Specifications

DESCRIPTION

The MiniMag™

compact magnetic stripe reader can read 1, 2,

or 3 tracks of magnetic stripe information. Power consumption

is low; standard RS-232 ports can power it. Operating current is

less than 9mA maximum for a 3-track conﬁ guration.

The decoding electronics are based on MagChip ASIC technolo-

gy designed for use with magnetic stripe cards encoded with F2F

ANSI and ISO-conforming data. The MiniMag reliably decodes

data encoded within ANSI and ISO standards, on both high and

low coercivity magnetic media. The circuit is designed to read

cards demagnetized down to 30% or 40% of ISO and ANSI sig-

nal levels, on Track 1 and Track 3 or Track 2 respectively. These

reading characteristics are designed to insure that the MiniMag

will reliably read ‘real world’ cards.

In order to insure reliable reading under varying conditions, the

MiniMag will read magnetic media at speeds from 3 inches per

second (IPS) to 60 IPS with typical accelerations. The output is

standard RS-232.

OPERATION

1. Connect the MiniMag reader cable to the 9-pin male serial

port on a computer. Insure the reader cable connector is fully

seated with the computer.

2. Run an RS-232 communication program (such as HyperTer-

minal). Select the serial port to which the reader cable has been

connected. The application needs to open the RS-232 port with

DSR set to HIGH. (A typical communication program sets DSR

to HIGH by default.)

3. The green LED will light to indicate the reader is powered.

4. Set the baud rate at 9600, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit, and no parity.

5. The LED is normally GREEN (reader ready). Slide a card, in

either direction, through the reader slot, with the magnetic stripe

facing the magnetic head (opposite the LED side of the reader).

6. The LED will be off during a card read swipe. The GREEN

LED will be on after a good read operation; otherwise, the LED

will be RED for 1/2 second, then return to GREEN.

7. The data on the card will be shown on the screen. Check the

communication parameters if the data on the screen is not cor-

rect.

NOTE: Sending data to the reader while swiping a card will

cause a bad read.