proximity card reader - smartcardio issue

Question

I am developing a Java swing app where I have to read a id card using the hid omnikey 5325 proximity reader using the smartcardio api. (windows xp os)

try {
    terminals = factory.terminals().list();
    System.out.println("Terminals: " + terminals);
    // get the first terminal
    CardTerminal terminal = terminals.get(0);
    terminal.waitForCardPresent(0); 
    Card card = terminal.connect("T=0");                    
    System.out.println("Card present!");            
    System.out.println("card: " + card);        
} catch (CardException e) {
        // TODO Auto-generated catch block
        e.printStackTrace();
}

The code detects the reader, but when the card is inserted, the terminal.waitForCardPresent(0) is supposed to return, which it doesnt.

When I use the HID's own workbench, the card is detected, hence there are no issues with the card or the reader.

Answer 1

You are selecting a card terminal from a list using just an index. This is not the most reliable method of choosing a terminal. The reason you get the wrong terminal is that the reader contains both a contact and contactless readers, which are separate readers to the system. So you were waiting for a contact card to be inserted.

Instead it is much better to choose a card reader by name. You can get the name by using your List of CardTerminals and then printing out the name (or use a diagnostics utility etc., the name is the PCSC determined name for the reader, compiled by your operating system using the reader characteristics and a sequence number).

Answer 2

Solved the problem. Changing the line:

CardTerminal terminal = terminals.get(0); to CardTerminal terminal = terminals.get(1); did the trick. Guess this array starts from 1 instead of 0.