Questions regarding the chip/magstripe reader (Not the contactless reader)

[Homespun91]

Hello & thanks in advance for any help.

Back story: my wife and I both do craft shows, often in different locations.  I have the contactless setup which "generally" works well, but needs to be reset or even re-paired at least once per weekend.  My wife freely admits that she is a technophobe, and has no desire to deal with this sort of thing.  For that reason, she still uses the easy & reliable basic magstripe reader...which obviously doesn't do chips, and doesn't offer the same kind of seller protection.

Because of this, we opted to get her the simpler chip/magstripe reader, the kind that still plugs into her Samsung Tab S2 tablet's headset jack.  We received the reader on Dec. 19, 2018, so less than a year ago.

I notice this reader is no longer offered.

It worked well enough last winter, the few times it was used.  Upon beginning this year's show season in June, we discovered that it now "disconnects" if not used for over ten minutes or so, requiring it to be unplugged and replugged to reset it; this takes about a minute to finish.  

This is really inconvenient when you are by yourself, making a lot of sales, and have to delay customers to make the reader work again.

Further, it now has only about two hours of battery life before it is dead.  This does us no good during shows that can last ten hours or more.

We have tried at least four different USB cords, and several known reliable wall cubes; this makes no difference.  The reader shows that it is being charged, and eventually, fully charged, but still lasts only about two hours.  When brand new nine months ago, it easily lasted a day, usually two.

Any advice or recommendations would be appreciated.  Though it was only about $37, I still feel that the very limited use it got was not worth thirty-seven dollars.  Further, when it DID work, it served my wife's purposes very well, much better than the contactless reader.

Any way to reset this thing?  Any thoughts on the short battery life?  Are there a lot of issues with this reader?  There doesn't seem to be many threads or info about this reader at all.

Thanks!

[ashc]

Hi @Homespun91 and welcome to the Community!

No worries on the backstory. I'm a fast reader! 

The battery life on that particular chip reader was never the best but it should be lasting longer than two hours. Have you tried getting one of the portable charger boxes and charging one of those up to have it plugged in when it dies at shows? Those can be super helpful and usually connect to micro USB cords just like the charger for those readers.

That way if it dies, you have the portable charger you can have it plugged into to keep taking sales after that two hours or so. The charging boxes typically have an all day battery as well. 

[Homespun91]

Thanks for the suggestion, and it's a good one.  Actually, that is what we've been doing.  The problem there is that the USB port on the reader is directly next to the headset plug, making it impossible to charge the reader and still have it plugged into the tablet.  So, we are constantly plugging/unplugging the reader, which means it has to go through the re-connect every time.

The other problem with this approach is that the reader charges very slowly, no matter whether it's off AC or a battery, so we slowly fight a losing battle during the day- eventually we simply have to switch to the simple magstripe reader until the chip reader is charged again.

The ultimate solution would probably be to get the Square Terminal, which seems like it would suit my wife very well.  However, it's unfortunate that new Square customers can buy it for (effectively) $99.00, but long-time customers have to pay $399 for it.

Thanks again!

[ashc]

@Homespun91 Ah I see. 😞 

The Terminal is a great option and can run off a hotspot if you're at a show with no WiFi/internet connection too. 

I hear you on the price. I wish I could offer you the introductory one but at the time it's only for brand new accounts and is automatically applied when the account is new.

No problem though! Happy to assist any time.