10 sending the track information – HID FARGO HDP5000 User Guide User Manual

Page 54

HDP5000 & HDPii Plus Card Printer Encoder User Guide_L000950, 3.0

Page 54 of 100

July 2013

4.12.10

Sending the Track Information

Magnetic track data is sent in the form of text strings from the application software to the
Printer Driver.

• In order for the Printer Driver to differentiate between Magnetic Track data and the rest

of the printable objects, specific characters must be added to the magnetic data to be
encoded.

• These specify the data that is to be encoded the tracks to encode and mark the start

and stop of the data string.

• In some cases, these specific characters are automatically added to the string of track

data by ID software applications.

• In most cases, the User must carefully add these characters to the string of Magnetic

Track data. If these characters are not added to the track data, the text intended for the
Magnetic Track will appear as printed text on the card.

• To avoid this, enter the track information as described.

Step

Procedure

When entering track data, the ~ (tilde) character is entered first, followed by the track number (1, 2 or 3)
on which the data should encode. This is followed by the data to be encoded.

• The first character of this data string must be the track's specific Start Sentinel (SS) and the last

character must be the specific End Sentinel (ES).

• The characters or data in between the SS and ES can include all of the valid characters specific

to each track.

• The number of these characters, however, is limited by each track's maximum character capacity.
• When segmenting track data, the appropriate Field Separator (FS) must be used. The table below

shows the SS, ES, FS and the valid characters defined for each track.

4.12.10.1 Reviewing the Sample String

• Track 1: ~1%JULIEANDERSON^1234567890?
• Track 2: ~2;1234567890987654321?
• Track 3: ~3;1234567890987654321?

Track

Start

Sentinel

End

Sentinel

Field

Separator Valid Characters

Maximum Number of

Characters

Track 1

ASCII 32-95

Track 2

;

ASCII 48-63

Track 3

;

ASCII 48-63

106