We're a RAMP customer and do our computing on the cloud, with no internal IT dept. We would like to purchase a swipe for a laptop that we take to venues. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what to purchase and from where? Can I just buy one and plug it into the laptop and go or do I need special configuration? The salesman at Magtek wasn't very helpful.
These work OK for us with no additional configuration:
http://www.barcodesinc.com/magtek/part-21040145.htm
You do need to get a swipe that does "Keyboard Emulation" as the input method. An "HID" device will not work.
http://www.tessituranetwork.com/network/Products/Additional/Card%20Readers.aspx
A quick addendum to this -- I actually fixed the one issue that I was having with these swipes just now (I had said they work "OK" for us; now they work perfectly) -- this being that when a swipe was not completed cleanly, the device would output some error data into Tessitura that needed to be manually cleared out. Turns out it's a reasonably simple process to reconfigure this behavior to not send any data when there is an error, which is as follows:
1. Download this program from MagTek -- all it does is send and receive data to a connected swipe: http://www.magtek.com/support/software/demo_programs/usb_swipe_insert.asp
2. Send code 00 04 to GET the value of the TRACK DATA SEND FLAGS property. In default configuration, it should be 63.
3. Send code 01 04 60 to SET the value of that property to 60, which changes the 'Er' flag from "Send 'E' for each track error" to "Don't send any card data if error".
4. Send code 02 to restart the device, then try some test swipes to observe the new behavior (don't forget to move your cursor out of the "send code" field first. Run step 2 again to confirm the new property value of 60.
If the initial value was not 63, then you should not set the new value to 60 because this may mean overwriting some other settings on the swipe. Instead, consult the documentation here: http://www.magtek.com/documentation/public/99875206-18.01.pdf
The above instructions should work for MagTek keyboard emulation swipes with part numbers: 210401[07-10,23,45,47,56]. Of course, this has only been tested by me with part number 21040145, so YMMV/insert disclaimer here.