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Protocol Description
for DESKO Devices According to
Misc. Reader Interface Specification
for CUTE System
Release: 2.12

Doc.No.: 7 000 310 001

DESKO GmbH
Gottlieb-Keim-Str. 56
95448 Bayreuth
Germany

Phone: +49 (0) 921 – 79 2 79 0

Fax: +49 (0) 921 – 79 2 79 14

Mail: [email protected]
Web: www.desko.de

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Table of Contents

1. Protocol Description................................................................................................... 3

1.1 Protocol Structure for CUTE System Interface ................................................... 3

1.2 Control Characters ............................................................................................. 3

1.3 Protocol Structure of internal 4-Track Magnetic Swipe Reader .......................... 4

1.4 Protocol Structure of Integrated OCR Reader .................................................... 5

1.5 Protocol Structure of Bar Code Reader .............................................................. 5

2. COM Settings ............................................................................................................ 6

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1. Protocol Description

1.1 Protocol Structure for CUTE System Interface

The CUTE system interface is only able to receive the following message structure:

<SODn> <STX> ..... up to 1024 ASCII characters max. ..... <ETX> <EODn>

Note:

- <SODn> will be the start of the delimiter for the command of the device which
has to communicate.

- <EODn> will be the end of the delimiter for the command of the device which
has to communicate.

- <STX> ASCII start of text character

- <ETX> ASCII end of text character

All device data transceived will communicate with the message structure as mentioned above.

1.2 Control Characters

The following control characters will be used to control the flow of data between the
workstation, the external devices and the DESKO device:

MNEMONIC HEX DESCRIPTION

VALUE
STX 02 Start of text. This character signals the Start of a Block.
ETX 03 End of text. This character signals the End of a Block.
SODM 0E Start of delimiter for Magnetic Swipe Reader.
EODM 0F End of delimiter for Magnetic Swipe Reader.
SODO 1C Start of delimiter for OCR Reader.
EODO 1D End of delimiter for OCR Reader.
SODB 1E Start of delimiter for NON Decoded Bar Code.
EODB 1F End of delimiter for NON Decoded Bar Code.
CR 0D Carriage return character.

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1.3 Protocol Structure of internal 4-Track Magnetic Swipe Reader

If a Magnetic Card (ISO 7811 compatible) or any ATB document will be swiped through the
Magnetic Swipe Reader slot, the following message structure will be used:

* MSR sends to workstation

<SODM> <STX> <DOC-ID> <T/B> magnetic data

<CR> <T/B> magnetic data
<CR> <T/B> magnetic data
:
<CR> <T/B> magnetic data
<CR> <T/B> magnetic data <ETX> <EODM>
Where:

MNEMONIC ASCII HEX DESCRIPTION

DOC – ID A or 41 or An ATB document read.

C 43 A credit card read.
T/B 11 to 13, TRACK/BLOCK NUMBER.
21 to 23, High order nibble = Track Number.
31 to 33, Low order nibble = Block Number
41 to 43

Note:
- The range for TRACK/BLOCK NUMBER is from 11HEX (for Track1/Block1) to 43HEX (for
Track4/Block3).

- The TRACK/BLOCK NUMBER identifier are only included in the message if the block has
been detected. For example, when reading a boarding pass stub with a 2-Track Reader,
the data string will be as follows:

<STX> A <13HEX> Data ..... <CR> <23HEX> Data ..... <ETX>

- If the Magnetic Swipe Reader detects errors in the data, it will send a zero length (= empty)
data block.

- The block numbers for a credit card will be set to 1.

- No <CR> will be transmitted after the last reported block.

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1.4 Protocol Structure of Integrated OCR Reader

If a Passport (ICAO Part 1-3 compatible) will be swiped through the OCR Reader slot, the following
message structure will be used:

* OCR sends to workstation

Passport data

<SODO> <STX> ..... line 1 Data (> 6 characters and < 45 characters) ..... <CR>
..... line 2 Data (> 6 characters and < 45 characters) ..... <CR>
..... line 3 Data (> 6 characters and < 45 characters) ..... <CR><ETX> <EODO>

Where:
• Line 1, line 2 and line 3 are variable length with a minimum of 7 characters and a maximum of
44 characters.
• No information will be transmitted for line 3 if it is not present. The corresponding <CR> is not
transmitted to the Host.
• The reader will transmit all the characters that are read in each field of the Machine Readable
Zone up to a maximum of 44.
• Data is output to the workstation irrespective of any isolation, recognition or content errors.
These problem characters will be replaced with asterisks (*) .
• A completely unrecognized document will result in one line of 30 asterisks being transmitted to
the workstation.

1.5 Protocol Structure of Bar Code Reader

If a Bar Code Reader is connected to the Bar Code connector, the Bar Code Reader should
be configured for the following message structure:

* BCR sends to workstation

<SODB><STX><BID> Bar Code Data <CR><ETX><EODB>

Where: <BID> = Bar Code ID

<BARID> in <BARID> in Barcode Type

ASCII hex
1 0x31 Code Interleaved 2 of 5
2 0x32 Code Industrial 2 of 5
3 0x33 Code 39
4 0x34 DataMatrix
5 0x35 Code 128
6 0x36 PDF417
7 0x37 QR-Code
8 0x38 Aztec code
A 0x41 EAN13

Note:
Bar Code Data will be send unchanged via the DESKO device to the host system.

The raw data is sent to the workstation independent of:

- its length
- the presence of any check digit

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2. COM Settings
Devices, which are using this communication protocol, are sending their data via the serial Interface or
via USB interface to the workstation. Regardless to the interface, the system software (application,
software layer…) will have an access on the device data via a COM Port interface. In case of USB, it is a
virtual COM Port, which is created by the DESKO virtual COM Port driver.

The COM following COM settings are used for DESKO Devices According to “Misc. Reader Interface
Specification for CUTE System”:

Baudrate : 9600 bd
Data Bits : 7
Parity Bit : even
Start Bit : 1
Stop Bit : 1
Flow Control : no
RTS and DTR (system side) permanent active

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