Guidelines for Production and Testing of Bus card reader

I. Production Considerations

1. Hardware Design and Manufacturing

   • Durable Materials: Use impact-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials (e.g., metal alloys or high-strength engineering plastics) for the housing to withstand frequent use and harsh environments (e.g., rain, dust).

   • Modular Design: Independent encapsulation of components such as card readers (supporting IC cards, NFC, QR codes), communication modules (4G/5G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth), and power modules for easy maintenance and upgrades.

   • Thermal Management: Incorporate heat sinks or passive cooling structures to prevent overheating during prolonged operation.

2. Software System Stability

   • Multi-Protocol Compatibility: Support standards like ISO/IEC 14443 (transit cards), EMVco (financial payments), and QR codes.

   • Anti-Freeze Mechanism: Integrate a watchdog timer to trigger automatic reboots during system anomalies.

   • Offline Mode: Enable local storage of transaction data during network outages, with synchronization to servers upon reconnection.

3. Security Measures

   • Encryption Chips: Use hardware-level encryption (e.g., PSAM cards) to protect transaction data, complying with PCI DSS standards.

   • Tamper Detection: Embed sensors to lock the system and alert the platform upon unauthorized disassembly.

   • ESD/Surge Protection: Circuit boards must pass IEC 61000-4-2 (electrostatic discharge) and IEC 61000-4-5 (surge) tests.

4. Environmental Adaptability

   • Wide Temperature Operation: Operating temperature range of -25°C to +70°C, with humidity tolerance of 5%–95% (non-condensing).
     

   • Water and Dust Resistance: Minimum IP54 rating for transit environments; outdoor models require IP65 or higher.

   • Vibration Resistance: Pass MIL-STD-810G vibration tests to withstand vehicle motion.

5. Power Management

   • Wide Voltage Input: Support 9V–36V DC input to handle fluctuations in vehicle power systems.

   • Backup Battery: Include lithium batteries or supercapacitors to maintain clock and data storage for at least 72 hours during power outages.

6. Production and Quality Control

   • Certified Components: Critical parts like card readers and communication modules must pass FCC/CE certifications.

   • Burn-In Testing: Conduct 72-hour full-load operation tests on sampled units before mass production.

   • Traceability System: Assign unique serial numbers (SN) to each device, linked to production batches and QC records.

II. Mandatory Testing Categories

1. Functional Testing

   • Card Reading Performance: Verify success rates (≥99.9%) at varying distances (0–10 cm) and angles.

   • Multi-Payment Validation: Test hybrid scenarios with physical cards, mobile NFC, and QR codes (static/dynamic).

   • Communication Testing: Validate data retransmission under weak 4G/5G signals and post-recovery data synchronization.

2. Performance Testing

   • Concurrency Handling: Simulate peak-hour transactions (20+ per second) with response times <300 ms.

   • Storage Capacity: Ensure local storage for ≥100,000 transaction records with cyclic overwriting and no data loss.

3. Environmental Testing

   • Temperature Cycling: Storage at -30°C to +85°C and operation at -25°C to +70°C for 24 hours each.

   • Salt Spray Test: Expose metal components to 5% NaCl spray for 48 hours to assess corrosion resistance.

   • Dust Ingress Test: Validate IP6X dustproof capability per GB/T 4208-2017.

4. Security Testing

   • Penetration Testing: Simulate SQL injection, MITM attacks, etc., to ensure no vulnerabilities.

   • Data Encryption Verification: Confirm end-to-end encryption of sensitive data (card numbers, amounts) via packet analysis.

   • Physical Attack Resistance: Test self-destruct mechanisms during tampering or circuit shorting.

5. Lifespan Testing

   • Card Reader Durability: Perform 1 million swipes with an error rate <0.01%.

   • Button Endurance: Test physical buttons for 500,000 presses without failure.

   • Display Aging: Continuous illumination for 5,000 hours with no ghosting and <15% brightness decay.

6. Compatibility Testing

   • Cross-Region Card Types: Validate support for municipal transit cards (e.g., Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development standards, Ministry of Transport standards), bank cards, and non-standard cards (e.g., smart rings).

   • International Payments: Ensure compatibility with Visa/Mastercard contactless payments (requires PBOC 3.0 certification).

7. Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) Testing

   • Radiated Emissions: Pass CISPR 22/EN 55022 Class B to avoid interference with onboard electronics.

   • Immunity: Maintain functionality under 30 V/m electric fields (IEC 61000-4-3).

8. Certification Testing

   • Industry Compliance: Meet JT/T 905-2014 (China’s onboard terminal standard) and UnionPay terminal certification.

   • Global Certifications: Pass CE (EU), FCC (US), KC (South Korea), and other regional market requirements.

III. Special Scenario Considerations

• Multilingual Support: Configure bilingual interfaces (e.g., Chinese/English, Arabic) for export markets.

• Over-the-Air (OTA) Updates: Enable delta firmware updates to minimize data usage, with resume-from-break functionality.

• Data Analytics Integration: Provide APIs for real-time passenger flow and device status reporting to transit management systems.

By adhering to these design and testing protocols, transit card readers can achieve long-term reliability in complex environments, minimize failures, and meet security and regulatory requirements. Manufacturers should collaborate closely with transit operators and payment institutions to tailor solutions to operational needs.