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I just bought a new Magnetic Stripe Reader (MSR-609) that I need to write a c# program to read the data off the gift cards swiped from it. The software that comes with the device is buggy and doesn't quite fit what I want. I've been searching for a whole week for a simple example (but complete) on how to do that but the more I read, the more I got confused. I am not sure if I want to look for help on a USB device? an HID device? or a USB-HID device? I find it very disturbing that .NET 4.5 doesn't have anything standard for this.
All I know is the device I have is a new generation MSR and doesn't require any specific USB driver or reading from a Com port. I'll be honest that I'm not very familiar with this topic at all. I downloaded quite a few of c# pre-built projects and tried to run them but all of them are difficult to understand and try to cover or 'report' on too many devices. All I need is something as simple as to open the MSR device like a file, read and write to it. That's all. I know how to dissect the data once I get it but the problem is how to get it in.
I know there are a lot of experts out there and this might be a very simple thing for them to do but it is a very difficult topic for me. Please help!!!! and thanks.
Assuming its a USB HID device try looking at the Simple HID Library project on CodePlex. It will give you a start.
But be warned what you want to undertake is not as simple as opening a file and read/writing. You will have to create an interface to the device using P/Invoke and possibly unmanaged code.
Another useful resource is HID Page.