Tacho Bridge Application is an open-source application for Windows, macOS, or Linux designed to provide remote authentication of a tracker and tachograph via the company card.
Application is installed on the computer and provides an interface between company cards and flespi. It works with cards inserted into smart card readers operating via the standard PC/SC interface, as well as with multi-slot card racks (card hotels) connected over a serial (COM) port. Whenever the tracker needs to authenticate the tachograph using a company card the application will provide such functionality.
Repository link: Tacho Bridge App. At the moment, the application is available for Windows (x64), Linux (x64) and macOS (universal: Intel and Apple Silicon) operating systems. Using Linux may require installing additional dependencies, our recommendations. Once installed, the application keeps itself up to date: it checks for a new version on startup (or on demand from the settings) and installs the update in one click with an automatic restart. Only stable versions are offered by default; pre-release (alpha/beta) builds can be enabled with the "Receive pre-release updates" toggle in the settings. With the "Automatically install new updates" toggle the application installs updates by itself during a pause in card activity.
This article covers only Tacho Bridge Application usage specifics. Consider reading the Tacho Setup guide to enable tacho functionality in your flespi account.
Setting up the Tacho Bridge Application
- Download and install the application on your device. Currently, versions are available for Windows, Linux and macOS.
- After starting the application, you need to configure the company cards for further work. The application supports simultaneous work with several cards. There are no software restrictions on the number of cards that can be used simultaneously.
Cards can be configured in advance, even without physically connecting them: click the Add card button, enter the company card number written on the card (16 characters, as defined by the Annex 1C regulation (EU) 2016/799) and, optionally, a convenient card name.
All cards are shown on one board, grouped by the reader or rack they sit in, with a search field and status filters. An inserted card that is not linked to any configuration yet is shown as Unknown card with its ICCID (Integrated Circuit Card Identification), the unique identifier of the card.
To link the physical card, click the Link button next to it and either select a configured card and click Link to selected card, or enter a new company card number and click Add and link. After this, the card is shown with its company card number.
After the first successful authentication, the application automatically reads the card details and displays them next to the card: card generation and type, expiry date, company name and address, and the time and status of the last authentication. The Attention filter shows the cards that expire soon. - Next, you need to enter the server settings so that the application can connect to the server. The channel where you connect the app should be configured with the tacho-bridge protocol and you should register in flespi the device of type Tacho Bridge App with the same ident in order to see the application connection status in your flespi account remotely. Open the settings by clicking the gear icon in the application header and fill in the "App ident" and "Server address" fields. The "Server address" is the domain and port of your tacho-bridge channel. The "App ident" is generated automatically and has a strict format: the TBA prefix followed by 13 digits, which makes it unique by default; just ensure that you used the same value in the flespi device and installed the Tacho Bridge App instance. When the connection to the server is established, the server icon in the application header turns green.
If the channel requires Application authentication, turn on Server authentication in the same settings and enter its username and password. With Save to config and use for sign-in the application connects by itself on every start, otherwise it asks for the credentials.
- Next, you need to create devices with the Tacho Bridge Card type for each company card. The company card number used when configuring the card in the application must be used as the device identifier.
- In order for the tracker to know which company card to contact, the same company card number must be entered into the actual device. For example, as it is done in Ruptela FM-Tco4 HCV.
Application settings
All settings are behind the gear icon in the application header. Besides the server connection and updates, there are:
- Launch at system startup — registers the application to start with the operating system. Together with the system tray and automatic updates, this lets the application run unattended on a PC with the readers or racks.
- Extended debug log — a detailed log of what the application does with readers, racks and the server, switched on for a chosen duration and switched off again on its own.
- Theme and a built-in Changelog viewer.
Card racks
The application works with multi-slot card racks (card hotels) over a serial (COM) port, with the Lisle Design card rack as the first supported device. One application can serve several racks.
Connect the rack to the computer and the application detects it automatically: the rack appears on the board with all its cards. Link and use them the same way as cards in a reader, and create a Tacho Bridge Card device for each of them. Trackers see no difference between cards in a rack and cards in a reader.
