Re: TimeTable

[Brenda Williams <bwilliams@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Thanks Dan! Thanks Adam!

The plan currently exist in my mind.  We don't have any hardware to do
this.  I'm looking for the best/easiest way to set this up... cost
effectivly is a must!  More comments below.  If either of you, or anyone
else has any ideas where I should start looking for the
hardware/software, please let me know!

Adam Tauno Williams wrote:
> 
> >How does the card reader interface with the computer? keyboard
> >pass-through?
> >serial? I've played with barcode readers before and getting input from them
> >was very easy, basically because they used a keyboard pass-through method.
> >As long as its easy to get the input from the card reader and the program
> >doesn't have to be too complex on the time tracking side(misc reporting and
> >>effiency functions, etc..), it would probably be a weekend project.
> 
> Since card readers vary some-what between other card readers it would be best to
> select to or three models that would be applicable to this project, and in the
> price range (these can be quite expensive) and see how they connect.  The
> keyboard ones are nice in that they don't require any driving/drivers, etc...
> But it would require someone to login and start the application, etc...   The
> cleanest solution might be to get a reader that connects to a serial port, and
> if their is a server somewhere have some type of "listener" scribble incoming
> strings to a file.

As far as having someone log in and start the application, could that be
done on a weekly basis?  Adam-  You've see the place I'm planning to use
this... as far as the serial port scanners go, is that even thesiable in
that environment???  It's SOOO Spread out, and I'm going to need more
than just one "station" for the cards.  The other place we really need
this is in the fiberglass shop which is in a seperate building.... Way
towards the back.  I doubt if that one can even be attached to the
server at all.  

Another problem is the central location for this stuff is the dirtiest
part of the process... the sandy room.  Can we say dust arama?  I'm a
bit concerned about the card readers holding up to the abuse there.... 
 
> >I'm sure there are solutions for this already, but I'm not familiar with
> >any of them, nor have any idea what it would cost.
> 
> They (the card readers) can be rather expensive.  If you'd got a good
> HAMmer/hardware-uber-geek  they might be able to interface some surplus stripe
> readers for you for alot less money.  I saw this done along time ago with card
> readers taken from old copy machines (the cards were used to bill customers for
> the copies) and a DOS machine.

Where do I find them?  ??  And the cards too.... ?

Thanks again!
~Brenda
 
> Systems and Network Administrator
> Morrison Industries
> 1825 Monroe Ave NW.
> Grand Rapids, MI. 49505

-- 
Brenda M. Williams
Controller
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