Waveform Analysis

Work in Progress: The Waveform Viewer is under active development. Some features may be incomplete or experimental.

View raw signal data, detect modulation, and decode captured RF communications.

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Overview

The Waveform Viewer provides a visual interface for analyzing captured RF signals from your Proxmark3. Access it after sniffing LF cards or from saved .pm3 trace files.

Requires Proxmark3 connection for analysis features. Without a connection, the viewer displays the waveform but analysis buttons are disabled.

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Signal Display

Interactive Waveform

• Pinch to zoom — Examine signal details
• Swipe to pan — Navigate through the capture
• Zoom slider — Fine-grained control (0.1x to 32x)
• Reset view — Return to full waveform (app bar refresh icon)

Info Bar

Live display of:

Field	Description
Samples	Total sample count
Zoom	Current zoom level
Clock	Detected clock rate (after analysis)
Mod	Detected modulation type

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Signal Analysis

Auto-Detect

Button	Command	Description
Detect Clock	data detectclock --ask	Find the clock rate (RF/N)
Modulation	data modulation	Identify ASK, FSK, PSK, or NRZ

Auto Demodulate

One-button analysis that runs:

1. Signal preprocessing (data norm, data envelope)
2. ASK, FSK, PSK, and NRZ demodulation attempts
3. Protocol-specific searches (lf search -1)
4. Reports any recognized card data

Optional preprocessing (enable in dialog):

Command	Description
data hpf	High-pass filter
data cthreshold -u 50 -d -20	Center threshold
data ltrim -s 200	Left trim (remove first 200 samples)

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Manual Demodulation

ASK Demodulation

Command: data rawdemod --ar [options]

Option	Flag	Description
Clock	-c N	RF/N (auto-detect if empty)
Invert	-i	Invert output bits
Amplify	-a	Boost weak signals
Sequence Terminator	-s	Check for ST
Max Errors	--max N	Tolerable bit errors (default: 100)
Max Samples	--samples N	Limit sample count

FSK Demodulation

Command: data rawdemod --fs [options]

Option	Flag	Description
Clock	-c N	RF/N (auto-detect if empty)
Hi Field Clock	--hi N	High frequency period (e.g., 8, 10)
Lo Field Clock	--lo N	Low frequency period (e.g., 5, 8)
Invert	-i	Invert output bits

Common FSK configurations:

Protocol	Clock	Hi	Lo	Invert
FSK1 RF/64	64	8	5	No
FSK2 RF/50	50	10	8	No
FSK2a RF/50	50	10	8	Yes

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Supported Modulations

Type	Cards
ASK	HID Prox, EM4100, Indala, most LF cards
FSK	AWID, Pyramid, IO ProxCard
PSK	Some legacy systems
NRZ	Direct encoding

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Accessing the Viewer

From Sniff

1. Go to Discovery → Sniff
2. Select an LF card type
3. Execute a sniff command
4. After capture completes, results are decoded automatically
5. LF traces can be saved as .pm3 files

From File Manager

1. Open Settings → File Manager
2. Navigate to Traces
3. Long-press a .pm3 file
4. Tap View to open in Waveform Viewer

Note: The Waveform Viewer only supports LF .pm3 trace files. HF .trace files use a different format and cannot be visualized.

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Tips

• Good captures start with positioning — Get the Proxmark antenna as close as possible to the card/reader during sniff
• Try preprocessing — Enable additional preprocessing if auto-demod fails on noisy signals
• Check clock rate first — Knowing the clock helps narrow down the protocol
• Compare to known cards — If you have a working card, capture its waveform for reference
• Connect PM3 for analysis — Without a live connection, you can view waveforms but not run demodulation commands