Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Affordable Mag-Stripe Card Readers for Linux?

Posted by timothy on from the things-that-sound-simple-but-aren't dept.

Skip Franklin asks: "I'm looking for a mag-stripe card reader to use with a Linux kiosk. I've searched all over the web, but I'm not finding much in the way of hardware vendors that say they support Linux. There's tons of stuff on smartcards, but I just want a simple (read: cheap) mag-stripe reader. Anyone using one of these (preferrably USB interface, serial if necessary)?" Anyone who's had better luck than Skip at finding such a beast?

2 of 22 comments (clear)

  1. Keyboard Wedges by citmanual · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I would poke around for small business going under. One firm I worked for used to install Point Of Sale (POS) systems for just such places. They come with a keyboard wedge that plugs into the keyboard connector. You can get barcode scanners that do just the same thing.

    It strikes me that they cost about $75/per when we were buying them. But, those wedges also cost about $50. Not too mention they need a dedicated PC for each one.

  2. OS independence... use a keyboard wedge by ka9dgx · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Back when I did barcode stuff for a living (1987-1994), we got a Symbol Technologies wedge, which intercepted the keyboard, trasmitted function keys (of your selection) before and after the data. Surely you could just intercept F3 (or whatever) in your application, and have at it.

    --Mike--