a
Signal generator loss return loss. So this is how much energy is lost?
Reflected back it's not losing anything
yes, and
Here it loses a lot loses a lot because the tag is is using energy
Yeah, okay
I mean
consuming it
And so before we were seeing it was kind of all over the map and now it's got this really clear spike
And so this says that this tag absorbs that particular frequency. Yeah
This is what it looks like. What the antenna just antenna looks like yeah. Okay. Yeah, and then let's you okay
Yeah, so and this is much deeper than before, right?
Yeah, this was like 14 before and now yeah, and so this is like pretty clear spike
I think I think we learned about as much as we're gonna learn from this. Yeah
There I reckon sir.
Thank you for indulging in my RFID weird. You're welcome. It's always fun to
Find out new stuff.
Yeah and hang out. I know I have an excuse to mess around mister like totally at some point
I will do another video about
Trying to make my own antennas here.
If you guys want to see that leave a comment in the comments below
If it's not interesting, I guess let me know that too. I think that does it for this time. I'm gonna go home
Before he buys anything more crazy on Taobao
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Until next time stay tuned for more adventures.
I'll see you guys again soon.