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The swipe testing tool is used to help diagnose problems with barcode or magnetic stripe readers. Here, everything entered via the keyboard or a keyboard emulator is shown on screen in both text and hexadecimal form with detailed timing information. If you're having trouble with a card not working right on the kiosk, use this tool to see exactly what is being sent by the card reader.
Example
The oddest problem: using Notepad, the data coming from the card exactly matched the volunteer's swipe value. We knew that the reader's manufacturer had set the reader up so that only the first six characters from the card would be sent, as the hospital using the cards considered the remaining information to be a possible security issue. We had them run this tool with the card reader and found that instead of just sending the six characters they wanted, the card reader was sending eighteen: the complete twelve data characters on the magnetic stripe - followed by six backspace characters. Needless to say that didn't work as expected, but did explain the situation in Notepad.