EEVblog Electronics Community Forum
EEVblog => EEVblog Specific => Topic started by: EEVblog on July 02, 2019, 12:28:42 am
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Dave finds a credit card embossing and programming machine in the dumpster!
Will it work?
And of course, teardown time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZQHSsFnACs (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZQHSsFnACs)
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Genuine Prolific PL2303 chips (first revision) are no longer supported by current drivers. This has been the case for at least 5 years. The older drivers will work, but lack support for the newer PL2303 variants. I used to like PL2303 as a lower cost alternative to FTDI, but after they abandoned support for legit genuine chips I will no longer use them. Worse ethics than FTDI!
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Dave,
It looks to me like a tray to hold the card is missing. It would be mounted through the two extended pins (through holes in the tray) and be threaded to the worm gear. This would allow the missing card bracket to extend to the card supply hopper and receive the card. The worm gear would reverse pulling it back, then the traveler would walk the card through the process as you describe.
If you can get some service information on the parts - some enterprising user with more mechanical skills that I should be able to create one as a test.
Real neat / fun project...
-Stan
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Interesting video Dave. Thanks.
At about 23:24 on the top roller for the silver/gold foil you can clearly see markings from a previous card on the foil.
I would think that if you unroll that top roller you might see several previous card and ID the company or even individuals.
That could be a privacy issue ....
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Here's a link that might help.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BWDbUZFyeE (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BWDbUZFyeE)
EDIT: Maybe I could get a Marty McFly/EEVBlog card sent to me for finding the instructional video?
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Choice comment from youtube:
Hi Dave, I work for a financial institution and have just retired 4 of them. They are awesome machines despite all the people who like their plastic built printers. They are made to last. Had one in service for over 20 years without issues or maintenance. Over 30,000 cards made.
Your jamming issue could be due to the adjustment for the card thickness in the input hopper. The thickness setting is very critical. Once the sled grabs the card, it will pass it through the first roller where the write head is located. Mad stripe is located closer to the unsupported end of the card. It will pass through several times, one to write and then read to verify it is correct. The roller on top is connected to a opto sensor that keeps track of the card position when writing.
After that, it will emboss the 16 digit number and name. The part that moved on the bottom should contain another roll of black transfer tape that puts the numbers on the back of the card. CVV. It spools on one wheel and snakes through the other end and back down to the other wheel. Hence the rollers in the odd position.There should be a diagram on how to load the tape on the bottom of the top cover. Then it retracts and heads all the way to the left and the element heats up and stamps the foil on the card. It then returns back to the output bin and dumps the card.
The people in the office hated this machine and said that it was old and outdated. The machines we replaced with today have so many more issues due to the crappy design and workmanship. Lots of great parts in them. Steppers, drivers, gears, chassis, optos, and more. Once you get the thickness set, I bet it would work again. Oh, these machines may have had the Chip option but very little bank software supported this because of compliance and that it only had a serial port. All of ours were networked with an external box that had ethernet and a serial port. Enjoy.
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Genuine Prolific PL2303 chips (first revision) are no longer supported by current drivers. [...] abandoned support for legit genuine chips
That's horrific. I guess they know that no-one is really going to punish them over it, and any large customers would get "specialised support" in the form of the old drivers anyway.
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It looks to me like a tray to hold the card is missing. It would be mounted through the two extended pins (through holes in the tray) and be threaded to the worm gear. This would allow the missing card bracket to extend to the card supply hopper and receive the card. The worm gear would reverse pulling it back, then the traveler would walk the card through the process as you describe.
That's what it looked like to me too.
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I found this video that shows the card transport. I'm not sure what this card tray is.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1Dp8tuRTx0 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1Dp8tuRTx0)
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Dave,
It looks to me like a tray to hold the card is missing.
Go check the dumpster!
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Dave, you should destroy the upper foil roll, containing many card numbers, and perhaps inform the bank of the compromise of the one seen in the video.
Else, nice machine. Refurbish it with some stepper drivers, or perhaps try to bypass the blocking sensors for a start.
The foil roll is a thermal transfer foil (I suppose)
Similar ones are used to hot transfer print various items and should be easy to obtain :
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32264902289.html?spm=2114.search0204.3.26.23eb2ba8w9GhTW&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0%2Csearchweb201602_6_10065_10068_319_317_10696_10084_453_10083_454_10618_10304_10307_10820_10821_537_10302_536_10843_10059_10884_10887_321_322_10103%2Csearchweb201603_53%2CppcSwitch_0&algo_expid=c89626d0-2082-42b8-b95f-62443dc0a875-3&algo_pvid=c89626d0-2082-42b8-b95f-62443dc0a875&transAbTest=ae803_3 (https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32264902289.html?spm=2114.search0204.3.26.23eb2ba8w9GhTW&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0%2Csearchweb201602_6_10065_10068_319_317_10696_10084_453_10083_454_10618_10304_10307_10820_10821_537_10302_536_10843_10059_10884_10887_321_322_10103%2Csearchweb201603_53%2CppcSwitch_0&algo_expid=c89626d0-2082-42b8-b95f-62443dc0a875-3&algo_pvid=c89626d0-2082-42b8-b95f-62443dc0a875&transAbTest=ae803_3)
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Genuine Prolific PL2303 chips (first revision) are no longer supported by current drivers. [...] abandoned support for legit genuine chips
That's horrific.
Yeah, Prolific is Horrific.
And also very evil: A few years ago, as far as I know they included voluntary crashes in their software (BSOD!!), which is corporate malware !
Linux drivers are very clean and always work, maintained by the community.
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Whatever moron threw this machine away have technically commited a data breach because they did not remove the used thermal foil that contained the images of the credit card numbers and cardholder names, unless it was a test unit with test data. In production used thermal foil is collected and securely disposed of. I recommend destroying the tape and blank off the fragments in the video with the tape if it was possible to read what was on the tape.
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That's a dangerous machine to find, it even looks like you still have all the information of any previous card printed from there if you unwind that silver topper material.
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Whatever moron threw this machine away have technically commited a data breach because they did not remove the used thermal foil that contained the images of the credit card numbers and cardholder names, unless it was a test unit with test data. In production used thermal foil is collected and securely disposed of. I recommend destroying the tape and blank off the fragments in the video with the tape if it was possible to read what was on the tape.
Otherwise, is it fair to guess that the electronics driving the device is likely fairly 'dumb' and doesn't keep a record of the previously printed cards, i.e. it has only a volatile buffer for the card under process?
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I found this video that shows the card transport. I'm not sure what this card tray is.
I don't know what a card tray could do other than get in the way. From what I can see - there IS no card "tray".
The card is simply held at the top edge by about 2mm. This should be quite adequate as the card does not weigh much and it will be necessary to avoid fouling the various stations. The mag stripe station has a wheel to ensure proper contact and the embossing and topping are "sandwich" processes where the card only needs to be in approximately the right position and the mechanisms will clamp from both sides.
If it were me, I'd be looking much closer at the slot at the front of the card sled. Is there a clamping system or is it just a friction fit? I certainly would not be looking for a "tray" that I can't see being able to work.
This still does not explain the misfeed, as it seems the sled doesn't get close enough to pick up the card. Whether the sled movement is inadequate or the card feed mechanism isn't pushing the card back far enough, I don't know. Maybe it is a function of the thickness adjustment mentioned above.
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Could it be that the tray-motor driver is a little bit sick & let its magical smoke out?
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I found this video that shows the card transport. I'm not sure what this card tray is.
I don't know what a card tray could do other than get in the way. From what I can see - there IS no card "tray".
The card is simply held at the top edge by about 2mm. This should be quite adequate as the card does not weigh much and it will be necessary to avoid fouling the various stations. The mag stripe station has a wheel to ensure proper contact and the embossing and topping are "sandwich" processes where the card only needs to be in approximately the right position and the mechanisms will clamp from both sides.
If it were me, I'd be looking much closer at the slot at the front of the card sled. Is there a clamping system or is it just a friction fit? I certainly would not be looking for a "tray" that I can't see being able to work.
This still does not explain the misfeed, as it seems the sled doesn't get close enough to pick up the card. Whether the sled movement is inadequate or the card feed mechanism isn't pushing the card back far enough, I don't know. Maybe it is a function of the thickness adjustment mentioned above.
Good analysis I think.
Although the card didn't seem to stick in the slot cutouts, but maybe because it's too thick which is why it got stuck to begin with. Need to play and measure.
On walkabout at the moment so can't look.
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Could it be that the tray-motor driver is a little bit sick & let its magical smoke out?
I think you can see it extend and retract in the reset function
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Standart font, hm?
My bet is that the software was outsourced to Russian coders, it's a common spelling error here.
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You can easily replace the old Prolific PL2303 chip with a FTDI FT232RL because they are pin-compatible. (they sanded the markings of the PL2303)
I have done this twice in the same B&K PRECISION ttl to usb convertor just so i don't have to mess with drivers in a lab environment.