I got my reader for less than five bucks from All Electronics. All the parts combined are under $20.
Here’s a shot of the completed project:
One things to be aware of are that signals are all inverted (ie: card present goes LOW when you stick in a card… same for data and clock). Another trick is that all the data characters are made up of five (5) bits (as opposed to the 8 we’re used to). Use the data sheet to decode the 5-bit bytes to meaningful numbers.I use a LogicPort Logic Analyzer in most of my projects and I just love it. It gives you wonderful insight into how digital circuits behave and is worth every penny! Click for a picture of how the board looks connected to the LogicPort.
I use the CCS C compiler, so I can write all my code in C. I’m going to clean up the code before I post it, but if anyone’s anxious to see it please let me know. Since I didn’t draw a circuit diagram for this project I don’t think the compiled HEX file would be very useful.