Magnetic Card Reader

Amigo Point Of Sale includes support for keyboard wedge (USB or PS2 interface) and USB HID credit card readers. Many HID card readers will work without configuration changes. Drivers are not required for either card reader type, regardless of interface. Wedge readers must be configured as shown below:

PCCharge Payment Server users:

After installing PCCharge Payment Server, verify that you can run a test transaction using the PCCharge Payment Server GUI (graphical user interface). Then configure Amigo Point of Sale to communicate with PCCharge Payment Server before testing the card reader.

Attempt a test transaction in Amigo Point of Sale. If the transaction is successful, a status message will appear on the screen and a customer receipt will print automatically. During configuration and testing, the most common error received in Amigo Point of Sale is "Invalid Swipe". This error occurs when the magnetic card reader does not parse and decode the credit card in a format acceptable to Amigo Point of Sale. Note that a successful transaction in PCCharge does not mean that your magnetic card reader is set up correctly for use with Amigo Point of Sale. PCCharge is capable of decoding almost any magnetic card reader configuration - Amigo Point of Sale requires a standard format as described below. This will ensure that Amigo Point of Sale can use employee swipe cards, in-house gift cards as well as credit cards.

The following information requires that you obtain a copy of the magnetic card reader's user manual, generally downloadable from the manufacturer's web site in PDF format. You may also need to download a utility that will allow you to communicate with the magnetic card reader to change the settings as required.

Configuring the Magnetic Card Reader

In order to ensure proper formatting of the swipe, the following rules must be observed:

· The reader must not send a carriage return after each Track as shown in Example 2; the entire swipe must appear on a single line as shown in Example 1

· The reader must send a carriage return after each swipe is complete. This can be observed in notepad when the cursor jumps to the next (blank) line when the swipe is complete.

· Be sure that the proper delimiters are used, i.e. ^, ?, %. These are generally correct on the vast majority of card readers and do not require modification.

Card reader setup screen in Back Office · Program Setup · Peripherals ·

Open Windows notepad on your terminal and ensure that word wrap is not enabled (on the top menu, select format and uncheck Word Wrap). Note that the swipe must appear entirely on a single line, as shown in Example A.

%B9991112223334445^PUBLIC/JOHN Q^1112223334445557778881112223331?;3444555777888999=88999000111222333444?

Example 1: A properly formatted swipe

Example 2 shows an incorrectly formatted swipe, where a carriage return is sent after each track. This will cause a swipe error in Amigo Point of Sale.

%B8768010000381411^PUBLIC/JOHN Q

^0807101006510000000000381000000?

;8768010000381411=08071010381000065100?

Example 2: An improperly formatted swipe

A popular magnetic card reader is the Magtek MiniMag wedge reader. If you do not already have the user manual, download it here and refer to the section entitled "Track Separator Selection" on page 9. The MiniMag automatically sends a carriage return "<ENTER>" after each track. This must be disabled as described in the manual. After the track separator is disabled, the magnetic card reader is ready for use with Amigo Point of Sale.

Most magnetic card readers are either correctly configured for use with Amigo Point of Sale from the factory or require slight adjustments. Since each magnetic card reader is different, you must consult your user manual for instructions; we are very limited in the support we can offer for hardware configuration.

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