- All data must be in base16 format (0-F) also called hexadecimal format
- In base10 format (or decimal format) it would be 0-15
Tag data parts
Tag data consists 2 parts: prefix and postfix. Both of these are 4 bytes in length.
First part represents the competition identified and second part represents the competitor number.
- For instance, competitor number 1 would be 0x0000001 and 73 would be 0x00000049
- Same rule applies to competition identifier, which must be in number format as well
Competition identifier can be 0 which tells the software not to separate tags per. competition.
Competitor number can NOT be 0 because it will also indicate a false tag being detected.
EPC Gen2 tag data
EPC Gen2 tags has tag-id data length of 12 bytes (or 96 bits)
So if you want to program a tag for competition 45 and competitor 182 it would go like this:
- Competition identifier: 45
- 0x0000002D --> prefix
- Competitor number: 182
- 0x000000B6 --> postfix
- EPC Gen2 tag-id: 0x0000002D 00000000 000000B6
Notice also an empty space (4 bytes) between prefix and postfix. It is ok.
Limits
Largest number for both competition identifier and competitor number is 4 294 967 295
But timekeeping software is limiting numbers as:
- Competition identifier: 0 - 999 999 999
- Competitor number: 1 - 99 999