Reference equipment including a reference card and a reference reader is provided for testing electronic payment devices such as cards and card readers. The reference equipment is designed to simulate the external behavior of a variety of payment devices that are currently or expected to be deployed in electronic payment systems. Further, the reference equipment is configured to subject devices under test to extreme behaviors which are expected in field use or which are representative of a large class of payment devices. The external behaviors may relate to functional parameters, for example, power consumption, resonance frequency, Q-factor, modulation depth, noise, and timing. Exemplary reference devices are configured to exhibit representative external behavior, which is an empirically determined average behavior of the product devices in the field. Use of the reference equipment for product specification compliance testing will enhance the interoperability of product payment devices.