usbrfidreader

Linux command-line tool to configure and read the cheap Sycreader-type USB keyboard RFID reader (USB ID ffff:0035) — no Windows vendor tool needed.

These readers act as a USB keyboard and "type" the card number. Out of the box they output only 10 decimal digits (the low 4 bytes of the ID). With this tool you can switch them to e.g. 10 hex digits (the full 5-byte ID), change the suffix characters (Enter, ;, ,, ?), or read card IDs directly without them being typed into the focused window.

The configuration protocol was reverse-engineered from the vendor's Windows tool (DEMO.exe + usb.dll).

Requirements

• Linux, Python 3
• python-evdev for the read command only (pip install evdev or sudo apt install python3-evdev)

Permissions (optional)

To use the reader without sudo, install the udev rule:

sudo cp 70-usb-rfid-reader.rules /etc/udev/rules.d/
sudo udevadm control --reload-rules
# then re-plug the reader

Usage

./rfid.py info            # show the device and its config-interface descriptor
./rfid.py get             # show the current output format
./rfid.py set 10h         # switch to 10 hex digits (= the full 5-byte ID)
./rfid.py set 10d --enter # factory default format, with Enter suffix
./rfid.py read            # print card IDs as bytes instead of typing them

Supported formats (./rfid.py set --help):

name	output
10h	10 hex digits (5 bytes, full ID)
8h	8 hex digits (last 4 bytes)
8h-rev	8 hex digits, reversed
10d	10 decimal digits (last 4 bytes) — factory default
10d-rev	10 decimal digits, reversed
13d	13 decimal digits
18d	18 decimal digits
8d	8 decimal digits
8d-4b	8 decimal digits (last 4 bytes)
8d-3b	8 decimal digits (last 3 bytes)
00+8d-3b	00 + 8 decimal digits (last 3 bytes)
5d	5 decimal digits
2h4d	2H4D + 2H4D

Suffix flags: --enter, --semicolon, --comma, --question (and their --no-… forms).

Protocol notes

The reader has two HID interfaces: interface 0 is the keyboard, interface 1 is a vendor config channel driven with HID feature reports (SET_REPORT / GET_REPORT, report ID 1, 256 bytes). Each report is 01 00 00 00 00 00 <len> 00 followed by a frame:

AA <addr> <n> <payload…> <bcc> BB      bcc = XOR of addr, n and payload

command	payload
0x83	get format → 00 ?? <fmt> <;> <?> <,> <enter>
0x82	set format: 82 <fmt> <;> <?> <,> <enter> 00 00 00

License

MIT