Proxmark3 community

n0t

Contributor

Registered: 2008-11-24

Posts: 26

Proxmark testing equipment?

Looking for advice on testing equipment USB based reader to validate proxmark.
What equipment/software would you use to see if proxmark is actually working?
Thanks

d18c7db

Contributor

Registered: 2008-08-19

Posts: 292

Re: Proxmark testing equipment?

I think the following steps could prove useful:

1) Visual inspection of board, check for solder bridges, unsoldered components, etc
2) Continuity test, check at least that that USB VCC isn't shorted to GND
3) Plug in USB then if no smoke rises check voltage levels on VDD=5V, check output on IC3 is 3.3V, check that the ARM is getting that 3.3V
4) If you have a scope check that pin 61 of ARM oscillates
5) Connect JTAG to ARM, test if ARM is detected via JTAG, if it isn't then ARM is bust (ESD or heat damaged?, soldered wrong, check orientation)
6) Program ARM via JTAG and reset board
7) You should see boot sequence on LEDs ( all LED light up, then only yellow, then yellow and green together, then only red, then all LEDs off)
8) Once board is booted check voltage levels on output of IC13 (3.3V) and IC12 (2.5V)
9) Check with scope PCK0 pin 34 or ARM, should see 24Mhz on it.
10) Issue command loread and check with scope PWR_LO pin 2 IC10 for 125Khz check TP5 for same, if this works most likely FPGA is OK else FPGA problem.

n0t

Contributor

Registered: 2008-11-24

Posts: 26

Re: Proxmark testing equipment?

Good information thanks for that.
I was also wondering what USB based prox reader I can use to validate the card was cloned properly?
I'm assuming I can use any 125Khz reader?

d18c7db

Contributor

Registered: 2008-08-19

Posts: 292

Re: Proxmark testing equipment?

Yeah any 125khz reader. Start by reading a tag issuing:

loread
losamples
plot

You should see a nice waveform

gaucho

Contributor

From: France

Registered: 2010-06-15

Posts: 444

Website

Re: Proxmark testing equipment?

dear all,
i have the same problem on more than one board: low voltage value (between 2 volt and zero volt).
with a working proxmark (a friend of mine lent me its pm3 board) i checked that the used HF antenna is good, because it has high voltage ( he don't have LF antenna, but i will manufacture one ASAP).

i used the d18c7db hints and i verified the following:
1) VDD=5V
2) IC3 output=3,3V
3) ARM voltage= 3,3V
4) ARM pin 61= signal at 16MHz, only 570mVpp with 400mV of positive offset (i stated it is correct, isn't it?)
5) IC13 output(3V3-FPGA) = 3,4V
6) IC12 output(+2V5)= 2,5V
7) ARM pin 34 (PCKO)= signal at 24MHz, 6,7Vpp with 1,86V of positive offset (i stated it is correct, isn't it?)
8) the power on led sequence seems to be ok.
9)when i power on the proxmark and then read the signal on IC10 pin2(PWR_LO) i see the following signal: 12MHz frequency with 4,3Vpp amplitude.
10) when i send the command "lf read" and then i read the signal on IC10 pin2 (PWR_LO) i see the following signal: square waveform, 125KHz frequency, 5Vpp amplitude.

i tested 3 boards (they all have low voltage on HF antenna), the only difference is that on test 7 the PCKO read amplitude has differents values: 6,7Vpp, 7,9Vpp and 4,5Vpp (i stated it could be ok, isn't it?)

Note: in the d18c7db hints i read the command "lo read", but i suppose that the client now is changed and that the correct command is "lf read"

PLEASE, give me some more tests to perform, in order to understand which is the broken component.

thank you.

Last edited by gaucho (2014-02-06 20:26:38)

gaucho

Contributor

From: France

Registered: 2010-06-15

Posts: 444

Website

Re: Proxmark testing equipment?

looking at schematic i found the next test to do:
since now i only tested the signal that the pm3 genarates for low frequency antenna, tomorrow i will check the signal PWR_HI (IC10 pin 13) sending the command HF READ and i will check that the same signal is revealed on TP4.
then?

gaucho

Contributor

From: France

Registered: 2010-06-15

Posts: 444

Website

Re: Proxmark testing equipment?

today i made other measurements:

i powered on the board and checked the IC1 pin80 (PWR_HI) and i found no clear signal, only noise.
i sent the command HF READ and no signal appears on pin80. I was expecting a square waveform signal.
I unsoldered the pin 80 of the IC1 and i tried again. nothing changes, it means that the FPGA don't generate that signal.
Does the FPGA needs some external signal in order to generate the PWR_HI ? may be the oscilator?

I checked the oscillator XT1 and i found a 5Vpp good sine signal ( 13,5MHz)

I checked the oscillator XT2 (it is the IC2 pin 61) and i found a really low signal, too much low to be ok in my opinion (read on my previous post the characteristics of this signal).
The oscillators are:
XT1: TXC 7A-13.560MAAJ-T
XT2: TXC 7A-16.000MAAJ-T

used capacitors on XT2 are C6 and C7 and their value is 22pF.

On the ARM DATASHEET ( http://www.atmel.com/Images/doc6175.pdf ) i found that at page 569 para.37.4.4 the oscillator signal should oscillate between a high voltage of minimum 1,26V and a low voltage of maximum 0,54V. stated this, my signal is not ok.. but if the arm has no clock as it seems to be, should it talk on usb port? could it be possible or should i check again?

Last edited by gaucho (2014-02-07 19:13:16)

vivat

Contributor

Registered: 2010-10-26

Posts: 332

Re: Proxmark testing equipment?

This thread is dead. It's 6 years old. Maybe we should return to
our thread?