Identec Solutions ILR-ICARDCF CF Card Reader User Manual iCardCF UG
Identec Solutions AG CF Card Reader iCardCF UG
Users Manual
i-CARD CF User’s Guide
Version 1.2
IDENTEC SOLUTIONS AG
Millenniumspark 2
A-6890 Lustenau
Austria
Tel: +43 (0) 5577 87387 - 0
Fax: +43 (0) 5577 87387 - 15
info@identecsolutions.at
www.identecsolutions.com
i-CARD CF – User’s Guide
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Proprietary Notice
This document contains confidential information proprietary to IDENTEC SOLUTIONS and may not be used or
disclosed to other parties in whole or in part without prior written authorization from IDENTEC SOLUTIONS.
Disclaimer and Limitation of Liability
IDENTEC SOLUTIONS AG and its affiliates, subsidiaries, officers, directors, employees and agents provide the
information contained in this Manual on an “as-is” basis and do not make any express or implied warranties or
representations with respect to such information including, without limitation, warranties as to non-infringement,
reliability, fitness for a particular purpose, usefulness, completeness, accuracy or currentness. IDENTEC
SOLUTIONS AG shall not in any circumstances be liable to any person for any special, incidental, indirect or
consequential damages, including without limitation, damages resulting from use of or reliance on information
presented herein, or loss of profits or revenues or costs of replacement goods, even if informed in advance of
the possibility of such damages.
Trademarks
“IDENTEC SOLUTIONS”, “Intelligent Long Range”, “ILR” and the stylized “i” are registered trademarks and
“i-Q”, “i-D”, “i-CARD”, “i-PORT”, “i-LINKS”, “Solutions. It’s in our name.”, “Smarten up your assets.” are
trademarks of IDENTEC SOLUTIONS, Inc. and/or IDENTEC SOLUTIONS AG.
Copyright Notice
Copyright © 2006 IDENTEC SOLUTIONS. All rights reserved.
No part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, photographic, electronic,
mechanical or otherwise, or used in any information storage and retrieval system, without the prior written
permission of IDENTEC SOLUTIONS.
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Radio Frequency Compliance Statement
IDENTEC SOLUTIONS AG. is the responsible party for the compliance of the following devices:
MODEL: i-PORT i-CARD CF i-D TAGS i-Qxx TAGS
FCC ID: O2E-ILR-IPORT OO4-ILR-ICARDCF OO4-ILR-ID2 OO4-ILR-IQ8T or
OO4-ILR-IQR
CANADA: 35381032062A Pending 3538A 12112 35381021756A or
35381021825
EUROPE: CE 0678(!) CE CE 0678(!) CE 0682(!)
The user(s) of these products are cautioned to only use accessories and peripherals approved, in advance, by
IDENTEC SOLUTIONS. The use of accessories and peripherals, other than those approved by IDENTEC
SOLUTIONS, or unauthorized changes to approved products, may void the compliance of these products and
may result in the loss of the user(s) authority to operate the equipment.
Operation is subject to the following conditions: (1) these devices may not cause harmful interference, and (2)
these devices must accept any interference, including interference that may cause undesired operation of the
device.
FCC Compliance (i-CARD CF / NA)
This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a Class A digital device, pursuant to Part
15 of the FCC Rules. These limits are designed to provide reasonable protection against harmful interference
when the equipment is operated in a commercial environment. This equipment generates, uses, and can radiate
radio frequency energy and, if not installed and used in accordance with the instruction manual, may cause
harmful interference to radio communication. Operation of this equipment in a residential area is likely to cause
harmful interference in which case the user will be required to correct the interference at his/her own expense.
Warning: Changes or modifications to this unit not expressly approved by the party responsible for
compliance could void the user’s authority to operate the equipment.
Industry Canada Compliance (i-CARD CF / NA)
This Class A digital apparatus meets all requirements of the Canadian Interference-Causing Equipment
Regulations.
Cet appareil numérique de la classe A respecte toutes les exigences du Règlement sur le matériel brouilleur du
Canada.
To reduce potential radio interference to other users, the antenna type and its gain should be so chosen that the
equivalent isotropically radiated power (EIRP) is not more than that required for successful communication.
