NFC Energy-Harvesting PCB Business Card with an MCU
Battery-free NFC-powered business card with microcontroller and animated LEDs
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4 ratings3.83
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CategoryDesign
PlatformWeb
PricingFree
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A programmable business card PCB that harvests energy from a smartphone's NFC field to power a microcontroller controlling 21 LEDs in animated patterns. Designed by an independent developer, it features a compact MCU, Charlieplexed LEDs, and custom antenna design, enabling interactive, battery-free visual effects on a credit card-sized PCB.
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CategoryDesign
PlatformsWeb
PricingFree
AccountNot confirmed
ListedAugust 2026
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Show HN231 source points · 30 comments
Really great project, thanks for sharing and what a well done write-up! Also kudos for including the PCB, BOM, and code on GH with a permissive license.
chews · Imported from Show HN
Look at that subtle off-white coloring, the tasteful thickness of it. Oh my God, it even has a schematic
badatnames · Imported from Show HN
For future PCB business card ideas: it would be dope if it can play audios. Gemini says you can power a piezo buzzer (causing a small bump on a PCB) w/ NFC (just enough power to drive it) to play the modem dialup handshake audio.
yegle · Imported from Show HN
Really cool. I'd love to be able to order cheap ones in packs of 5 or 10, with custom led colors/locations/sizes/brightness, fitting into a printed card...
entrepy123 · Imported from Show HN
"The card never actually transmits a message back to your phone. Instead, it changes how much energy it absorbs from the field, and your phone detects those power dips and converts them to binary data. Most NFC tags use this harvested energy only to run their internal circuitry, but some NFC chips are able to take excess DC voltage and route it out to external hardware. This business card uses that last feature." I wonder if it can be applied to robo-couriers and drone drop-offs. One of those comes to your door, you get your stuff, and you pass something that is powered-up over its sensor and it drives off. It's the equivalent of signing-off on a delivery. The sensor obtains and stores information about you as well. Maybe I've got it wrong and the recipient needs the sensor and the driver has the powered device that only switches on when it is ready to do the drop off. With this card, what are the information transfer and storage scenarios? Would be great to see a table. Can the two parties both exchange and store information with minimal power? A card with a little battery and power-on button? Card can have some type of port? Can it be be used as a crypto wallet with a kill switch in the event of a robbery or home invasion? I think this is important in Hub-and-Spoke communities (previous comment) where population densities decrease but there'll still have to be a lot of exchange going on. Offline-based interactions are a good idea too - keep the airwaves clean.
adrianwaj · Imported from Show HN
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