P  (50H, uppercase)  Arm to Read 
 
ACTION  The unit performs the following sequence: Clear the read data buffers for all 
tracks. Transmit command acknowledge (“^” 5EH). Wait for card swipe. Transmit read 
acknowledge (“^” 5EH) after card swipe. After an “Arm to Read” command is received 
and acknowledged.  The only valid commands that are accepted for execution are:  
“Abort” <ESC>, “Warm Reset”  <DEL>, “Status” “$”, and LED control commands.  All 
other commands result in an “Invalid Command”  “!” response. 
 
p  (70H, lowercase)  Arm to Read with speed prompts 
 
ACTION  The unit performs the following sequence: Clear the read data buffers for all 
tracks. Transmit command acknowledge (“^” 5EH). Wait for card swipe. If Magstripe
®
 
media is detected a  “(" (28H) byte is sent, when media detect goes inactive a  “)” (29H) 
byte is sent. This is similar to the 'P' command, except an extra response '(' is reported 
when a media is detected through the read head. A ')' response is reported when media 
detect goes inactive. Mainly used as a tool for determining average swipe speed. Most 
applications should not use this command. They should use the upper case P command 
instead. 
 
 
Q  (51H)  Transmit ISO standard data, track 1 
R  (52H)  Transmit ISO standard data, track 2 
S  (53H)  Transmit ISO standard data, track 3 
 
ACTION  The unit performs the following sequence: Process data in the read buffer 
for the specified track according to ISO standard. If error is detected in card data, 
transmit proper error response ('*' or '+'). Else, transmit data in ASCII. 
Note  Q, R, and S are special single byte commands for the corresponding cases of 
double byte commands, e.g. Q has the same effect as q1. 
 
q  (71H)  Transmit track 1 data 
r  (72H)  Transmit track 2 data 
s  (73H)  Transmit track 3 data 
 
FORMAT  2-byte command - Command character (q, r, s) is followed by an ASCII 
number (1, 2 or 3) representing the ISO track format for processing the Magstripe data. 
 
ACTION  The unit performs the following sequence: Process data in the read buffer 
for the specified track and format.  If no card data errors, transmit data in ASCII. 
If error is detected in card data, transmit proper error response ('*' or '+').  These 
commands allow a track to be transmitted with a different track’s ISO format.  For 
example to transmit track 1's data using ISO track 2 format send “q2” (71H, 32H).  The 
uppercase equivalents (Q, R, and S) are equivalent to q1, r2, and s3. 
Note  The s1 command decodes track 3 using AAMVA format if the unit is configured for 
ISO and AAMVA decoding.