Can you use a generic smartcard reader with AutoScan?

[Goofproof]

DSM, I tried my Dish Network card to, too bad no workie.

[dsm]

DSM, I tried my Dish Network card to, too bad no workie.

Yep, I had high hopes for my cable TV smartcard until I saw the contact pinout was nothing like the ResMed & Respironics

DSM

[dsm]

Here is a link to photos showing the EncorePro card alongside a Resmed card.

http://www.internetage.com/cpapinfo/datacards-1/

From the pics you can see 3 useful things

1) The pinout & contact orientation is identical
2) The contacts are the same distance from the end of the card
3) The card form factor is quite different.

I have also included a pic showing my Foxtel cable TV smartcard as it is different.

From these pics I would deduce that I could do the following

1) Cut some card like material the same thickness & size of an Encore card
2) Cut a slot in it the same size as a ResMed card
3) Cement the Resmed card into the slot in the Encore card

Then try to see if Resmed software will recognize the 2Factors (or Encore) smartcard reader and read the card.

A problem may turn out to be the driver that Resmed uses to access its smart card reader. If it is different from the drivers that come with the 2Factors reader then we are dead before we have got started.

Also I am assuming that if we were to take this new card (the resmed in encore form factor) and access it with Encore Pro, that we could format it using the Encore utilities & then use the card in a Respironics machine.

Cheers

DSM

### Also meant to add ... I really don't believe there is any fancy formatting done on these cards. They are just addressable memory cards like a that used in a digital camera. What I believe they do is to write a control record on the card that has some base data picked up by the xPAP machine & if that is missing, it won't try to write data to the card or it will signal an error. I may be wrong, but think I am probably right.

_________________

CPAPopedia Keywords Contained In This Post (Click For Definition): respironics, resmed, Encore Pro, Smart Card

[rasputin]

Here is a link to photos showing the EncorePro card alongside a Resmed card.
http://www.internetage.com/cpapinfo/datacards-1/

Thanks for the pictures!

Here's a pic of a ResMed card next to my American Express card (click to zoom):

A problem may turn out to be the driver that Resmed uses to access its smart card reader. If it is different from the drivers that come with the 2Factors reader then we are dead before we have got started.

I got my AutoScan CD today and found some interesting stuff about the card reader drivers:

; A38USBCP.INF
; Copyright (c) 1996 - 2004 Advanced Card System Ltd

[Version]
DriverVer=04/28/2004,1.1.4.0
Signature="$Chicago$"
Class=SmartCardReader

[...]

; ================= Strings =====================

[Strings]
Msft = "Advanced Card System"
ACS = "ACS"
ACS.DeviceDesc = "ACR38 Smart Card Reader"
ClassName = "Smart Card Readers"
Vendor = "ACS"
Reader = "ACR38U"

Advanced Card Systems Ltd.
Unit 2910-13, 29/F, The Center
99 Queen's Road Central, Hong Kong
http://www.acs.com.hk

ACS mentions on their website that they offer product customization services, so I'm guessing ResMed has them make a custom version of this card reader (with a shallower card slot, plastic guide for narrow data card, their company logo, etc).

Standard features for the ACR38 reader:

Support most of the popular memory card types in the market:

* Cards following the I2C bus protocol (free memory cards) such as:
Atmel: AT24C01 / 02 / 04 / 08 / 16 / 32 / 64 / 128 / 256 / 512 / 1024
SGS-Thomson: ST14C02C, ST14C04C
Gemplus: GFM1K, GFM2K, GFM4K, GFM8K
* SLE4432/4442 intelligent 256 bytes EEPROM with write protect function:
SLE4432, SLE4442
* SLE4418/4428 intelligent 1K bytes EEPROM with write-protect function:
SLE4418, SLE4428
* Secure memory cards such as:
AT88SC153, AT88SC1608

I don't know anything about smartcard formats, but if the ResMed reader is really just a modified ACR38, then I assume the ResMed data cards probably fall into one of those categories.

[rasputin]

I bought an ACR38 card reader here for $30 and it works with AutoScan. I didn't even have to install any drivers. I just plugged it in, fired up AutoScan, and it read the data from the card.

To line up the small ResMed data card properly, I cut off a strip from an old expired credit card and used it as a guide. I'll probably rig something a little more permanent.



So it looks like the physical chip on the ResMed data card isn't really anything proprietary.

[hainhi]

[quote="rasputin"]I bought an ACR38 card reader here for $30 and it works with AutoScan. I didn't even have to install any drivers. I just plugged it in, fired up AutoScan, and it read the data from the card.

To line up the small ResMed data card properly, I cut off a strip from an old expired credit card and used it as a guide. I'll probably rig something a little more permanent.



So it looks like the physical chip on the ResMed data card isn't really anything proprietary.


I don't see the ACR38 in my computer after install driver, need help. How can I read the data in ResScan Data Card ? Do I need to install ResScan software ? Thanks.

[billbolton]

I don't see the ACR38 in my computer after install driver, need help. How can I read the data in ResScan Data Card ? Do I need to install ResScan software ?

You need Autoscan 5.7 (now discontinued) or any version of ResScan software.

Cheers,

Bill