Opal

Opal is the public transport smartcard ticketing system in Sydney, Australia. The official Android app can read these cards.

Opal cards are MIFARE DESFire EV1 cards, with the application ID 0x314553. All files are restricted except for file 0x7, which is freely readable.

File 0x7 Format

The file is 16 bytes long.

All multi-byte values are stored in little-endian. It may be easier to read this data after reversing the bytes.

Offsets and lengths listed are measured in bits. Ranges listed do not include the end bit.

Start	End	Length	Field description
0	32	32	Serial number
32	36	4	Serial number check digit
36	37	1	Card status, 1 if blocked
37	53	16	Transaction sequence number
53	74	21	Balance in cents
74	89	15	Last tap date: days since epoch
89	100	11	Last tap date: minutes since 00:00 (localtime)
100	103	3	Mode of transport
103	107	4	Last tap usage type
107	108	1	Auto top-up enabled
108	116	4	Weekly paid journey count
116	128	16	CRC checksum

Card number

All card numbers start with the OPAL_ISSUER_NUMBER constant "308522". This is then concatenated with the serial number zero-padded to 9 digits, followed by the check digit.

Tap date/time

The epoch is 1 January 1980 (1980-01-01).

Modes of transport

ID	Description
0	Rail
1	Ferry
2	Bus
3-7	(reserved)

Usage types

ID	Description
0	Card has not been used
1	Tap on: new journey
2	Tap on: intra-modal transfer
3	Tap on: inter-modal transfer
4	Tap on: new journey at Circular Quay (ferry)
5	Tap on: intra-modal ferry transfer at Circular Quay
6	Tap on: inter-modal ferry transfer at Circular Quay
7	Tap off: distance based fare
8	Tap off: flat-fare
9	Tap off: autocompleted journey(!?)
10	Tap off: end of trip without start(!?)
11	Tap on reversal
12	Unsuccessful tap (tap off)
13	(reserved)
14	(undefined)

Intra-modal ferry transfers can only occur at Circular Quay.