Well, after following this thread in the background for so long, I have got to give it to you winteriscoming as well as MetalliC (and the others), for creating something that works as intended. Huge props!
I think what made me finally take the plunge and sign up for an account, is the motivation to do something for Derby Owners Club. The older this game gets, the harder it is to get parts for these things. While certainly a niche game, there is a huge following still to this day, and with the card reader repair guy we all use in the community running out of salvageable parts, I think the time to get something as an alternative is now.
While I don't per say have as much experience as many here, I have been keeping what had been shared with me years ago alive for just a moment as this. Hopefully, I am able to share it through here. Again, this can hopefully speed up the process of understanding exactly the the data that is kept on the cards. Perhaps maybe someone on here can figure out a way to update this spreadsheet so that it can be used with a current version of Office. I have been worried that at some point my computer from 2005 would give me the finger, and everything would be lost to the DOC community forever.
I have attached (hopefully it worked) the zipped file which includes the .xls that allows us to create our own card data. There are multiple tabs, multiple buttons, that create the strings of data to be saved as a text file. What we then do is write those text files with a modified MSR206u adjusted to read/write the magnetic strip on the DOC (or other) cards. I included some pics of the modified reader (don't laugh, it is pretty crude). The Excel sheet writes the data, saves the file as a .raw and the .raw is written with the MSR206's software program directly onto the cards. This program also allows us to delete the data on the cards, allowing for their reuse which is great since they have been harder to come by over the years.
Maybe if we could figure out a solid way to write this data directly from a laptop, we could cut down the foot print of the Derby Machine even more. Not sure if I mentioned or not, but I have an operational two-seater machine, enough parts to created a second two-seater (Main board plus 4 naomi), as well as a full-scale 8 seater, the very large beast sitting around my home. I am pretty invested in ensuring that the DOC community continues and that we don't get frozen out because parts become impossible to acquire. Or at least the parts that create us the largest headaches.
I hope the info is helpful in the minds of those who like to problem solve issues in our hobby.
) since none of the sucky scripts would ever have come together without his help.
