Project Ladybird is go!
May 6th, 2008
For a long time now, unbeknownst to all but a few select friends, I have been planning a project of such pure, unfiltered awesomeness that it will surely melt your brain were you to even consider it. This is what I will hereon refer to as “Project Ladybird”. There are four stages to Project Ladybird:
- Extract a working RFID chip from an ordinary London Oyster travel card
- Define the limits of the attached aerial
- TOP SECRET
- Profit!
My first attempt to extract the RFID chip from an Oyster card ended in failure – I sliced and diced but could not find that darn chip. My next move would be to dissolve the plastic of the oyster card with nail polish remover to reveal the chip. Somewhat serendipidously, yesterday BoingBoing featured a man called Chris Woebken who had done just that, and was now in possession of a neat-o naked, working, Oyster chip.
He used industrial-strength acetone, though, so one quick trip to the builders’ supplies in Soho and I was ready!
I left the mix for an hour or two, kind of got caught up playing Medal of Honour 4, and when I returned, the Oyster card had dissolved into a satisfyingly goopy mess. Project Ladybird was go!
In fact, the card had dissolved a little too satisfyingly, and the aerial (typically embedded in a loop around the edge of the card) was now detached. Still, I had myself a (hopefully working) chip!
On closer inspection of Chris Woebken’s video though, a circuit diagram flashes for a few seconds. I think Chris likewise found himself in possession of a helpless chip, and attached a variety of different aerials himself. I’m going to try out the raw chip tomorrow, but if it doesn’t work, I’d appreciate some tips on how best to add an aerial…
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6 Comments
1. chris woebken | May 6th, 2008 at 11:07 pm
thanks for the feature. i tried different aerials and soldering the chip to new aerials still worked – some did not. important it needs to be coil.
2. Frank the SciencePunk | May 6th, 2008 at 11:13 pm
Any chance of a close-up image of your handicraft? I have a feeling I’ll solder the wire to the wrong place…
Kudos too – that is a damn small chip to be soldering.
3. Ian | May 7th, 2008 at 12:50 pm
Also, be careful of toasting the chip when you solder it. You could attach a crocodile clip (I hear you can buy them for about £1000 somewhere…) as a makeshift heatsink.
4. Lave | May 8th, 2008 at 10:15 am
Excellent work Frank! I too attempted this after see Chris’ work on boingboing, ( (here’s the link) .
I used Nail Varnish Remover, and it seems to work better than the undiluted acetone you used. Rather than fully dissolve the card it just made it flexible enough for the layers to be peeled off and the intact circuit and aerial removed.
I think I’m hacking mine into a magic wand.
5. Lave | May 8th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
I’m still struggling to get a camera that can do proper macro, but if you look on the back of the chip (the black square side) mine just seems to be linked to either side of that (without touching it). I think the wires are the other side of the chip are just ‘run off’ and not meant to be touching anything, but I’m not sure…
I’ll let you know when I find a decent camera! Good luck!
6. chris woebken | May 8th, 2008 at 3:05 pm
Please let me know how far you can push the limits, it would be great so see something like a Oystercard Jacket with a huge aerial or a jojo? I am curious what kind of magic you guys come up with.
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