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RESTRICTED USE ONLY Fargo Electronics, Inc.
DTC400/DTC300/DTC300M Card Printer Service Manual (Rev. 1.3)
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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
1 To 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).