Quick Start

Interfacing with a Smart Card

If you're new to SmartCache, perform the following to get started.

• Download and install SmartCache.
• If you have a smart card reader, connect it to your PC.
• If you don't have a smart card reader, you can purchase one on the Internet for a reasonable price. We suggest the ACS ACR39U PC/SC reader. One such vendor is Smartcard Focus.
• Purchase an ACOS smart card. SmartCache supports ACOS1, ACOS2, ACOS3 and ACOS3X smart cards. These can be purchased on the Internet for a few dollars. We suggest the ACOS3 64 KB smart card. One such vendor is ASG Global.
• Once you have a smart card reader and ACOS smart card, connect the smart card reader to your PC and insert the smart card into the reader (contacts facing up for a PC/SC reader).
• Open SmartCache and click the Settings button and select your smart card reader. Change any other settings as desired. Click the OK button.
• Click the Initialize button to initialize the smart card. Once the smart card is initialized, it does not need to be (and cannot be) initialized again.
• Click the Read button and verify there are no records on the card.
• You can now add records to the list and save them to the smart card by clicking the Write Changes button.

Working with Files

In addition to saving data to a smart card, SmartCache allows you to save data to a file. All list operations are available regardless of whether the data is saved to a smart card or a file. This means that SmartCache if fully functional without the need for a smart card reader or smart card.

The data in the file is encrypted using dynamic key 168-bit 3DES encryption and checksummed with a 64-bit CRC. Data in the records list is saved to a file by clicking the Save to File... button. You have the option of password protecting the file. Files can be loaded by clicking the Load File... button or dragging and dropping a file onto SmartCache from Windows Explorer.

Transferring Data Between Smart Cards

If you initialized a smart card with a version of SmartCache earlier than 3.0, the smart card is compatible with SmartCache 3.0, but the available capacity is fixed at 8 KB, regardless of the smart card capacity. Furthermore, for ACOS2, ACOS3 and ACOS3X smart cards, which support faster read and write speeds, if they were initialized with a version of SmartCache earlier than 3.0, the read and write speed is fixed at its slowest rate; this cannot be changed.

To take advantage of an ACOS smart card with EEPROM size greater than 8 KB and higher read and write speeds, the smart card must be initialized with SmartCache 3.0. To transfer data from one smart card to another, perform the following steps using SmartCache 3.0:

• Insert the old smart card in the smart card reader and click the Read button.
• Click the Save to File... button to save the data to a file.
• Insert the new smart card in the smart card reader and click the Initialize button.
• Click the Read button.
• Click the Load File... button and select the file saved in the second step.
• Click the Write Changes button to write the data to the smart card.
• Click the Read button and verify the data was saved on the smart card.