The installer of this radio equipment must ensure that the antenna is located or pointed such that it does not
emit RF field in excess of Health Canada limits for the general population; consult Safety Code 6, obtainable
from Health Canada.
Warning: Changes or modifications to this unit not expressly approved by the party responsible for compliance
could void the unser's authority to operate the equipment.
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European Notification according R&TTE Directive (i-CARD CF / EU)
This equipment complies to Art. 6.4 of R&TTE Directive (1999/5/EC) and can be used in the following European
countries:
Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands
, Norway, Portugal, Switzerland, Sweden, Spain, United Kingdom, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Estonia, Hungary,
Lithuania, Latvia, Malta, Poland, Slovenia.
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Table of Contents
1.0 Overview __________________________________________________ 6
1.1 Functionality ________________________________________________________ 6
1.2 Components ________________________________________________________ 6
2.0 Installation ________________________________________________ 7
2.1 Hardware___________________________________________________________ 7
2.2 Software _________________________________________________ 7
2.2.1 Windows 98/ Windows 2000/Windows ME _____________________________ 8
3.0 Usage ____________________________________________________ 8
4.0 Application program rules_____________________________________ 8
Appendix A: Technical Specifications _______________________________ 10
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1.0 Overview
This guide explains how to install and operate the i-CARD CF when using a laptop or desktop computer.
1.1 Functionality
The i-CARD CF is IDENTEC SOLUTIONS’ Intelligent Long Range (ILR
®
) radio frequency mobile interrogator in a
type II CF Card format. The i-CARD CF is easily integrated into portable or laptop computers and is used in
conjunction with i-LINKS (or other ILR
®
software) to read and write data to tags. The flexibility of an
interrogator on a CF Card allows for easy integration of ILR
®
into enterprise systems and permits combination
with other technologies such as bar code and wireless LAN.
The i-CARD CF is available in a FCC compliant version (i-CARD CF/NA) and an European versions (i-CARD CF /
EU) to communicate in a global market. The signal propagation characteristics of the UHF radio band used by
ILR
®
technology provide long-range communication and high-speed transmission rates for reliable data
exchange.
Computers with an i-CARD CF can communicate to tags at a distance of up to 10 meters (33 feet). The i-CARD
CF communicates with the entire i-Q active tag product line including i-Q8, i-Q8T, i-Q32, and i-Q32T tags and in
a second version with the i-B tag family.
The installation and usage instructions for the i-CARD CF are identical for all versions.
1.2 Components
The i-CARD CF resembles a standard CF card with one addition: an external antenna. On the exposed end of
the i-CARD CF, there are an MMCX antenna connector and a bi-color status LED indicating
Transmit
,
Receive
and
Host Communication.
The exact meaning of the color depends on the firmware version installed on the
card.
Note: The current version only supports a quarter wavelength antenna available under P/N
887124 from IDENTEC SOLUTIONS and equivalent internal antennas for hand helds.
Figure 1: i-CARD CF Components
Status LED
Antenna connector
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2.0 Installation
The
i-CARD CF is easy to install—simply attach the antenna, insert the i-CARD CF into the desired computer (if
necessary use a standard PCMCIA – CF adapter) and install the necessary hardware driver for the specific
operating system. The following sections describe each of these steps in detail.
Note: The hardware driver only needs to be installed the first time an i-CARD CF is inserted into
a computer or when performing an upgrade to the driver.
2.1 Hardware
To install the external antenna, grasp its base and insert it into the antenna connector until it locks into place.
Figure 2: Antenna Installation
To remove the antenna, grasp the base firmly and remove carefully to avoid damage.
2.2 Software
The computer being used for i-CARD CF operations must be running one of the following operating systems:
Windows 2000/XP.
To install the i-CARD CF, perform the following steps:
1. Insert the
ILR
®
Installation Disk (either floppy disk or CD) into the computer that will operate the
i-CARD CF.
2. Insert the i-CARD CF into the CF card slot of the desktop or laptop computer.
An installation wizard will start immediately after the i-CARD CF is inserted.
3. Complete the wizard instructions
Note: A
readme.txt
file is available for each operating system on the
ILR
®
Installation Disk and
contains the same instructions that are described in the following sections.
