RFID Card Overview

The purpose of this guide is to go over the configuration of RFID Cards in Network Manager. Lynkwell offers a variety of hardware with RFID capability to help provide solutions for various business cases.

1. Confirm RFID Capability on Station

   You will need to confirm that the station has the ability to use RFID cards - please consult your hardware's manual to determine this.

2. Set Station Configuration and Authorization Methods

   After confirming that the station has RFID capabilities:

   • Run GetConfiguration command on the station (Stations > EVSE Commands > Basic Commands). Then, navigate to Real-Time Logs and look for configuration keys related to RFID.

     Note: There may be configuration keys related to RFID that are readonly. You need only concern yourself with configuration keys with a readonly value of false, as these are the customizable configuration settings used to control whether or not the feature is turned on or off.

   • Navigate back to EVSE Commands > Advanced Commands > Change Configuration and update any of the configurations needed to enable RFID features on the station. The key-value pairs are case sensitive, so make sure to follow the convention seen from the original GetConfiguration results.

     Please consult your hardware's manual for the necessary configuration keys and values. Be sure that you are referencing the manual for the specific model, as gateway and non-gateway units have distinct model names.

   • After updating the configurations, navigate to Stations > Station Info > Authorization Methods and make sure that you select RFID so that drivers are able to see that it is supported in their mobile app. Note: this does not make any changes to the station configuration. You must make those changes as described above.

3. Adding RFID Cards

   Before adding the RFID cards, it is best to get an idea of what the organization has in mind for their use. We have seen various implementations of RFID cards among the organizations that we work with.

   1. Determine the use case for your RFID cards

      Common Scenarios

      Scenario 1: Organization has a fleet of vehicles where each vehicle or driver of the vehicle is provided an RFID card.

      In this scenario, all RFID cards would be assigned to an individual driver in our system that is associated with their RFID card.

      Scenario 2: Organization has a fleet manager or other individual with one or more RFID cards that they are responsible for managing.

      In this scenario, all RFID cards can be associated with the responsible individual as the driver in our system.

      
      
   2. Identify the RFID Token String

      If you do not already have the token string for your RFID card, you can retrieve this by scanning it on your station.

      After scanning the RFID card on the station, you can navigate back to Real-Time Logs where you will see an Authorize message with the date and time that you scanned the RFID card. In the request, you will copy the value for the idTag under the Request section.

      Note: It is expected that the Response message will return a status: Invalid as you have not yet added it to a Driver in our system.

      
      
   3. Assign RFID Card to Driver

      Depending on which of the two scenarios work best for you above, you may either use the same driver or multiple drivers for the steps below. Each individual that you wish to associate with an RFID card will need to set up a profile in the Mobile App (to learn more about creating an account with the mobile app, see Create an Account).

      
      

      1. Select Drivers from left navigation menu in Network Manager and search for the Driver you'd like to assign the RFID card.
      2. Open up the ID Tokens tab at the top and paste the value from the idTag in the Token ID field. You may provide a name for the Token if you wish.
      3. Select RFID Card from the Token Type dropdown.
      4. Select Realtime Remote Preferred from the Authorization Strategy dropdown.
      5. Click the Create Token button. The new token will appear in the table below.

      
      

      

      
      

4. Verify RFID Functionality

   After you have added the RFID cards as described above, we recommend testing and verifying that you are able to successfully charge a vehicle using the RFID method on your RFID capable stations. If using RFID with paid stations to bypass need for payment, please follow the instructions below prior to testing.

   Note: If stations are not free, each driver will need to add a payment method to their account.

   You may set up a discount code for the driver using Site Manager to ensure they are able to charge without paying with the card on file (to learn how, see Create Driver Discounts).

Related Guides: