How to debug RC522 RFID-Reader?

[derBlume]

Hey everyone!
I setup phoniebox v2 on a Pi3 B with a RC522 card reader from AZ-Delivery using the standard scripts from the repo. On a first test, it worked and I registered two different RFID cards. I then did other stuff which involved moving the pi and reader around quite a bit (I was testing different options for the housing) and now the reader does not work anymore. When I swipe a card, nothing happens and the card id field in the web interface does not update. As far as i can tell with my limited possibilities, the soldering and cables still seem to be ok. Also, the red LED on the reader is illuminated, which seems to indicate that it is "on". However, I'm looking for a way to verify if the reader is basically working or not, i.e. just output the card id on the console or something, before I start over with the cables and soldering... Can anyone help me out?

[s-martin]

What's the output of tail -n 200 /var/log/syslog after you swipe a card?

[derBlume]

Thanks for the quick response. This is the output:

Jan  2 22:34:10 phoniebox systemd[1109]: Listening on GnuPG cryptographic agent and passphrase cache (access for web browsers).
Jan  2 22:34:10 phoniebox systemd[1109]: Listening on GnuPG cryptographic agent and passphrase cache (restricted).
Jan  2 22:34:10 phoniebox systemd[1109]: Listening on GnuPG cryptographic agent (ssh-agent emulation).
Jan  2 22:34:10 phoniebox systemd[1109]: Listening on GnuPG cryptographic agent and passphrase cache.
Jan  2 22:34:10 phoniebox systemd[1109]: Reached target Sockets.
Jan  2 22:34:10 phoniebox systemd[1109]: Reached target Basic System.
Jan  2 22:34:10 phoniebox systemd[1109]: Reached target Main User Target.
Jan  2 22:34:10 phoniebox systemd[1109]: Startup finished in 494ms.
Jan  2 22:34:10 phoniebox systemd[1]: Started User Manager for UID 1000.
Jan  2 22:34:10 phoniebox systemd[1]: Started Session 1 of user pi.
Jan  2 22:34:12 phoniebox bash[1108]: #015> 0128+1006  00:03.31+00:26.27 --- 100=100  64 kb/s  208 B acc    0 clip p+0.000
Jan  2 22:34:12 phoniebox bash[1108]: MPEG 1.0 L III vbr 44100 mono
Jan  2 22:34:12 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Title:   silence 0.5 sec
Jan  2 22:34:12 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Artist:  Phoniebox
Jan  2 22:34:12 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Album:
Jan  2 22:34:12 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Year:
Jan  2 22:34:12 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Genre:
Jan  2 22:34:12 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Comment:
Jan  2 22:34:14 phoniebox bash[1108]: #015> 0202+0932  00:05.25+00:24.34 --- 100=100  64 kb/s  208 B acc    0 clip p+0.000
Jan  2 22:34:14 phoniebox bash[1108]: MPEG 1.0 L III vbr 44100 mono
Jan  2 22:34:14 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Title:   silence 0.5 sec
Jan  2 22:34:14 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Artist:  Phoniebox
Jan  2 22:34:14 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Album:
Jan  2 22:34:14 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Year:
Jan  2 22:34:14 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Genre:
Jan  2 22:34:14 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Comment:
Jan  2 22:34:15 phoniebox systemd[1]: NetworkManager-dispatcher.service: Succeeded.
Jan  2 22:34:16 phoniebox bash[1108]: #015> 0268+0866  00:06.97+00:22.62 --- 100=100  64 kb/s  208 B acc    0 clip p+0.000
Jan  2 22:34:16 phoniebox bash[1108]: MPEG 1.0 L III vbr 44100 mono
Jan  2 22:34:16 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Title:   silence 0.5 sec
Jan  2 22:34:16 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Artist:  Phoniebox
Jan  2 22:34:16 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Album:
Jan  2 22:34:16 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Year:
Jan  2 22:34:16 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Genre:
Jan  2 22:34:16 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Comment:
Jan  2 22:34:16 phoniebox bash[1108]: #015> 0290+0844  00:07.55+00:22.04 --- 100=100  64 kb/s  208 B acc    0 clip p+0.000
Jan  2 22:34:16 phoniebox bash[1108]: MPEG 1.0 L III vbr 44100 mono
Jan  2 22:34:16 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Title:   dot
Jan  2 22:34:16 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Artist:  Phoniebox
Jan  2 22:34:16 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Album:
Jan  2 22:34:16 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Year:
Jan  2 22:34:16 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Genre:
Jan  2 22:34:16 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Comment:
Jan  2 22:34:17 phoniebox bash[1108]: #015> 0315+0819  00:08.20+00:21.39 --- 100=100  64 kb/s  208 B acc    0 clip p+0.000
Jan  2 22:34:17 phoniebox bash[1108]: MPEG 1.0 L III vbr 44100 mono
Jan  2 22:34:17 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Title:   silence 0.5 sec
Jan  2 22:34:17 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Artist:  Phoniebox
Jan  2 22:34:17 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Album:
Jan  2 22:34:17 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Year:
Jan  2 22:34:17 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Genre:
Jan  2 22:34:17 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Comment:
Jan  2 22:34:19 phoniebox bash[1108]: #015> 0387+0747  00:10.08+00:19.51 --- 100=100  64 kb/s  208 B acc    0 clip p+0.000
Jan  2 22:34:19 phoniebox bash[1108]: MPEG 1.0 L III vbr 44100 mono
Jan  2 22:34:19 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Title:   silence 0.5 sec
Jan  2 22:34:19 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Artist:  Phoniebox
Jan  2 22:34:19 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Album:
Jan  2 22:34:19 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Year:
Jan  2 22:34:19 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Genre:
Jan  2 22:34:19 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Comment:
Jan  2 22:34:21 phoniebox bash[1108]: #015> 0456+0678  00:11.88+00:17.71 --- 100=100  64 kb/s  208 B acc    0 clip p+0.000
Jan  2 22:34:21 phoniebox bash[1108]: MPEG 1.0 L III vbr 44100 mono
Jan  2 22:34:21 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Title:   silence 0.5 sec
Jan  2 22:34:21 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Artist:  Phoniebox
Jan  2 22:34:21 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Album:
Jan  2 22:34:21 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Year:
Jan  2 22:34:21 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Genre:
Jan  2 22:34:21 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Comment:
Jan  2 22:34:23 phoniebox bash[1108]: #015> 0524+0610  00:13.66+00:15.93 --- 100=100  64 kb/s  208 B acc    0 clip p+0.000
Jan  2 22:34:23 phoniebox bash[1108]: MPEG 1.0 L III vbr 44100 mono
Jan  2 22:34:23 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Title:   silence 0.5 sec
Jan  2 22:34:23 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Artist:  Phoniebox
Jan  2 22:34:23 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Album:
Jan  2 22:34:23 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Year:
Jan  2 22:34:23 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Genre:
Jan  2 22:34:23 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Comment:
Jan  2 22:34:23 phoniebox systemd[1]: systemd-fsckd.service: Succeeded.
Jan  2 22:34:23 phoniebox bash[1108]: #015> 0546+0588  00:14.23+00:15.36 --- 100=100  64 kb/s  208 B acc    0 clip p+0.000
Jan  2 22:34:23 phoniebox bash[1108]: MPEG 1.0 L III vbr 44100 mono
Jan  2 22:34:23 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Title:   dot
Jan  2 22:34:23 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Artist:  Phoniebox
Jan  2 22:34:23 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Album:
Jan  2 22:34:23 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Year:
Jan  2 22:34:23 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Genre:
Jan  2 22:34:23 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Comment:
Jan  2 22:34:24 phoniebox bash[1108]: #015> 0571+0563  00:14.89+00:14.70 --- 100=100  64 kb/s  208 B acc    0 clip p+0.000
Jan  2 22:34:24 phoniebox bash[1108]: MPEG 1.0 L III vbr 44100 mono
Jan  2 22:34:24 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Title:   silence 0.5 sec
Jan  2 22:34:24 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Artist:  Phoniebox
Jan  2 22:34:24 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Album:
Jan  2 22:34:24 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Year:
Jan  2 22:34:24 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Genre:
Jan  2 22:34:24 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Comment:
Jan  2 22:34:25 phoniebox systemd[1]: Started Session 3 of user pi.
Jan  2 22:34:39 phoniebox systemd-timesyncd[314]: Initial synchronization to time server [2a03:4000:24:1b0:48b5:67ff:fe98:6f2]:123 (2.debian.pool.ntp.org).
Jan  2 22:34:39 phoniebox bash[1108]: #015> 0643+0491  00:16.77+00:12.82 --- 100=100  64 kb/s  208 B acc    0 clip p+0.000