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2.2.1 Windows 98/2000/Windows XP
The following section describes how to install the device driver on Windows 98, Windows 2000 and
Windows XP. When the i-CARD CF is inserted into the CF slot, an installation wizard begins automatically.
Select the
Search for a suitable driver for my device
option and click
Next.
Selecting a search location depends on the type of
ILR
®
Technical CD you received.
For a search location, select
the
Floppy Disk Drives
option, and click
Next.
Click the
Browse
button to copy
drivers from your
ILR
®
Technical CD:
Using the
Browse
dialog box, select the
\ILR_Support_Kit\iCARD CF\Drivers\Win98_2000_XP
folder. Select the
iCARD-CF.inf
file, then click
OK
.
The hardware driver is loaded and a confirmation screen appears. This screen verifies that the installation
has completed successfully. Click
Next
to complete the installation.
The hardware driver installation is now complete.
Note: There is no special driver on the CD. Supplied .inf file instructs Windows to use the standard
serial driver contained in the system.
Note: If you have problems installing the driver under Windows 2000 please make sure you have
the latest Service Pack installed. Please refer to Article 281505 in Microsoft Knowledge Base.
3.0 Usage
After completing the i-CARD CF installation, please refer to the user’s guide of the applicable software to
continue with the system implementation.
The i-CARD CF can be used in conjunction with a variety of software applications, such as i-DEMO,
TempDemo and other ILR
®
custom applications.
4.0 Application program rules
Due to national restrictions not all parameter values are valid in each version of the i-CARD CF.
Programmers of application software are strongly recommended to read the documentation which comes
with the development package.
Note: When trying to set an operation mode or output power which is not allowed in the
national version the i-CARD CF returns with an error code. Please refer to the library manual.
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According to ERC/REC70-03 a maximum duty cycle of 1% (i-Q- tags) is allowed in Europe. Due to the
protocol used on the RF link this means no restrictions for interactive operation. However in continuously
running applications the application programmer must ensure observance of these rules. For details please
see the documentation which comes with the development package.
To minimize spurious radiation consecutive scans must be separated by pauses with a length of at least
0.2 seconds. Again this is no restriction for interactive application as a scan is typically followed by manual
selection of a tag in a list which normally lasts longer than this required time.
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Appendix A: Technical Specifications
Type II i-CARD CF
Compatibility
ILR
®
tags
i-Q xx /EU (i-CARD CF Q/EU)
i-Q xx /NA (i-CARD CF Q/NA)
i-B xx /EU (i-CARD CF B/EU)
i-B xx /NA (i-CARD CF B/NA)
Performance
Read range (adjustable) 10 m (33 ft)
Write range (adjustable)
*1
10 m (33 ft)
Read rate (ID only)
*1
100 tags/s
Read rate
*1
35 tags/s @ 128 bit data reading
Multiple tag handling
*1
Up to 2,000 tags in the read zone
Communication
Frequency Downlink 868.350 MHz (i-CARD CF Q/EU)
916.500 MHz (i-CARD CF Q/NA)
Frequency Uplink 868.350 MHz (i-CARD CF x/EU)
916.500 MHz (i-CARD CF x/NA)
Certification EN 330 220 (EU); FCC part 15 (US); Industry Canada
Number of antennas 1
Output power Up to 0 dBm (i-CARD CF Q/xx)
Sensitivity –85 dBm (high sens.), -45 dBm (low sens.)
CPU
Hardware drivers for different O/S Windows 98/2000/XP
Program memory
64 kB Flash
User Interfaces
Parallel interface CF
Number of status indications
1 LED (bi-color)
Electrical
Input power 3.3 V DC or 5 V DC ± 5%
Power consumption < 50 mA (operating)
Standards / Safety CE
Environmental
Operating temperature -20°C to +60°C (-4ºF to +140ºF)
Option ext. temperature range –40°C to +80°C (–40ºF to +176ºF)
Storage temperature –40°C to +80°C (–40ºF to +176ºF)
Humidity
90% non-condensing
Physical
Dimensions Standard Type II CF Card
Enclosure Metal
Mass 15 grams (0.53 oz)
Remark:
*1
Applies only to versions compatible with i-Q tag family (i-CARD CF Q/xx)