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Fargo Electronics, Inc.

Sending the Track Information

Magnetic track data is sent in the form of text strings from the application software to the Printer Driver. Specific characters are added to the magnetic data (to be encoded) in order for the Printer Driver to differentiate between magnetic track data and the rest of the printable objects. (Note: These specify the data and the tracks to encode and indicate the Start and Stop Sentinels and the Field Separators. The Start Sentinels are the “%” and the “;”. The End Sentinel is the “?”) See the previous page.

Automatic: In specific cases, these specific characters are automatically added to the string of track data by ID software applications.

Manual: In most cases, the Operator must manually add these characters to the string

of magnetic track data. (Note: 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, track information is entered as described below.

Step Procedure

1When 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.

Start Sentinel and End Sentinel: The first character of this data string is the track's specific Start Sentinel (SS) and the last character is the specific End Sentinel (ES). (Note: The characters or data in between the SS and ES can include all of the valid characters specific to each track.)

Maximum Character Capacity: The number of these characters, however, is limited by each track's maximum character capacity.

Field Separator: When segmenting track data, the appropriate Field

Separator (FS) is used. (Note: See the table on the next page, which displays the SS, ES, FS and the valid characters defined for each track.)

CardJet 410 Card Printer/Encoder and Persona CardJet C7 Printer User Guide (Rev. 5.0)

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FARGO electronic 410 manual Sending the Track Information, Step Procedure