Jan  2 22:34:39 phoniebox bash[1108]: MPEG 1.0 L III vbr 44100 mono
Jan  2 22:34:39 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Title:   silence 0.5 sec
Jan  2 22:34:39 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Artist:  Phoniebox
Jan  2 22:34:39 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Album:
Jan  2 22:34:39 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Year:
Jan  2 22:34:39 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Genre:
Jan  2 22:34:39 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Comment:
Jan  2 22:34:41 phoniebox bash[1108]: #015> 0710+0424  00:18.52+00:11.07 --- 100=100  64 kb/s  208 B acc    0 clip p+0.000
Jan  2 22:34:41 phoniebox bash[1108]: MPEG 1.0 L III vbr 44100 mono
Jan  2 22:34:41 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Title:   silence 0.5 sec
Jan  2 22:34:41 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Artist:  Phoniebox
Jan  2 22:34:41 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Album:
Jan  2 22:34:41 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Year:
Jan  2 22:34:41 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Genre:
Jan  2 22:34:41 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Comment:
Jan  2 22:34:43 phoniebox bash[1108]: #015> 0778+0356  00:20.29+00:09.29 --- 100=100  64 kb/s  208 B acc    0 clip p+0.000
Jan  2 22:34:43 phoniebox bash[1108]: MPEG 1.0 L III vbr 44100 mono
Jan  2 22:34:43 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Title:   silence 0.5 sec
Jan  2 22:34:43 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Artist:  Phoniebox
Jan  2 22:34:43 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Album:
Jan  2 22:34:43 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Year:
Jan  2 22:34:43 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Genre:
Jan  2 22:34:43 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Comment:
Jan  2 22:34:43 phoniebox bash[1108]: #015> 0800+0334  00:20.87+00:08.72 --- 100=100  64 kb/s  208 B acc    0 clip p+0.000
Jan  2 22:34:43 phoniebox bash[1108]: MPEG 1.0 L III vbr 44100 mono
Jan  2 22:34:43 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Title:   dot
Jan  2 22:34:43 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Artist:  Phoniebox
Jan  2 22:34:43 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Album:
Jan  2 22:34:43 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Year:
Jan  2 22:34:43 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Genre:
Jan  2 22:34:43 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Comment:
Jan  2 22:34:44 phoniebox bash[1108]: #015> 0825+0309  00:21.52+00:08.07 --- 100=100  64 kb/s  208 B acc    0 clip p+0.000
Jan  2 22:34:44 phoniebox bash[1108]: MPEG 1.0 L III vbr 44100 mono
Jan  2 22:34:44 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Title:   silence 0.5 sec
Jan  2 22:34:44 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Artist:  Phoniebox
Jan  2 22:34:44 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Album:
Jan  2 22:34:44 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Year:
Jan  2 22:34:44 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Genre:
Jan  2 22:34:44 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Comment:
Jan  2 22:34:45 phoniebox systemd[1]: systemd-hostnamed.service: Succeeded.
Jan  2 22:34:46 phoniebox bash[1108]: #015> 0897+0237  00:23.40+00:06.19 --- 100=100  64 kb/s  208 B acc    0 clip p+0.000
Jan  2 22:34:46 phoniebox bash[1108]: MPEG 1.0 L III vbr 44100 mono
Jan  2 22:34:46 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Title:   silence 0.5 sec
Jan  2 22:34:46 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Artist:  Phoniebox
Jan  2 22:34:46 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Album:
Jan  2 22:34:46 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Year:
Jan  2 22:34:46 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Genre:
Jan  2 22:34:46 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Comment:
Jan  2 22:34:48 phoniebox bash[1108]: #015> 0963+0171  00:25.13+00:04.46 --- 100=100  64 kb/s  208 B acc    0 clip p+0.000
Jan  2 22:34:48 phoniebox bash[1108]: MPEG 1.0 L III vbr 44100 mono
Jan  2 22:34:48 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Title:   silence 0.5 sec
Jan  2 22:34:48 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Artist:  Phoniebox
Jan  2 22:34:48 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Album:
Jan  2 22:34:48 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Year:
Jan  2 22:34:48 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Genre:
