Daverob is my God!

[compirate]

Not only does he invent from scratch the Super Dongle, but he resurrects dead printers from overseas!

I got a Fargo C10 Card printer from daBay,


no power supply. Needs 16.5 VAC. I figure I can dial down my Variac to that range. Thought I had it right, the printer decided I didn't, did a Sparky and let the magic smoke out of it and it was dead . Opened it up and a couple of rectifiers had cracked/smoked. Wrote off to DaveRob, 'Help' I says. He walked me through what I should check for and replace. Replaced 4 of the rectifier diodes, still no go. So I sent him pictures of the power supply board and he noticed a small fuse, looked like a little yellow capacitor to me. Not the easiest thing to find, so I got a small in-line fuse holder and some fuses, soldered it in place of the bad component, hooked the variac up to one of those 24vac transformers, adjusted the variac till the 24v trans was putting out 16.5, checked it 3 times, then plugged it in.


IT IS ALIVE!


Now to solve the card feeding problem, hopefully just needs a cleaning. Will still print cards if you get them started by hand:


The white square in the first one is because I had the printer driver set to 'smart card', so it was leaving blank the area where the contacts are. The second card, the missing yellow on the left is because the ribbon tore. The last is an internal test card, only some of the black is screwed up. Maybe the ribbon is too old, who knows.

But there isn't enough praise for our resident electrical genius:

DaveRob

My ladies dance for you:

[birdbrain]

sweet! check your local thrift store for a junk printer, my hp has a plug in 16.5v power supply.

[daverob]

Glad to be of assistance

The missing black on the test print looks very similar what you'd get if the ribbon is wrinkled or creased, or if there's any dirt or grease on the unprinted card.

[compirate]

A little cleaning and all works perfectly. Cards feed and print properly, just need to adjust the images:

[Sid]

Cool!

[compirate]

A little bit more play time with the printer:


Now to get some blank smart cards!

[Sid]

Will you be taking orders for the smart cards (BIG CHEEZY SMILE)

[jetedrow]

Cool printer.... i'm jealous!

[compirate]

Will you be taking orders for the smart cards (BIG CHEEZY SMILE)

Daverob's got a printer too. Probably cheaper shipping to you.

As soon as I have some cards I know will work with Daverob's card system, yeah, I'll take orders. The printer prints in a 300DPI resolution. Graphics can be any size, but anything less than 649 x 1014 pixels will look pixelated when it get stretched out to fit the card. White backgrounds also work better. The picture should be in a 1:1.6 ratio, they stretch better that way.

I'm gonna run out of cards/ribbon soon!:

[Sid]

Thanks!

the Possibilities are endless

[arbycoffee]

Well What else you got to say ?

:lol8:

[Sid]

well a pictures worth a thousand words...

and thats saying a lot

[daverob]

Just in case you're interested (and I'm sure you are ), the PCBs for the smartcard socket module are currently in the hands of FedEx, and should be with me on Friday. So allowing for a few days of assembly and testing they'll be available for sale about this time next week.

As compirate says, I've bought a card printer and a stock of blank smartcards all ready to print. So I can also provide these cards printed with your own full colour artwork for use with the smartcard option boards.

[arbycoffee]

Please do a picture story on these smart cards. So I can understand better ? and reader too

[daverob]

Please do a picture story on these smart cards. So I can understand better ? and reader too

Once I've assembled one of the new PCBs for the smartcard option, then I'll update the 'Enhanced Card Reader Emulator Dongle - Progress Report' thread with pictures and some more details.

[arbycoffee]

I always need all the help I can get

[slotter]

Wow! I just want the pictures to hang up in the gameroom, the h*ll with cards.