Stripe Snoop – Making a Reader (On the Cheap)

Note: This is my first experience with setting up a card reader. Your experience may
vary. All suggestions are welcome. Remember operating a soldering iron can be
dangerous; make sure you are comfortable using these tools before you begin this project.

Approximate time: 15 minutes
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Bit Reader USB

The first batch of Bit Reader USBs is ready to ship. A picture of a
Bit Reader USB is attached. There is a Canadian quarter shown for
size reference. The base is 60mm x 90mm and the reader is 33mm tall
at its highest point.

Bit Reader USB can read all 3 tracks of magnetic stripe cards (as
defined in ISO 7811). Unlike most magnetic stripe readers, it reads
data in raw form so that it can show data from a wider variety of
magnetic stripes, including many students cards, transit cards (such
as the NYC MetroCard and MBTA CharlieTicket), and hotel cards.

Each Bit Reader USB will ship with a USB cable so you can start using
it right away. When purchasing a Bit Reader USB, you can choose from
one of the following pricing options (prices do not include shipping
and are subject to change):

$135 Canadian dollars
$120 US dollars

If you are interested in purchasing a Bit Reader USB, please e-mail OSGUY
with your shipping address and he will send back a full price including
shipping costs along with payment information (PayPal is probably
easiest). Volume discounts are available.

OSGUY will be setting up a web site with online ordering within a few
weeks. Until then, e-mailing me at denver at ossguy.com is the best way
to get a Bit Reader USB.

Bit Inspector

Bit Inspector By OsGuy is a graphical Qt front-end for libbitconvert. Bit Inspector
converts 1s and 0s from magnetic stripes into more meaningful information, such
as names and card numbers.

To build and run Bit Inspector on Ubuntu 9.04, execute the following commands:

$ sudo apt-get install build-essential libpcre3-dev libqt4-dev git-core
$ git clone git://github.com/ossguy/libbitconvert.git
$ git clone git://github.com/ossguy/bitinspector.git
$ cd libbitconvert
$ make
$ cd ../bitinspector
$ ./autogen.sh
$ make
$ ln -s ../libbitconvert/formats.txt formats.txt
$ ./bitinspector

Build instructions for other Unix-like operating systems should be similar. If
you encounter any problems building libbitconvert or Bit Inspector, please let
Denver Gingerich know at denver@ossguy.com.

To use Bit Inspector, paste a series of ASCII 1s and 0s that you would like to
convert into the text box then click “Inspect”. Example data can be found in
the libbitconvert/test_data folder. To use a file in that folder, copy its
contents into the text box and click “Inspect”. This will show you what is
encoded in the 1s and 0s.

Windows and Mac OS X build instructions will be added soon

Stripe Snoop FAQ

General
What is Stripe Snoop?
What is this database you are talking about? Is it mySQL?
Wait, didn’t I read an article in [2600 | O'Reilly's Make Magazine] about this?
What magstripe readers are supported?
What operating systems does Stripe Snoop support?
What are the system requirements when using a hardware reader?
What about a magstripe writer?
Why did you release Stripe Snoop under the GPL?
I work for a company. Would you be willing to license part of Stripe Snoop under a non-OSS license?

Contributing
How can I contribute to Stripe Snoop?
Do you accept donations? What do you do with any donations?
The donation recipient is listed as “OSDN / VA Software.” Is that you?
I don’t have a Paypal account. Can I still donate?
How do I report an unknown card?
How do I report an unsupported reader?

Magstripe Theory
Where can I learn about how magstripes work?
What is the difference between “Hi-co” and “Lo-co” readers and cards?

Hardware
Where can I order a TTL Magstripe reader?
Whats the difference between an Omron V3A amd V3B?
Why do some Omron reader names end with ‘K’?
Can I use a USB-to-game port adapter with Stripe Snoop?
Where can I buy a Serial reader?
Can I connect a TTL reader to the Serial port?
Can I use a USB-to-Serial convert with Stripe Snoop
Will you support reader XXXX?
Where do I get the parts for the various circuits on this web page?
What is a buffer chip and why do I need it?
What type of buffer chip do I use for the parallel port adapter?
What kind of DB-15 connector do I need?
What are the capacitor values needed for the 5V power supply?
What is “Card Present,” and should I use it?

Trouble Shooting – Hardware
How do I solder to the small pins on the Omron V3A/V3B readers?
My TTL reader doesn’t work! Whats wrong?
But my wiring is correct! Whats wrong?
Stripe Snoop returns all 1’s or all 0’s when I swipe in raw mode
Why doesn’t Stripe Snoop respond when I swipe a card?

Troubleshooting – Windows
Why does Stripe Snoop’s window close after I swipe a card?
Will Stripe Snoop work on Windows 3.x?
What is this error about not finding Inpout32.dll?
Why is Stripe Snoop trying to run a Privileged Instruction?

Troubleshooting – Linux
You want me to run this as root? Are you nuts?
Why isn’t the game port working?

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General
Q:What is Stripe Snoop?
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Why use Stripe Snoop?

Open your wallet. How many cards in there have magstripes on them? Three? Four? Five? Ever wonder what was encoded on them?

I know I did. I had six cards in my wallet with magstripes. One day a friend of mine had a $200 Magstripe reader, so I ran my cards through. Aside from the expected credit card numbers, I was surprised by the amount of personal information encoded on them. In fact, for reasons I still don’t know, 2 cards contained my social security number.

Magstripes are everywhere in the United States. Aside from a few academic papers and hacking articles, very little information is published about them. So I went about trying to locating a reader system to do research with. I learned that while there magstripe readers and software available to the public, they suffer some pretty serious problems.
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