Stand Out at Your Next Event with the Beast NFC Business Card
This business card is designed around an Arm Cortex-M0 with integrated NFC.
A good business card has the capabilities of getting increased business or a foot in the door to a new job and more. With that said, some talented individuals have created a slew of unique business cards, including a pocket bike tool, Lego Minifigures, and even one made from beef jerky. Andrejs Bondarevs of Beast Devices went a different route and designed a smart business card integrated with NFC and LEDs that produce a light show when activated.
Bondarevs built the Beast NFC Business Card around NXP’s LPC8N04 MCO, which packs an Arm Cortex-M0 MCU, with 32Kb of Flash, 8Kb of SRAM, 4Kb of EEPROM, and integrated NFC. That NFC chip is also used to power the card, making it a great option as the MCU only draws 900uA at 8MHz and 200uA at 1MHz.
Bondarevs also added nine 0.4mm orange LEDs that produce a light show when triggered by the NFC, as well as exposed JTAG and I2C interfaces that can be used for tinkering or can be utilized to turn the card into a development board.
Although the card could be used for a myriad of applications, Bondarevs states, “I haven't come up with anything fancy yet, except for hooking up I2C sensors, and using LEDs and time interval that card is held against the NFC reader to change the mode of operation.” Those interested in recreating Bondarevs’ Beast NFC Business Card, he has uploaded a complete walkthrough, including schematics and a link to the code, on his project page.