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Collect project information

To configure the RFID interface for autonomously reading a number, you need the following information about your project cards:

General info

Additional info for 13.56 MHz

  • Number type: Do you want to read the serial number (UID) or a programmed card number (PCN) stored in a file, sector or segment of the card?
    How to find it out

Additional info for PCNs

  • Memory address, e.g. a sector and block number or application and file number
  • Encoding, i.e. binary, ASCII, PCD
  • Encryption: If the card is encrypted, you'll need the encryption key. There may be multiple keys for the same card, so you need to know which one to use for that memory address. For MIFARE DESFire cards, you'll also need to know the encryption algorithm (e.g. AES) and whether the data is to be encrypted or MAC'ed before it's transmitted to the host system.
How do I get all this information?

Please ask your project owner/card issuer. To find missing answers yourself, you can analyze the card structure of the most common card types using BALTECH ID-engine Explorer. If, however, the card is encrypted, you'll need the encryption key to do this.

If you can't get access to the key, you can work with the UID instead of the PCN. To do so, you need to create a new database for the host system that contains all the UIDs of the cards in your project and their corresponding PCNs and/or card holder names. Please note that this is not possible for cards that return random IDs. Furthermore this approach doesn't provide any kind of authentication. Not sure if this approach works for you? We're happy to give advice.

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