Managing Company Cards
To securely access and download tachograph data, logistics companies must use a company card — an official smart card issued by authorities.
It proves company ownership of vehicles and unlocks access to the data stored in smart tachographs.
TachoSync makes managing company cards simple, whether you use a single-slot or multi-slot card reader.
Various operating system and CPU combinations allow connecting a different amount of card readers at the same time. See here for a brief description of USB limitations.
Single-slot Smart Card Readers
Single-slot smart card readers are an effective and cheap solution for small companies to manage several company cards. Usually, up to 10 readers can be connected via USB to a single Windows PC/server.
Examples of single-slot smart card readers:
Requirements for single-slot smart card readers:
- Company Card Authenticator installed on the managing PC/server.
- Every single-slot smart card reader may have specific drivers and other requirements.
Multiple-slot Smart Card Readers
Multiple-slot smart card readers are the preferred solution when tens of hundreds of smart cards need to be managed. Multiple-slot readers help avoid most USB limitations and are easily scalable.
Examples of multiple-slot smart card readers:
- Lisle Design Hyper Card Rack readers
- Lisle Design Standard Card readers – limited scalability compared to the Hyper series
More information about Lisle card reader differences can be found here.
Lisle Design Hyper Card Rack requirements:
- Company Card Authenticator installed on the managing PC/server.
- Drivers for the rack: VCP Drivers - FTDI.
Multiple Rack Configuration
More than one multiple-slot readers can be connected to a server.
In this case, each Lisle Design Hyper Card Rack™ 20 or Hyper Card Rack™ 120 must be configured using the „DIP“ switches.
The DIP switches set the index of the rack in a sequence as a binary number, e.g.:
- First rack: 0000 (all switches off)
- Second rack: 0001 (first switch on)
- Third rack: 0010 (second switch on)
- Fourth rack: 0011 (first and second switches on)
- Etc.