Encode Assignment

Overview

USB Encoding to be discontinued

In October 2023, ixkio will be launching new iPhone and Android apps for integrated NFC tag encoding (NTAG213).

We will be discontinuing support of USB based writing later in 2023. Customers using USB writing will be contacted and a migration plan discussed.

Encode Assignment allows the encoding of NFC tags directly from the ixkio console. Encode Assignment only works with Digital Logic USB uFR writers.

Getting Started

1. Install the writer

Encode Assignment works by encoding NFC tags directly from the browser with Digital Logics uFR series reader/writers. First, install your uFR USB writer.

2. Create/navigate to your Batch

Create a Batch from which you want to encode your NFC tags.

Then create enough Tag Codes within the Batch for the NFC tags that you want to encode.

Only Unassigned Tag Codes will be selected for encoding. Make sure you create the Tag Codes with Unassigned Status or set them to Unassigned before encoding.

3. Activate Encoding Assignment

Batch Screen > Batch Function Panel > Assignment Tab

From the Assignment Tab, select 'Encode Assign' and your locking status.

Locked will mean that the data enoded onto the tags cannot ever be changed. Unlocked will mean that anyone could change the data on your tags. If you are testing, you may prefer to use unlocked so that you can re-encode and continue testing. For any live release, we very strongly recommend locking your tags.

Click Activate to start Encoding Assignment.

Providing the USB writer has been installed and ready to use, you should see the Encoding Assignment pop-up screen.

4. Using Encoding Assignment

Hold your NFC tag over the writer (or vice versa), keep steady and wait for a single beep. Once you hear the beep, the tag has been encoded and you should remove the tag swiftly.

Ixkio will automatically select the next Unassigned Tag Code from the Batch in the order (by time) they were created.

If you run out of Tag Codes, you can exit Encoding Assignment and add additional Unassigned Tag Codes.

5. Ending Encoding

Clicking on the cancel button or outside the encoding pop-up window will cancel the Encoding session.

Additional Features

UID

During the Encode Assign process, the USB reader will read the UID of the NFC chip and store this into the ixkio platform. For most use cases, this UID is not used and not required.

The UID data needs to be unique within your account and two Tag Codes cannot have the same UID. In the event that you are not using locked encoding and accidently (or otherwise) encode an already encoded tag, then the ixkio system will enter the UID of chip against the first encode. This is to prevent the same tag UID being on two Tag Codes.