The application communicates with the rack directly, so:
- If the Lisle Design driver is installed to use the rack as a regular reader, uninstall it, as it may cause malfunctions.
- The COM port must be free. If another program holds it, for example a native tool from a tracker manufacturer, the application shows a notification naming the port and the likely holder.
The slot LEDs of the rack show the card state: blinking green during authentication, green for a served card, red for a card that is not served yet: not linked in the application or without a matching device in flespi, dark for an empty slot.
Configuration file and logs
The application stores data in the user directory Documents/tba. This folder contains the configuration file config.yaml and application logs. The configuration file stores all application settings, including added cards. The card protocol (T=0 or T=1) is detected automatically and stored per card in the same file. The application writes a detailed log of its work to the log.txt file. When the log file reaches 50 MB, it is rotated: older logs are compressed and kept in the archive subfolder. If errors occur in the application, the logs will help to understand the cause of the error.
The logs can also be fetched remotely: send the Fetch application logs command to the Tacho Bridge App device in your flespi account, choose the period (last day, week, or month), and the application will upload the zipped log file to the command result.
Remote management: the settings of the Tacho Bridge App device let you switch on the Extended debug log for a chosen duration, move the application to another server with the Server address setting and push the username and password with the Authentication setting, all without touching the PC.
Additionally, the application version, operating system, and CPU architecture are reported by the application on connection and are visible in the read-only "Application Information" section of the device settings.
Troubleshooting
In the Tacho Bridge App device in your flespi account, you may track the status of the application via logs and messages. Each connection and disconnection will be logged as well as each added or removed card will also be logged into the logs to simplify the remote application administration.
Each card has a status on the board. If a company card is correctly configured in the application but has the gray Offline status, it means the card setup on the client side is valid, but there is an issue on the server side. This could happen if the Tacho Bridge Card device object is disabled, not created, or has an incorrect identifier. The green Online status indicates that everything is properly configured both on the client and server sides. During the remote authentication process the status is Authenticating. An inserted card with the orange Unknown status is not linked to any configured card yet - link it as described in the setup section. A configured card that is not in a reader or rack is listed under Not inserted and cannot be used.
If the application does not connect, check the logs of the tacho-bridge channel. For example, “credentials not set or invalid: the channel requires the application authentication username and password” means that the application has no or different credentials, and “The connected App device must have the device type: 'Tacho Bridge App'.” or “The connected card must have the device type: 'Tacho Bridge Card'.” mean that the device in flespi was created with a wrong type.
Note that closing the application window does not stop the application: it hides to the system tray and keeps bridging the cards in the background. Use Show Window in the tray menu to bring the window back and Quit to exit the application completely.
The reader is connected but not detected. What to do?
Sometimes, even if a smart card reader is physically connected, the operating system may not detect it properly. This issue can be caused either by missing or incorrect drivers, or by the absence of a system-level service responsible for smart card communication. First, ensure that the appropriate driver for your smart card reader is installed. Drivers are typically included with the device or can be downloaded from the manufacturer’s website. Even if the reader appears as a USB device, without a proper driver it will not function as a smart card interface.
If the driver is correctly installed but the reader still does not work, the problem may lie in the system’s smart card service. On Windows, this is handled by the built-in Smart Card service (service name: SCardSvr). You can enable it by opening services.msc, finding “Smart Card” in the list, and ensuring it is set to start automatically or manually and that its status is Running.
On Linux, smart card support requires the pcscd daemon. Make sure it is installed and running (packages: pcscd, libpcsclite1, libccid). After installation, it is recommended to restart the service.
It is important to understand that the application does not affect the reader detection in any way. The operating system is responsible for this. That is, if the reader is not detected, then something is configured incorrectly, there can be no other options. If the application does not see the running service, then in the log ~/Documents/tba/log.txt you can see an error similar to "The Smart card resource manager is not running".