Virtual COM port settings
A list of all valid configuration settings which relate to sending pass information over a virtual COM port interface for the config.txt file.
If ComPortEnable=1, ComPortMode=1 and ComPortSource is set, pass or card data read by the VTAP reader will be sent over the virtual COM port. This is the virtual COM port in active mode. ComPortSource determines whether data is sent over the COM port interface only when there are mobile pass reads, or cards/tag reads too.
After setting ComPortEnable=1 in config.txt the unit needs to be rebooted or power cycled. On a Windows PC, if you check the Device Manager, you will see under 'Ports (COM & LPT)' that there is now a VTAP reader that has been assigned a COM port. (If it says 'USB Serial Device' rather than 'VTAP100', you should right click on the VTAP100.inf or VTAP.inf file on the VTAP file system to install the correct driver.)
The COM port is described as being in either active or passive mode. Active mode means that pass or card data read by the VTAP reader will be sent over the COM port immediately, whenever it is read. Passive mode means that the VTAP reader will only send on that data in response to a command. These are listed in
By default the VTAP reader is in active mode. Use PassiveInterfaces=1 to enable passive mode and CommandInterfaces=1 to allow commands to be received on the command interface. Set InvalidDataCacheMS for the time you want pass read data to be retained by the VTAP reader, while it is waiting for a Com Port request to send it onwards. There is a simple example in
ComPortPrefix and ComPortPostfix can be optionally used to add extra characters before or after a pass read, to suit your application.
When ComPortPassMode=1 you can use all of the other settings beginning ComPortPass... to extract only part of the mobile pass data. To do this you have to start by identifying a separator character in the data as ComPortPassSeparator. This allows the data to be regarded as a set of sections that can be identified by number. By identifying a ComPortPassContentSeparator this process can be repeated at a lower level, within a section. There is a simple example in
If you want to receive serial QR/barcode scanner input (assumed to be an ASCII sequence) on this interface set ComPortScannerMode, and adjust ComPortScannerDelimiter if scanner inputs are terminated by something other than a new line character.
Settings below:
CommandInterfaces | ComPortEnable | ComPortMode | ComPortPassContentMode | ComPortPassContentSection | ComPortPassContentSeparator | ComPortPassLength | ComPortPassMode | ComPortPassSection | ComPortPassSeparator | ComPortPassStart | ComPortPassPostfix | ComPortPrefix | ComPortSource
Enables or disables your ability to send commands over particular interfaces.
Enable a virtual COM port for the USB interface so the VTAP is treated by the connected PC as a COM port, as well as a mass storage device.
Activate the COM port as an interface for receiving mobile pass data.
Turns on a subdivision of a data section into smaller content sections.
Identifies the content section of interest, based on finding ComPortPassContentSeparator characters.
The first content section, before the first separator, is numbered 0.
Identifies the content separator character in the data which bounds content sections.
Number of characters of data to extract, starting from the position defined by ComPortPassStart.
Sets whether to extract parts of the data from the mobile NFC pass.
Identifies the section of interest, based on finding ComPortPassSeparator characters. The first section, before the first separator, is numbered 0.
Identifies the separator character in the data which bounds sections.
Number of characters into pass data to reading, where first character is 0.
Adds special characters after data, if needed.
Use standard ASCII hex characters to describe the keystrokes to append.
%0D in the example adds a carriage return after the data,
%0A adds a new line after every pass or tag entry.
$t would include the pass type.
$$t would append '$t' to the output.
$t$n will follow the pass type character with a digit for VAS merchant ID/ST collector ID index (1 to 6) and a digit for keyslot used (1 to 6).
$u adds the UID as 8, 14 or 16 hex ASCII digits.
(For
Pass type explainer - click here
Adds special characters before the data, if needed.
Use standard ASCII hex characters to describe the keystrokes to append.
%0A in the example adds a new line linefeed before the data.
$t would include the pass type .
$$t would prefix the output with '$t'.
$t$n will follow the pass type character with a digit for VAS merchant ID/ST collector ID index (1 to 6) and a digit for keyslot used (1 to 6).
$u adds the UID as 8, 14 or 16 hex ASCII digits.
(ForPass type explainer - click here
Controls which types of event data (pass reads, card/tag reads, serial commands
=80 (hex) will send only mobile NFC pass data
=A1 to send data from NFC passes and NFC cards/tags and card emulation
=83 to send passes, cards/tags and serial commands
Controls whether a serial QR/barcode scanner input is expected on the COM port interface.
(Note: If this is enabled the COM port interface cannot be used for commands or OSDP.)
Controls which character is expected to terminate each serial QR/barcode scanner input on the ComPort interface
A period to retain data after reading in milliseconds. Set to retain data in memory until requested, but without undue security risk to that data.
