Card reader enclosure idea...

[gottac]

What about these:

http://www.radioshack.com/search/ind...enclosure&sr=1

Project enclosure is what they are calling them, and they come in a variety of sizes too.

Mines's done with an old floppy, but this idea might have been easier and cleaner looking.

John

[daverob]

Eddie sent me a link to these enclosures the other day, which look like they'd be perfect for the job. I'm trying to get hold of a sample to see if they'd be any good, but from what I can see from the photos and drawings, it looks like the circuit board for the smartcard option would need to be redesigned to get it all in the box.

The current board design is definitely too wide, so would need to be cut down a bit, and it also looks like there will be problems with the ribbon cable being soldered to the board right where one of the enclosures fixing screws needs to go. Once I've got a sample enclosure in my hands, I might have a go at hacking one of the boards to fit, but I'm really not expecting it to turn out that well !

On the other hand, if it's going to need a new circuit board to be designed, then it might not end up being economically viable. The smartcard option is not a big seller and I'm not sure there would be enough sales of the new design to cover all of the costs involved (unless there are a lot of people that have been put off from buying one because they are not enclosed?).

[gottac]

I would have liked it to been enclosed when I bought mine... but it did not scare me off! It just meant that I had to get creative!

I had an old litronic 210 smartcard reader/programmer and thought I could put your board in, but the board ended up being like 1/4" too wide.

[hanabi]

For me, there is No problem at all with them not being enclosed,

allows for creativity and flexibility when deciding where to put them...

I am very happy with the way my own was installed