RFID Zapper

20

Julian put together a plan for a RFID zapper, the information below was translated but reads not bad.

Project Page.

UPDATE: Julian was kind enough to send in a hand translated version. The text below has been changed accordingly. (Thanks Julian)

“This drawing represents schematically the circuit board of a disposable camera with built-in flash. Also, the necessary design changes are illustrated. Essentially, the “on-switch” (On-Schalter) must remain closed permanently, e.g. by a solder point. The switch for activating the flash (Blitz-Schalter) must be deacitvated and/or removed, as well as the flash bulb (Blitz-Birne). Now a coil with 5 windings of 1mm diameter enameled copper wire (Kupferspule) is connected to the capacitator (Kondensator) with two cables and a momentary switch (ZAP-Schalter). The little bulb (Bereit-Birne) that glows when the capacitator is fully charged can stay in place. But it is better to remove it and connect it with two extension cables again. So, it can be glued clearly visible under a hole in the case afterwards. Finally, the battery holder (Kontaktklemmen) gets removed and a recharchable battery (Akku) is connected to the contacts with cables and a switch (ON-Schalter). For convenience, a charging jack (Ladebuchse) can be added as well. I used a 3.5mm audio jack.

The contacts of the momentary switch used to discharge the capacitator into the coil can weld together due to the very high current. This problem disappeared after 6 or so activations.

An interesting observation can be made when activating the Zapper about 0.5” away from the metal lampshade of a anglepoise lamp. It produces a “ping” sound as if one flips the fingernail against it. This phenomenon indicates that the magnetic field of the Zapper should be sufficient to destroy any RFID- chip at close range.”


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20 Comments


  1. This has some evil potential (besides the privacy protection related implications): what if supermarkets would introduce automated payement?
    Like when you load your cart full of RFID enabled products, drive through a little gate which reads whats in the cart, and then bills you accordingly.

    But now again, with the chips of half the goods ‘zapped’.. will that result in free stuff? Or will the chips be recognizable as being zapped?


  2. Your example is highly irrelevant because no such system exists. No grocer would depend on such a system because it would be much too unreliable. Now if you wanted to sneak out of a library with a reference book, that’s a different story.



  5. Can somebody draw an easier to read diagram, because the paint drawing in another language is a little hard to understand


  6. Richard .. haha nice..

    we are starting to ship food with rifd in them in canadian stores.. walmart has been doing it for years.. we use the rfid more for shipping aspect, but soon i’m sure we’ll see more rfid enabled checkouts…

    gotta remember this rfid zapper next time we have union talks.. heh



  8. Most of the modern RFID transponders have diodes for over-voltage protection so this device will be useless. If you want to destroy and RFID tag, just throw it in a microwave oven. This will create currents everywhere, not just on the reciever coil, and will destroy the semiconductors.


  9. brilliant, this would come in handy at wallmart!


  10. all diodes have a PIV reverse breakdown voltage, so you may need something better tuned to the rfid freq and send a higher energy pulse to zap the diode, I would guess it uses 2 diodes reverse biased to each other so the max voltage would be .65v – I’m guessing transferring 1000v inductively, or even winding your primary coil as a step up transformer when put next to the rfid coil, using a ferrite or iron core primary


  11. Hi Could I buy a RFID Zapper already made up. Tell me how much it will cost and I will send them the money.


  12. “# Chriszuma Says:
    October 9th, 2006

    Your example is highly irrelevant because no such system exists. No grocer would depend on such a system because it would be much too unreliable. Now if you wanted to sneak out of a library with a reference book, that’s a different story.
    ”

    LOL.


  14. Actually grocers do depend on it. The wholesale grocery system is much more fragile than you might think.


  15. BTW I should know… I have worked for quite a few and they ALL have relied on this technology.


  16. Have any of you built one? I want to try this. The flash switch, what do you do with it? Just leave it permanently OFF? And the flash bulb – do you just pull this out? Please help – you can email me on checkthemansion[at]gmail.com < remove brackets and use “@”. Cheers bigears.


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