Does anyone have any experience with a magnetic stripe reader that will handle a pre and post-amble (ie: Command-1)? I've come across one that can send one character before the card data, and one character before the track data (i'm reading only 1 track (#2), so i think it'll work...) with a similar setup for post-card/track. I wanted to check to see if anyone had any experience with this, as I am still VERY new to the barcoding/mag-stripe reading world....

any advice?

I don't have experience with a mag stripe reader that will do this, but take a look at www.posdirect.com. They offer a lot of Point of Sale hardware and software.

-bd

Here are the POS manufacturers (that I know about) that make mag stripe readers, and what I know about them:

HHP (hand held products) - I don't even think they make a USB product

Id Tech - I know this works with Mac and I know you cannot program a "Command" preamble at all. You need a PC if you want to program other preambles/postambles

Logic Control - haven't looked

MagTech - with the USB keyboard emulation model, my understanding is that you can request the factory to preprogram a single ascii character as a preamble/postamble... there are other USB products which do not emulate the keyboard... I don't really understand those.

Unitech - haven't looked

My thought is that it is best to use an RS232 model and use the Troi Plugin... I believe the Troi plugin can detect incoming data and activate a subscript (maybe someone else can explain?)

I would look a while for a wedge version before I took the jump to a serial version. Unless you are very familiar with serial interfaces and/or have used serial plug-ins before, you may have trouble. If you need "someone else to explain" this probably isn't the approach to take without professional assistance.

-bd

Check out Silicon Valley Bus Company.

wow... thanks for pointing that out!

Here's the URL... I'm waiting for a response from them regarding whether the software sends the info to the reader's firmware or if the driver needs to be running at all times.

But either way it looks like a good solution since they make particular mentions of both Macs and FileMaker solutions on their web site.

http://www.svbus.com/MSRDS.html

Here is the response I got:

>Does your Smartcode software upload the keystrokes to the mag stripe reader?

No, the keystrikes, either leading or trailing are added in our app. We intercept the data from the readers and add the user created pre/post stuff, and then send it on to GetNextEvent.

BTW OS9.x and below right now. OS X in the works but not ready yet.

My interpretation of this is that this is not a keyboard wedge product. The driver receives the data and then sends it to the cursor.

By the way, the driver supports any keys that you can type from the keyboard.

Can someone explain what they mean by "GetNextEvent"?

I was a little suspicious of this company at first... they seem a little small to be developing these types of products...

Upon closer examination, it looks like all (if not close to all) of Silicon Valley Bus's products are actually made by Unitech (http://www.ute.com/)... which means that Silicon Vally Bus is really in the software business (which I admire, but they seem a bit pricey).

When their OS X driver comes out I will probably inquire about purchasing only the software. According to my "Reseller Guide", Unitech's USB 3-Track Mag Stripe Reader has an SRP of $358CA (about $225US)... and you can usually bet that's at a pretty high margin, I'd have to call my distributor to be sure.

If anyone has a Unitech Mag Stripe Reader, perhaps you could download SVBus's driver and see if it works... not sure about the legalities (there's no license agreement), but it's just an experiment!:-)

BTW: SVBus has no firm ETA on the OS X version of their driver. They "hope" 90 days. I'm not keeping my fingers crossed.

Also, the fair market price (based on my cost) for the Unitech USB 3-Track Mag Stripe Reader should be in around $229 CA ($149US). This obviously is without any software, but will work with a Mac (emulating a keyboard only). SVBus, as far as I can tell is the only company that has a product capable of intercepting the data as it comes in so that it can add a pre/postamble. It does this in OS 9 through an extension. Who knows how they will do it in OS X.