User Guide

Section 3. Commands
109
Read Arguments
The optional argument x used in the
read command specifies the type of data to read and y
specifies the text to be displayed. The following table describes the recognized x arguments for
the
read command:
Read
Argument
Description
any
Read any type of data.
This option is equivalent to
read without any arguments.
card
Read magnetic stripe card. Display message (msg 1) if defined.
When the user swipes a card, the response will be in the following format:
/read MX
1
X
2
X
3
SS data
X
I
define the track read status for each of the three tracks, as follows:
0 = good track
1 = bad track
9 = no track data.
SS is a two-digit status code; it is not affected by errors reported in the
X
i
field:
00 – successful read
82 – canceled, etc.
data is the card data for all successfully read tracks.
card_w_pin
Read magnetic stripe card and collect PIN from cardholder. Display
messages if defined.
This command is similar to the
read card command except that after the
card is swiped, the device collects and stores the cardholder’s PIN. The
PIN can be collected later by issuing the
read pin command.
Before issuing this command, the following properties may be set:
msg1, msg2, msg3 – messages to be displayed while waiting for card
swipe and PIN entry (a default message will be used if these properties
contain empty strings).
The response to this command is identical to the read card response; if
successful, it returns the track data from the magnetic card. If the response
status SS is 00, the
read pin command can be used to collect the PIN.
check
Read check data.
When the user reads a check, the response will be in the following format:
/read CX
1
X
2
X
3
SS data
XXX is the decimal representation of the check read status, as defined in
the MICR specification, e.g.,
004 indicates a bad character in the
check number field.
SS is a two-digit status code: 00 – successful read, 82 – canceled, etc.
This status is not affected by errors reported in the XXX
field.
data is the check data, which is also available in
chk_data. The data
format depends on the setting of the chk_format property.