darkSpyro

I was messing around last night and found out that the top half of a swaplander does NOT have an NFC chip (like we thought it had) it does have a chip but with no NFC tech in it. Instead only the bottom has an NFC chip and wires like the lightcore have. The wires lead to the magnets (1 wire to each magnet) the upper half has wires on each magnet that connect to its upper chip. If you want to test this so see it for your self try putting both half's on the portal but not together or with only 1 magnet touching (the game will not read the skylander). So this shows that the magnets are what is transferring the info between the top and bottom half's of a swaplander.

That the magnets were used for electrical contact was something I suspected the moment I saw there were two of them.
My second thought was they used two to get the orientation of the top and bottom right.

Nice to hear my first hunch was correct.

If you look closely you can see a weird little circle between the magnets and then a tiny but above it. I think that is what 'connects' the character

I was thinking the small dot between the magnets is like a fibre optic connection

I guess this explains why level and money is only held by the top half, the bottom in a swap combination getting nothing.

I did notice something that looked like two RFID chips in Wash Buckler's base. Hold him under the light and see.

There are 2 chips inside a swapper 1 is the normal chip that is in every figure and there is pcb chip with wires leading up to the
magnets.

look in one of the gaps between washbucklers legs and youll see this black prt that im not sure what it does

I pulled one apart, the top part is just two magnets with a very small circuit board and the the bottom has two chips the standard one that is in every figure and one that is wired to the magnets.

Can you post pics of the top half? I'm curious to see how one looks on the inside

same here

You can pretty much see everything just by looking at it. It is just that black circle with the magnets in it.

Quote: dark52

Nah, can't be. You can align it backwards without the magnets anywhere near touching and still get it to work.

I tried that and it did not work. If both magnets where not touching it would not work on the portal. I tried every way I could think of and it only worked if the magnets where touching.

same here

The top half DOES have it's own RFID chip. What it does NOT have is an antenna.
Clever design, the magnets connect the top chip to the antenna in the bottom half.
If there is a second chip in the base it is probably a delay buffer of some sort so that both chips don't use the antenna at the same time.

But yes, they DO have the RFID Chip in the top. Just not the antenna.

Oh, I can back this up too. I have successfully read ONLY the top half using my app and got the correct data.
If you read only the bottom half they read like a whole Skylander too. The game just chooses not to store money and experience on them.

Quote: Pyrofer

The top half DOES have it's own RFID chip. What it does NOT have is an antenna.
Clever design, the magnets connect the top chip to the antenna in the bottom half.
If there is a second chip in the base it is probably a delay buffer of some sort so that both chips don't use the antenna at the same time.

But yes, they DO have the RFID Chip in the top. Just not the antenna.

Oh, I can back this up too. I have successfully read ONLY the top half using my app and got the correct data.
If you read only the bottom half they read like a whole Skylander too. The game just chooses not to store money and experience on them.

But as far as the game portal is concerned the magnets have to be touching for it to read it.

Quote: dark52

Nah, can't be. You can align it backwards without the magnets anywhere near touching and still get it to work.

I can confirm this is true. Just tested it with a Fire Kraken. The magnets don't have to be touching at all - it's the two black dots that provide the connectivity between parts, the magnets just keep them aligned.

I got one to work without the top being connected with the bottom.

I put Free and Buckler on the portal in halves.

The signal is strong enough it 'can' work without being connected.
However the antenna connects via the magnets/black dots....
Without this connection you may get errors/corruption with the figure so Just put them on normally!

Very insightful Pyrofer. I actually feel a lot better about the Swapper now. With what some people were guessing in other threads, it was making me think they were going to stop functioning at any moment.