Read Data from Card Reader

HenryHan

Hi,

How can I read the data from a card reader via VB.Net !

Regards,

Henry Han

Derek Smyth

Hi,

Is it a USB Card Reader does the device appear as a hard drive in MyComputer if it does then you can use standard IO methods and just treat the card as another hard drive. Hope thats helpful.

HenryHan

Hi Derek,

Yes is a USB type Card Reader (Gemplus GemPC430) BUT the device didnot appear as a hard drive in MyComputer! So any solution for that !

What is the command (VB.Net Coding) to instruct the Card Reader to read the data ! Or it will read the card contents automatically !

Thanks in advance!

Henry Han

Derek Smyth

Hi HenryHan,

Sometimes if you have a drive mapped, say as the E:\ drive, and you attach a card reader or a USB flash stick it also maps to drive letter. So you end up with it looking like the reader hasn't attached. If you attach the card, give it time to connect and then go Control Panel->Admin Tools->Computer Management->Disk Management, you might see the card reader listed in there. You need to change the drive letter, right click on the drive listed on the bottom panel and select the change name menu option.

These card reader generally are available as drives so reading and writing to them is like accessing files on a drive. There isn't any support for USB access in .NET, so you might need to look for third party controls, and if that is the case then I have no idea mate. Everything on USB that I've done has been just accessing the reader / flash stick as a drive.

HenryHan

Hi Derek,

When I viewed the Card Reader as follow your steps (Control Panel->Admin Tools->Computer Management->Disk Management) I can't see the Card Reader being listed overthere! BUT when I viewed the Device Manager I managed to view the card reader installed as a hardware on the PC. Did I miss out something !

Regards,

Henry Han

Derek Smyth

Hey man,

You might need to install the drivers for it. It has been a long time, Win98, since I've needed to do that with any USB device but thats something you might need to do. This is slightly moving into the hardware and OS side of things which I'm not so clued up with. Have you looked at the Gemplus web site or tried another forum. I'm not saying you posted in the wrong place but there could be some techie web sites out there, or even contact Gemplus.

Have a read at this.... it says the drivers for your card reader aren't included in Win Server 2003, question is do they come with XP, I'm assuming you have XP. Thats what I'd try next, I'd install the drivers. Your card reader should appear as a drive, or even more than one, depending on your card.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/811943

HenryHan

Yo-man,

Thanks for the info...

Yes my PC's OS is Windows XP and I did install/update the latest driver from Gemplus (version 2.1.0) BUT still cannot get the drive as like you mentioned. I did email to Gemplus and yet to receive their reply...

Anyway thanks for your advice and nice to know you...

Derek Smyth

Hey man,

No worries, sorry I couldn't help get it sorted. Good luck mate. See you around.