Project for cardemulation with lpc1115 and pnev512b, looking for starter advice

[lpcware]

Content originally posted in LPCWare by Niklas Breuer on Thu Nov 21 04:31:22 MST 2013
Hello there,
I'm not quite sure if I actually write this in the correct forums, but I'll try anyway so don't rib my head off if I'm wrong please. ^^
I'm a student and my group currently works on a project in which we want to try to create a working card emulation-application. So we're going to try to establish a connection with an nfc-chip which is used as a reader having the pnev512 emulating a card (e.g. mifare classic).
That's the goal.

My problem (and the problem of my co-workers) is now quite a simple one: we don't get it.
I tryed to summarize what we need to do but the problem is that we actually do know what card emulation is but we do not have a clue where we should start the research.

We worked with microcontrollers before in terms of having a datasheet, which explains how the controller works, and working on set exercises to get used to it. But this time we actually, for the first time, only have a goal and the problem is now how to get into all this stuff.

We actually started with trying to read example codes written with a mass of macros and countless classes and functions like I've never seen before and the simple question I'd like to ask here is if anyone might have any tipps how you actually start to work on stuff like this as a newbie in terms of projects.

I actually don't ask for a step-to-step instruction but rather for general practical advices how to deal with these kind of projects.
- How do you start when you are entering a completely unknown field?
- How do you build the fundamentals you can actually work with?

[lpcware]

Content originally posted in LPCWare by Niklas Breuer on Thu Nov 21 09:16:12 MST 2013
That sounds like a plan (and something we should already know in one way or the other (feels a bit like not seeing the wood for the trees)).

Thanks a lot =)

[lpcware]

Content originally posted in LPCWare by R2D2 on Thu Nov 21 06:04:35 MST 2013

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Quote: Niklas Breuer
- How do you start when you are entering a completely unknown field?
- How do you build the fundamentals you can actually work with?

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Make this unknown field to a good-known field.
List the issues like Hardware, C-skills, IDE...
Then solve them. Read Datasheets and UMs. Read them again.
Then get familiar with your hardware (LPC1115) and your IDE (LPCXpresso).
Use a simple sample (blinky) to learn basic IDE things (Debug / Release Build, Flashing, Debugging, Peripherals View).
Try to understand the first chapters of the UM (Clocking, Power, PLL, GPIO).
Try to understand the basic setup in 'System_init()'.
Learn what ISP is and how you can rescue your LPC with FlashMagic.

Start creating your own little projects (GPIO, Clockout, Timer) to get familiar with this peripherals and their registers.
If you need this stuff later, you can use this samples.

In general it is a good way to write a lot of own code. That's costing a lot of time, but you are getting a lot of valuable experience.

Don't expect that you learn this in a day or a week. That will cost you a few hundred hours. If you want to pay this price, don't expect too much and don't be frustrated.

[color=#f00]There's no easy way[/color] (at least if you try to understand what you are doing).