Question
What can cause an Invalid Badge, Invalid Card Format, or Invalid Facility Code message?
Answer
These messages are caused when the access controller does not recognize the badge ID, card format, or facility code, respectively.
An invalid badge message means that the ISC (e.g. Access Controller) does not recognize the Badge ID of the cardholder in its local database; however, the Badge ID may sometimes be recognized by the server, and associated with the name of a cardholder in the Alarm Monitoring window. If there is an Invalid Badge message with an associate cardholder name in the Main Alarm Monitor window of Alarm Monitoring, then the ISC may require a download of the database to ensure it has an updated list of Badge IDs.
In some cases, the maximum number of cardholders may need to be increased. This can be viewed from: Access Control | Access Panels | Select the appropriate ISC | Options tab | Cardholders text field. The cardholders number listed here should be greater than the amount of cardholders in the server’s database.
An Invalid Card Format message means either the Card Format swiped is not located as a valid card format on the reader that was used, or the Parity information does not match the defined format. As a troubleshooting step, determine if the Parity information is incorrect, then locate the Card Format and set the Even and Odd parity to zero temporarily. This can be setup from: Administration | Card Formats | Modify the required Card Format for Even and Odd parity bits. Then, ensure the Card Format is assigned to the appropriate reader at: Access Controls | Readers | Select the appropriate Reader | Modify | Ensure there is a Check on the icon for the appropriate Card Format | Ok.
An Invalid Facility Code message means that the card read matches a defined card format on the reader; however, the facility code does not match the assigned facility code for the card format. The Main Alarm window in Alarm Monitoring will show this event with a number in parenthesis, so the read card format can be identified and used to create a new Card Format. To create a new card format based on the existing card format, go to: Administration | Card Formats | Select the existing Card Format | Click Add | Type in the new Facility Code | Click Ok. Ensure that the Card Format ID number is 8 or less. Any Card Format greater than 8 will not be accessible from the Reader form. Any database or segmented database is limited to a total of 8 card formats. After the new card format is defined, go to: Access Controls | Readers | Select the appropriate Reader | Modify | Select the new Card Format so that the icon has a red checkmark. This will resolve the Invalid Facility Code message.
