In lieu of the display sourced from Amazon, which could become unavailable, an alternate display was chosen from Sparkfun. The code was rewritten to take advantage of the stock library. This requirement made setup more difficult than it needed to be. The original design utilized the SDfat library and a specific version of the Arduino IDE. A rear-mounted power switch was added for easy blind location and activation.
In order to conserve battery life, the reader shouldn’t run any longer than it needs to, but removing the cover to power up is cumbersome and could blow our cover. The battery quantity was increased to 16 to achieve a 24VDC supply. The maximum read range of the reader is dependent on the supply voltage. Enhancements include: Higher Operating Voltage Additionally, an alternate display was chosen and the Arduino code was modified to utilize the stock SD card library. While the Bishop Fox design is great, we found that a few enhancements made it more user friendly. This information can then be used to clone the data to a writable 125kHz card. Additional circuitry is installed to collect the card data and store it on a microSD card. Local power is provided by multiple AA batteries. The listed read range is a maximum 29 inches, which is dependent on credential type, operating voltage, and proximity to ferrous and non-ferrous metals.
The device may be concealed within a backpack, messenger bag, or other concealment method of your choosing. All that’s needed is your time and a basic set of tools.įor the unfamiliar, the card cloner utilizes a long-range card reader, the same model seen on parking garage entrances and secured facilities, to gather the card ID and facility code of LF 125kHz proximity cards from unwitting targets. This post will provide you with all that is needed to fully construct a low-frequency (LF) card cloner, including printable drill templates, PC board (PCB) manufacturing files, and updated microcontroller code. While an overall design was created, and many others have discussed building such a device, doing so can prove to be challenging. This post isn’t attempting to present new research or a new device-that work has already been done, a la Bishop Fox. By Jason Ashton in Hardware Security Assessment, Penetration Testing, Physical Security, Security Testing & Analysis