FARGO electronic C16 service manual Sending the Track Information, Entering the Track Information

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Sending the Track Information

Magnetic track data is sent in the form of text strings from the application software to the Printer Driver along with all of the other printable objects within the card design.

•Magnetic Track Data added: In order for the Printer Driver to differentiate between magnetic track data and the rest of the printable objects, the magnetic track data strings must be uniquely tagged or added.

•Specific Characters added: In other words, specific characters must be added to the magnetic track data in order for the Printer Driver to know which data is to be encoded, which tracks to encode, when the track data stops and starts and so forth.

•Manually or automatically added: In some cases, these specific characters are automatically added to the string of track data by customized ID software applications. In most cases, however, the User must manually add these characters to the string of magnetic track data.

Entering the Track Information

(Note: If these characters are not added to the track data, the text intended for the magnetic track will most likely appear as printed text on the card.)

Step Procedure

1To avoid this symptom, track information must be entered as follows.

When entering track data, the "~" character is entered first, followed by the desired track number (1, 2 or 3) used to encode the data.

•The data to be encoded should then follow. (Note: 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. (Note: The number of these characters is limited by each track's maximum character capacity.)

Caution: When segmenting track data, strictly use the appropriate Field Separator (FS).

Persona￿ C16 Card Printer Service Manual (Rev. 5.0) 114