Decode what's hidden on your credit cards, or use it for an access system - this mag-stripe card reader can decode all three tracks! We like this small and easy to use mag-stripe reader for being so microcontroller-friendly. Instead of a USB port, it has a PS/2 interface and acts like a 'keyboard'. In fact, its designed to be a 'pass through'/'keyboard wedge' device for point-of-sale terminals. What's nice about PS/2 is that it uses a single connector for power and data, and uses two data pins. When a card is swiped, the raw data is decoded, parity-checked and spit out as if they were typed on a keyboard.
There is one magnetic head but you can swipe in either direction and will emit data in the right order.
Nearly all microcontrollers have existing PS/2 keyboard examples that would work fine with this swiper. For Ardiuno users, we tried out PJRC's PS2_Keyboard library with great success - just check the 'simple text' example for which pins you can connect to on your 'duino (on an Uno we used digital pins 2 and 3). Swipe any magnetic card and you'll see the data appear in the serial terminal!
This reader will read and decode all three tracks of standard magnetic-stripe cards. It cannot write to cards, and cannot be modified to write to cards. We also have a two-track reader which is less expensive but does not read track #3. Wikipedia has a great article on magnetic stripe cards which will help you determine if you need a three-track reader or if a two-track reader is good enough.
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