Oscilloscope needed

Wireless & IoT
1

Hello

I need an oscilloscope for analyzing of RFID communication. Operating frequency is 13.56 MHz with some subcarrier. I want to listen bi-directional communication, so I need fast and big enough memory inside the scope, right? What models would you recommend?

2

Look at the Tektronics TDS series scopes. This work quite well and are not as expensive as other scopes with the same performance.

You will need at least an antenna to pick up the RF signals and may even need a low noise RF preamp to get a large enough signal into the scope, RFID is very, very low power.

3

k1s:
Hello

I need an oscilloscope for analyzing of RFID communication. Operating frequency is 13.56 MHz with some subcarrier. I want to listen bi-directional communication, so I need fast and big enough memory inside the scope, right? What models would you recommend?

I'd suggest a "sniffer", not a 'scope. That's a receiver that can demodulate anything the transmitter sends. It can sense the frame start, know the modulation method (e.g., BPSK or whatever), the nature of a symbol, then send out to a display or USB link to a PC, the bits in the frame. A 'scope looking at the carrier will be really hard to decipher, e.g, phase changes vs. scope's sync, etc.

No doubt you can find that on the market. there are inexpensive ones for IEEE 802.15.4 but that’s not RFID as you mention.

A nice low cost 'scope is the DSO2090 from Hantek. Lots on sale on eBay.

4

waltr:
You will need at least an antenna to pick up the RF signals and may even need a low noise RF preamp to get a large enough signal into the scope, RFID is very, very low power.

Can you give me some examples?

stevech:
I’d suggest a “sniffer”, not a 'scope. That’s a receiver that can demodulate anything the transmitter sends. It can sense the frame start, know the modulation method (e.g., BPSK or whatever), the nature of a symbol, then send out to a display or USB link to a PC, the bits in the frame. A 'scope looking at the carrier will be really hard to decipher, e.g, phase changes vs. scope’s sync, etc.

I already have a proxmark3(LF&HF reader/sniffer/simulator) plus libnfc-supported SCL3711 USB dongle, but I want go deeper and see the carrier wave, subcarrier etc.
5

Did you search (google) “13MHz antennas” and “low noise RF pre-amp”?

Look at Ham Radio stuff for either buying or building. Or use the same antenna design used by your RFID reader.

http://www.tentec.com/products/Universa … -1001.html

Since this has a very wide bandwidth a band-pass filter is recommended.

Or something like this one:

http://www.minicircuits.com/pdfs/ZFL-1000LN+.pdf

The other tool to use is a spectrum analyzer. This could be a box that uses an O’scope for the display.