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Christian Graus wrote: our usage has doubled in the last 18 months
Your kids have become teenagers, I see. 
Chris Meech
I am Canadian. [heard in a local bar]
In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is. [Yogi Berra]
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That happened to us, too - then I checked the aircon - even in standby mode it was costing something like $150 per quarter.
We had an isolation switch fitted inside the house!
___________________________________________
.\\axxx
(That's an 'M')
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I heard someone cover that recently, but they didn't do the end bit.
Christian Graus Driven to the arms of OSX by Vista. Read my blog to find out how I've worked around bugs in Microsoft tools and frameworks.
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[flashback]
Moons ago, I used to spend every spare moment drink in a pub in Budapest[^]. There was a band that used to play [just looked and they still do] called "The Beethoven Brothers" - Hungary's answer to The Beatles.
They were damned good - I even performed with them a few times [1] - and when they got to the na na na na na na na na na na bit, the whole place Rocked. Yes, it Rocked with a capital Rrrr!
[/flashback]
[1] The word 'performed' is used in this context for members of the audience they knew being invited to join in on stage with a sing-a-long type anthem song. My speciality was "Yellow Submarine" due to the alternative lyrics which, for the covenience of staying happily married, I have forgotten. I also murdered performed Hey Jude a few times; oh for the innocence of youth.
Panic, Chaos, Destruction.
My work here is done.
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Hi,
Does anyone know where to get Magnetic Stripe Cards, Card Embossing, Card Readers, Pin Terminals etc. for legitimate reasons. When googeling, I am burried with links to Hacker sites, trying to sell all sorts of items to forge Credit Cards. I am developing a Software Package for Laundrettes and Drycleaners based in the UK and Ireland, a Swipecard would be the logical successor to a Laundry Ticket.
Bram van Kampen
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Just an idea, but wouldn't it be better to use an RFID based card instead of a magnetic card? They seem much easier to use, and are more durable (not erased by magnets), but I have no idea about the cost difference.
(edit) http://www.rfid.org/[^] has links to RFID equipment suppliers.
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Thanks, but:
Indivara wrote: but I have no idea about the cost difference
That aspect is sort of important. We are not trying to secure the Bank of England, or, somebody's bank account. We have many years of experience to know that most people want their own clothes back, not someone elses. We would consider the security risk very low. At the same time, we feel that something has to be in place. The system you suggest sounds expensive in terms of hardware required to implement.
Bram van Kampen
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Bram van Kampen wrote: The system you suggest sounds expensive in terms of hardware required to implement.
It is expensive, beleive me. The RFID tags are not expensive. Expensive are the readers an writers. And they are very expensive.
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I see... that is unfortunate.
The reason I suggested it is, the things are quite common here in Tokyo. Train / bus season ticket + debit card (cash deducted per use), e-cash, cell phones, door locks (for companies, not household ones)... there must be billions of them around. I assumed they would be a little more expensive, but not prohibitively so (didn't think of the reader's cost).
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Depending of the magnitude of the project, it might be worth the costs, but to small budget projects, this might be a constraint.
Of course, it all depends of the use. Some readers (like anttenas) are very expensive, others (like handhelds) are still expensive, but not that much. And there are the lower cost readers (small close range with no interface devices). But all of them are more expensive than magnetic readers.
Again, all depends on the needs. RFID could be a solution, but it rarely is for small budget projects. It is usually not worth the extra costs. But a study needs to be made prior to taking such a decision.
Also, I've not seen any RFID writers at a reasonable cost.
Regards,
Fábio
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Hey RFID is perfect for this application. You don't really need Mag stripes as you don't need to write anything to the card - all you need is a unique ID to attach to the garments. The RFIDs are very reliable in the wash and they come in key-fob format which might just be perfect.
As for cost - they may be a little more but think of the application. Having to swipe each card will be a pain for your users as opposed to just waving the tag over the reader (or the reader over the tag). And you don't really need a writer, just a reader to read that unique ID to attach to your customer in the database. This means you can get the older, cheaper 125Khz tags and a simple reader.
The key question here may just be how many tags you need?
I suggest you go here http://www.stronglink.cn/english/sl102.htm[^] and get a reader for $21USD and a bunch of tags for 40 cents each (much cheaper if you buy bulk, as little as 28 cents). Shipping and customs duty on top of that.
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Fabio Franco wrote: Also, I've not seen any RFID writers at a reasonable cost.
Ran across this recently.. $50 for 10 tags plus a USB RFID reader. Additional tags look to be about $1 each.
http://store.touchatag.com/acatalog/touchatag.html
Even Amazon sells these starter kits. Looks like a fun thing to play with, wish I had the time.
patbob
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Well, I guess that depends on where you are. Here in brazil they are pretty expensive. Magnetic cards here are always cheaper. And yes, if there is no need to write to a tag, I guess that would be a good choice.
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I don't think they're that expensive as most of people thinks... You may want to visit sparkfun.com and check under the sensors -> ID section (on the left pannel)... You can get an RF-ID Reader Module (like ID-2, ID-12 or ID-20) between 25-35$ and the fancy USB interface for PC for only 25$... The magnet card reader costs 60$ and the reader/writer costs 140$... You don't need a writer for RF-ID tags, they're pre-programmed with an unique ID...
These modules (ID-x, the differences are internal/external antenna and range) are very very very extremadely easy to use with microcontrollers!... They only need power supply (Vcc and Ground connections, 5V I believe, I don't remember) and they just "spit" a TTL UART-like (RS232 compatible with an MAX232 chip) stream with the code of the card you just approached to it (they also have some Wiegand and whatever compatibility mode) and the microcontroller might read it using HW or SW UART... It takes about 5 lines of code in a microcontroller (exagerating a little, of course) to do this task... If you are not messing with microcontrollers, you can get the USB interface in which you might plug in one of these modules (I can't give you further details on this because I haven't used it, only the modules)... Anyway, I don't think you'll use a PC to control all the distributed readers in the laundry, will you??? 
All the detailed info (datasheets, etc) is on the web site mentioned before... Hope this helps!!!
Cheers!!!
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I agree with Stephen J Chin and dmpthekiller. We bought some readers and rfid cards for a project we did a while back and it's really not expensive. You don't need a writer, the cards come with a unique id which you associate with the user in your database. We got our cards here: http://www.futurlec.com/LF_Cards.shtml
Our application was a timeclock application so we got the timeclock elsewhere, they were also fairly cheap, around $100 (had buttons for clocking in and out and to enter passwords and a fingerprint reader as well as rfid).
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That's a brilliant idea. My guess will be that cost difference will not be much. When I was looking for RFIDs some time back they were quite cheap. But I never looked at magnetic readers.
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Consider Durability. Most hotel key cards get corrupted if you place them in the same pocket as your cell phone!
Toto1107
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Bram van Kampen wrote: When googeling, I am burried with links to Hacker sites, trying to sell all sorts of items to forge Credit Cards
Wow - that's encouraging news.
Christian Graus Driven to the arms of OSX by Vista. Read my blog to find out how I've worked around bugs in Microsoft tools and frameworks.
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I recently lost my credit card. I suspect it's in my apartment somewhere though (as I never actually put it in my wallet). Checking bank account...
Visual Studio is an excellent GUIIDE.
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