Jan  2 22:34:48 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Comment:
Jan  2 22:34:50 phoniebox bash[1108]: #015> 1033+0101  00:26.95+00:02.63 --- 100=100  64 kb/s  208 B acc    0 clip p+0.000
Jan  2 22:34:50 phoniebox bash[1108]: MPEG 1.0 L III vbr 44100 mono
Jan  2 22:34:50 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Title:   silence 0.5 sec
Jan  2 22:34:50 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Artist:  Phoniebox
Jan  2 22:34:50 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Album:
Jan  2 22:34:50 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Year:
Jan  2 22:34:50 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Genre:
Jan  2 22:34:50 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Comment:
Jan  2 22:34:50 phoniebox bash[1108]: #015> 1055+0079  00:27.53+00:02.06 --- 100=100  64 kb/s  208 B acc    0 clip p+0.000
Jan  2 22:34:50 phoniebox bash[1108]: MPEG 1.0 L III vbr 44100 mono
Jan  2 22:34:50 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Title:   2 sec silence
Jan  2 22:34:50 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Artist:  Phoniebox
Jan  2 22:34:50 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Album:
Jan  2 22:34:50 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Year:
Jan  2 22:34:50 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Genre:
Jan  2 22:34:50 phoniebox bash[1108]: #011Comment:
Jan  2 22:34:52 phoniebox bash[1108]: [0:29] Decoding of WifiIp.mp3 finished.
Jan  2 22:34:52 phoniebox systemd[1]: Finished Phoniebox Startup.
Jan  2 22:34:52 phoniebox systemd[1]: Reached target Multi-User System.
Jan  2 22:34:52 phoniebox systemd[1]: Started Automatically generates an wifi hotspot when a valid SSID is not in range.
Jan  2 22:34:52 phoniebox systemd[1]: Starting Update UTMP about System Runlevel Changes...
Jan  2 22:34:52 phoniebox systemd[1]: systemd-update-utmp-runlevel.service: Succeeded.
Jan  2 22:34:52 phoniebox systemd[1]: Finished Update UTMP about System Runlevel Changes.
Jan  2 22:34:52 phoniebox systemd[1]: Startup finished in 4.038s (kernel) + 51.450s (userspace) = 55.489s.
Jan  2 22:34:54 phoniebox autohotspot[1162]: Device availability check
Jan  2 22:34:54 phoniebox autohotspot[1162]: Wifi device 'wlan0' available
Jan  2 22:34:54 phoniebox autohotspot[1162]: NW Profile: NeverGonnaLetYouDown
Jan  2 22:34:54 phoniebox autohotspot[1162]: The active profile is NeverGonnaLetYouDown
Jan  2 22:34:54 phoniebox autohotspot[1162]: The Wifi profile in use is: NeverGonnaLetYouDown
Jan  2 22:34:54 phoniebox autohotspot[1162]: Is this a local access point? false
Jan  2 22:34:54 phoniebox systemd[1]: autohotspot.service: Succeeded.
Jan  2 22:34:54 phoniebox systemd[1]: Started Automatically generates an wifi hotspot when a valid SSID is not in range.
Jan  2 22:34:54 phoniebox autohotspot[1223]: Device availability check
Jan  2 22:34:55 phoniebox autohotspot[1223]: Wifi device 'wlan0' available
Jan  2 22:34:55 phoniebox autohotspot[1223]: NW Profile: NeverGonnaLetYouDown
Jan  2 22:34:55 phoniebox autohotspot[1223]: The active profile is NeverGonnaLetYouDown
Jan  2 22:34:55 phoniebox autohotspot[1223]: The Wifi profile in use is: NeverGonnaLetYouDown
Jan  2 22:34:55 phoniebox autohotspot[1223]: Is this a local access point? false
Jan  2 22:34:55 phoniebox systemd[1]: autohotspot.service: Succeeded.
Jan  2 22:35:11 phoniebox systemd[1]: phoniebox-idle-watchdog.service: Succeeded.
Jan  2 22:36:15 phoniebox systemd[1]: Started Automatically generates an wifi hotspot when a valid SSID is not in range.
Jan  2 22:36:15 phoniebox autohotspot[1287]: Device availability check
Jan  2 22:36:15 phoniebox autohotspot[1287]: Wifi device 'wlan0' available
Jan  2 22:36:16 phoniebox autohotspot[1287]: NW Profile: NeverGonnaLetYouDown
Jan  2 22:36:16 phoniebox autohotspot[1287]: The active profile is NeverGonnaLetYouDown
Jan  2 22:36:16 phoniebox autohotspot[1287]: The Wifi profile in use is: NeverGonnaLetYouDown
Jan  2 22:36:16 phoniebox autohotspot[1287]: Is this a local access point? false
Jan  2 22:36:16 phoniebox systemd[1]: autohotspot.service: Succeeded.````

[derBlume]

I suppose, there should be a log, in case the card reader responds somehow to the swiping of the card? I don't see anything related to the card reader though - does that mean, I likely have a hardware problem?

[AlvinSchiller]

can you also post the output of sudo systemctl status phoniebox-rfid-reader.service?

[AlvinSchiller]

And for verification if the reader is still working, your could read the tags outside of the phoniebox. There are a lot examples online which us a simple read script for testing.