My Cherry (or other brand) keyboard with integrated magnetic swipe reader is not capturing the correct information for credit card processing.

In some cases, the Cherry keyboard MSR must be reprogrammed to read the credit card information correctly. This requires adding a header and terminator to track 1 and track 2.

See general cardswipe article for the proper format and instructions for testing your MSR.

Attached below is the programming guide for the Cherry 7000/8000 series keyboard. If your scanner plugs into the keyboard you should unplug it before following the instructions in this guide. If you have another brand keyboard the programming will be different, but similar.

All programming is done using Notepad (not Wordpad).

Track 1 requires % as a header and ? as the terminator.

Track 2 requires a ; as the header and ? as the terminator.

Example:

Track 1

V5%
W5?

Track 2
V6;
W6?

See programming guide below for details. You will want to hit the Enter key on the Number Pad to end a programming step, along with the Space Bar to exit programming mode.

If Notepad's Replace text screen pops-up during programming, close the pop-up and continue.

Do not be alarmed if the characters you type in do not appear on the screen. Proceed with all the steps and use the Spacebar to end the programming mode.

If Notepad's Find/Replace pops up while you are exiting programming mode, just close this box.

You can test your results by scanning a credit card in Notepad. The format should appear as follows (ALL ON ONE LINE):

%B1111111111111111^DOE/JOHN^YYMM111111111111 22222222222?;0000000000000000=11111111111122222222222?

Notice the % at the beginning, the ?; in the middle, and ? at the end.

If you need assistance programming your keyboard, please call Support.