Encoding Profiles

An encoding profile describes what CaptrID writes onto a card’s chip when it prints. Define it once, attach it to a Master List, and every card produced from that list is encoded identically. Without a profile, printing produces a card with your design on it and nothing on the chip. You will find them under Encoding Profiles in the sidebar.

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Choosing a card technology

This is the first decision and the one worth getting right, because it depends on what your card is for and what your other systems already read.

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The cards in the hopper have to match the profile

CaptrID checks the chip in the printer against the profile before it writes anything. Load DESFire stock and run it against an NTAG profile and the job is refused, naming what is loaded and what the profile expects, rather than writing to a chip that cannot take it. This is worth knowing because the old failure was unhelpful: a mismatched card failed deep inside the encoder with a message that read, literally, “The operation completed successfully” — which told nobody that the wrong stock was loaded.

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Tap-to-web (NDEF)

The simplest option: the chip holds a URL, and tapping the card with a phone opens it. Point it at the person’s profile page and a tap becomes an instant credential check. Build the URL from a template with placeholders that fill in per person.

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MIFARE Classic 1K

A 1K card is divided into sectors, each with blocks that hold data. Tap a sector in the editor to bind its blocks to fields from your Master List. Two things the editor enforces, both physical properties of the card rather than choices:

• Block 0 is the manufacturer block and holds the card’s UID. It is not writable.
• Block 3 of every sector is the trailer, holding keys and access bits. It cannot hold your data.

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Keys

Key A authenticates every sector. The factory default is FF FF FF FF FF FF, and for a simple card that is fine. Choose an organisation key instead when the card controls access to something that matters. An organisation key means a card cannot be read or rewritten by anyone with an off-the-shelf reader.

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DESFire EV3

DESFire works in one of two modes:

• Tap-to-web — an NDEF URL, as above
• Data files — structured data in applications

For data files, each application needs a 6-hex-digit AID (3 bytes) and at least one file. File IDs run from 0 to 31. Bind each file to a field from your list. DESFire has its own card-level key for create and format operations. As with MIFARE, the factory default suits simple cards; an organisation key suits cards that gate access.

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Field bindings

Whatever the technology, encoding comes down to field bindings: which field from your Master List goes where on the chip, and how it is encoded. Each binding needs a logical key — the name your other systems reference. It is auto-filled from the source field name, and you only rename it to reuse a key across lists. If two lists both produce cards a door controller reads as employee_id, give both bindings that same logical key. Preview the encoded bytes before saving. It is much cheaper than discovering a mis-encoding after printing three hundred cards.

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Magnetic stripe

For cards that carry both a chip and a stripe, or a stripe alone. Set the track data as your legacy system expects it: track 1 takes letters and numbers (up to 79 characters), tracks 2 and 3 take numbers (up to 40 and 107). CaptrID checks the lengths before a card is fed and names the track that is too long. On an Entrust/Datacard printer the stripe and the chip are written on the same pass, so one card can carry both from a single profile. The printer reads the stripe back as it writes it, so a job that reports success has been verified.

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A mag head in the printer is not the same as CaptrID supporting it

This catches people out, so it is worth saying plainly. Several of these printers have a magnetic encoder physically fitted, and a Matica XID will even report that it has one. That does not mean CaptrID can drive it. The capability shown in the Print Card dialog is what CaptrID can write, not what the hardware contains. Zebra is the case that surprises people. The stripe works on the printer itself — if you have encoded one using Zebra’s own tools, you were not imagining it. CaptrID still cannot, for a mechanical reason: a Zebra takes a fresh card from the hopper to write a stripe, so the stripe and the printed artwork would end up on two different cards. Until CaptrID can send a stripe as a job on its own, it declines rather than eject two cards.

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Coercivity

HiCo and LoCo describe the magnetic strength your card stock needs. Writing at the wrong one wastes the card: HiCo settings on LoCo stock, or the reverse, give a stripe that reads back blank. On an Entrust/Datacard printer this is set in the printer’s own Windows driver properties, not in CaptrID, because the printer applies one setting to every card rather than taking it per job. So:

• Leave the profile on HiCo, which matches the printer’s default.
• If you need LoCo, change it in the printer’s driver properties on the workstation. A profile asking CaptrID for LoCo is refused with a message pointing you there — deliberately, because quietly writing at HiCo instead would hand you a batch of blank stripes that all looked successful.

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Archiving a profile

Archiving stops a profile appearing in the print wizard. Cards already produced with it are unaffected — they carry what they were encoded with, and archiving does not reach out to change them.

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