Would you buy an 'enhanced' card reader connector dongle?

[daverob]

Now that people have seen, used or heard more about this item. I think we should re-run this poll and see what results we get now.

It would be interesting to see if there's a big difference in the results, but to be honest the reason I set up this poll was to see if it would be worth taking what was an interesting experiment and spending the time and effort to turn it into a sellable product. I really couldn't afford to risk the thousands of dollars that I needed to invest in making these things, without at least knowing if someone was interested in buying them.

I don't really need to ask if there is a market for card reader emulator dongles any more, as I think that selling out of the first batch in a week speaks for itself roud:.

I've pretty much decided to keep building the dongles for as long as they keep selling, so the results of any new poll are purely of acedemic interest to me.

I'd be more interested in knowing how many people want to add the smartcard option, as I hadn't even thought of it when this poll was posted. But again it's not going to make a lot of difference, as I've already ordered the parts to make 100 of them .

[mr. fixx]

I finally managed to get my dongle on my Julie and it works great. I would DEFINATILY buy more of these for the rest of my machines as soon as i can scape the money up.. I also would be interested in the Smartcard option as well.. Fixx

[drcrippen324]

cool build the smart card build teh smart card

[johntofva]

What will the smart card enable us to do?

[dattia]

Be smart? I want one

[johntofva]

Be smart? I want one

If that is true......I will take two.

[Tulsa]

So it's a brunette card reader?

[dattia]

GOD, I hope so

[hanabi]

I want One


I want more than one!!


I want to be Smart too!!

[drcrippen324]

smart card reader iv been reliabley informed will hold credits that are added via a key switch on the machine (i will onl fit a key switch to 1 machine ) after adding the credits you can take the card out and like in a real parlour put you card in to any machine with a reader attached and the credit display will show how many credits you have then when you press the button to dispence balls it will knock a credit off the card untill the card is empty at wich point it will need recharging again from a machine with a key switch fitted
working alot like "Dave & Busters" and a real parlour

also dave rob has said that he will print custome art work on to teh smart cards so you can even have your own art work for your parlour / games room
in compirates case i hope he puts a pic of Gisbians staf member of the month on his cards

[daverob]

What will the smart card enable us to do?

Pretty much as the doc said. When set to the smartcard mode, the dongle will look for a smartcard to be present in the optional socket. If that smartcard contains credit, it will show the remaining credit on the display and decrease the credit on the card each time balls are dispensed. If there's no card present, or no credit on the card in the socket then you won't be able to dispense any balls.

Cards can be 'recharged' in the machine in the same way as in the emulation modes. If the card return button is enabled, pressing it for 5 seconds will recharge the card with the credit value set in the setup mode. The card return button would usually be disabled when using the smartcards, in this case you would need to add an external hidden or key-operated switch to recharge the cards.

A spare dongle (with the smartcard option, of course!) can also be used as a standalone recharge station, all you need to do is supply a D-25 connector for the dongle to plug into and connect a 24Vac supply to it. If the setup jumper is placed on the external switch input pins, all you need to do to recharge a smartcard is plug it into the slot, wait 5 seconds, then remove it.

The smartcard option will cost £10 and is a bare PCB module, you'll need to mount it and supply your own case (if you want it enclosed). It will include a smartcard to get you started and additional cards will cost £2.50 each. All cards can be printed (on the side without the chip) with a full colour photo quality image (from your own artwork) included in the price. If you want to start designing the artwork right now, then the image size needs to be 960x600 pixels.

The smartcard option will be available to order as soon as I get the PCBs delivered (which I expect to be about 2 weeks away from now).

While purchase of the smartcard option may indicate the buyers smartness, I cannot make any promises for additional smartness resulting from the purchase of said item

[fronzdan]

I be interested in that!!

Hopefully my first dongle will be here any day now!