Hi, I am thinking of buying a magnetic swipe card reader, mainly for interest purposes but also it should save time entering credic card info.. Here is the one i am looking at: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5700951155&rd=1&sspagename=STRK:MEWA:IT&rd=1 the seller states that the data is transfered in "ASCII" "The data is transferred in ASCII so can be easily used in an application, Heck you can even use HyperTerminal to read credit cards." now, can anyone guess what it would look like transfering a card to hyperterminal would look like, would it be plain text / numbers like "4536-5643-5463-2345" for the card number etc.. or would it be coding that would need decoding to get normal info from and if so what options are available for this... Thank You Alex.
there was a 2600 article on card reading. there is a lot more data then just card number on each card... there can be up to 6 tracks, each which have between 24 - 64 ascii chars. the example given for a transpass card was: Code: t1: 0101001101041130040000000146 t2: 0101000601030630030000002421 and a hotel key looked like: Code: t2: 5101152006010912130124000120000000000 depending on the type of card, it may/may not have: member type, member since, member till, member id, card number, security number, account balance, ect... all encoded in a format that unfortunately isn’t universal. you’ll have to get a bunch of credit cards and scan the numbers, and see if you can figure out the patterns. also, note that most credit cards are encrypted. the article also details how you can make your own strip reader out of an old pair of headphones, a tape player read head, and a linux computer with a sound card, for less (i assume) then £12.
so connecting that reader up and opening hyperterminal + connecting wont just give me readable (by me) data from the card (like barcode readers DO) ? and did you make those numbers up?
no, its not going to say "credit card number: xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx" barcode readers are much different - there is only a simple number encoded. magnetic strips have much more data, and they are encoded however the manufacturer wants. no, i didn’t make thos numbers up, there is a magazine called "2600" that had an article in it, and i took them from that article
Not quite. It's more likely to say "credit card number: xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx, expiration date :xx/xx, and probably several other things, including, possibly your zip code. " I just know, when someone comes in where i work with a worn out CC, it requires the expiration date, and the card holders zip code. I would imagine that there is even more data on the card itself.
yes. that is what i said. my point is the raw ASCII RS232 ouptut of a card scanner is not going to be in human-readable format, its going to be in machine-readable format. if youve ever played with a CueCat, youll have an idea of what im talking about
