MagTek P-SERIES USB - Manual (Page 9)

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SECTION 1. FEATURES AND SPECIFICATIONS
The P-Series USB (Universal Serial Bus) Insertion Reader is a compact magnetic stripe card
reader, which conforms to ISO standards. The Reader is compatible with the PC series of
personal computers or any device with a USB interface. The reader can have single or dual head
configurations. The dual head configuration can read a card with the magnetic stripe orientated
in two directions. The single head configuration can read a card with the magnetic stripe
orientated in one direction. A card is read by inserting it into and/or removing it out of the card
slot when the card is oriented such that the card’s magnetic stripe contacts a read head.
The two-track version of the reader has circuitry that automatically ensures that the ISO
magnetic stripe is read in the case where a dual-stripe JIS (Japanese) credit card is inserted on the
dual head unit (the JIS stripe is ignored). On the three-track models, 2-sided cards cannot be
read.
The reader conforms to the USB Human Interface Device (HID) Class specification Version 1.1.
This allows host applications designed for most versions of Windows to easily communicate to
the reader using standard Windows API calls that communicate to the reader through the HID
driver that comes with Windows.
The Reader can be operated in two different modes:
• HID (herein referred to as “HID mode”) and
• HID with Keyboard Emulation (herein referred to as “KB mode”)
Note that only reader part number 21065148 and 21065151 with firmware version
21042817C01 or newer supports both modes. The other readers only support HID mode.
When operating in the HID mode, this device will not use keyboard emulation. It behaves like a
vendor defined HID device so that a direct communication path can be established between the
host application and the device, without interference from other HID devices.
When configured for the Keyboard Emulation (KB) mode, the Reader emulates a USB HID
United States keyboard or, optionally, any international keyboard using ALT ASCII code keypad
key combinations or customizable key maps. This allows host applications designed to acquire
card data from keyboard input to seamlessly acquire the card data from the USB swipe reader.
Caution
When in Keyboard Emulation mode, if another keyboard is connected to the same host as this device and a
key is pressed on the other keyboard while this device is transmitting, then the data transmitted by this device
may get corrupted.
A demo program, written in Visual Basic, with its source code is available. It exercises the
reader using the standard Windows API.