best card reader?

I use a smargo m8 and dont have any issues with it, if you choose smargo make sure its a original and not a clone ;)
here is a guide to spot a fake smargo m8 http://linuxsat-support.com/sa…t-fake-smargo-reader.html

Mutz

Quote from binusona

which one is the best cardreader?

Hello binusona joint10
it will be a matter of opinion no doubt ? if everyone reports there Card reader stats and a difinitive conclusion can perhaps be made ?

What particular attribute makes a Card reader best ?

its ecm times ?

its ease of use ?

All these will no doubt be of personal opinion,with some readers being better for one set-up or system in particular
i know i had trouble using smargo reliably with cccam in debian5 yet it works great in oscam~120#6059 on debian6

personaly i use a smargo at the moment > it was simple to set up and works
Although i have just got an omnikey Because a user somewhere here on this forum reported that it reduced ecm times !

I think you might want to share what your intentions are to get the best answer !

:rikjaard1:

omnikey works best for me m8

Quote from kemestri

omnikey works best for me m8

can you define "Best" for us Kemestri ?
Reduced ecm time ? usb connecton ? sorry to be predantic i just thing its interesting ?

Personaly i would suggest lowest ecm time within a particular set-up would play a big role in my definition of "Best" card reader !

Quote from rikjaard-real

i have just got an omnikey Because a user somewhere here on this forum reported that it reduced ecm times !

Let me know how you get on with that! I see they do internal readers and I'd prefer one of these....

I am now using an Argolis Triple Reader - basically it is like having 3 smargo smartreader+ in one unit - and only cost me 60 quid - painless getting to work, very pleased with it!

Have too agree with kemstri omnikey takes everything you throw at it,but smargo is a good reader too

TBS3102 or any 5 crystal FTDI based clone with switches or jumpers. Have 11 of those working over year with all kind of cards, never seen problems.
I prefer to set voltage/MHZ on hand and not to depend on utils (which often are closed source and/or windows only) for setting/updating

i use omnikey reader on my debian server (thanks to Ten Below), my local is s** It with ecm time of 100ms , easy to use.

cheers

@ rikjaard-real

i first used a smargo with ubunutu cccam/oscam.
every morning i had this error message:
(38145.242103)ftdi-sio ttyusb: unable to read latency timer: 32

there are several threads on the forum about this message and i followed the info but could never get rid permanatly (if i rebooted it was ok, until the following morning, i assume the error occured when oscam restarted in the night)
my original smargo was clone, i purchased a new genuine one the fault remained. (i must say that the server continuied to work ok despite this error message.

anyway i bought a omnikey reader for about €10 and worked perfecly.
the upside is it also reduced the ecm times.
with the smargo ecm times ranged between about 120m/s to 140m/s
with the omnikey around the 95m/s

Quote from atl

TBS3102 or any 5 crystal FTDI based clone with switches or jumpers. Have 11 of those working over year with all kind of cards, never seen problems.
I prefer to set voltage/MHZ on hand and not to depend on utils (which often are closed source and/or windows only) for setting/updating

I am intrigued - most hobbyists don't need equipment to run more than 2 or 3 cards - and don't usually get through 'all kinds of cards' - over a year. Would love to hear a bit more about this?

Maybe you mean over the years - but if they are so good then why have you got through 11??

Quote from musogeek

I am intrigued - most hobbyists don't need equipment to run more than 2 or 3 cards - and don't usually get through 'all kinds of cards' - over a year. Would love to hear a bit more about this?
Maybe you mean over the years - but if they are so good then why have you got through 11??

I'm CTO of CATV Headend also in my work.
Threw away all expensive proprietary buggy equipment and switched to Holy Trinity - dvblast+tsdecrypt+oscam. No reboot from July, all works rock solid.

anyone thats been around for a while will have one or two dm500 lying around, if you do then you can use it as a cardreader, really fast and lower ecm times than a smargo
load a basic image onto it, install oscam and you got a really fast reader :)

as said smargo on debian 5 is hit and miss, I might get an omnikey to test it soon

Have gone from serial card reader (Mastera, VXMulti), to Infinity USB, Smargo and Omnikey and omnikey by far the fastest.

Quote from alamski

Have gone from serial card reader (Mastera, VXMulti), to Infinity USB, Smargo and Omnikey and omnikey by far the fastest.

How omnikey deals with frequencies? Can it set manually (by software) to 12 or 20Mhz?

Quote from atl

How omnikey deals with frequencies? Can it set manually (by software) to 12 or 20Mhz?

This is something i would like to know also how they deal with card clock speeds etc but they seem to find the best speed for your card and i dont think it can be altered, i have never used smargos only omnikeys and to be fair the omnikey readers i have used have been brilliant and i was getting ecm times as low as 80ms when i used it with sly but what voltage and mhz do these readers actually run our cards at? same can be said for the smargo aswell really regarding voltage which is why i have renewed my readers with ftdi pheonix readers which have switches built in allowing me to set the voltage and mhz speed to whatever i want for any specific card/caid.

Basically certain nds cards i want to know what its doing for obvious reasons which is why i dont use omnikeys now but defo great readers.

I have a downside that my times have risen slightly to around 110ms but as its a private share and my friends and family still see no freezing and they obviuosly would,nt with those times i have no problem.

My upside is that i know exactly what voltage and frequency my card runs at,as an example i have 1 card set at 3.3V 3.579mhz and i,m happy with that.

The frequencies can be set via your emu software and it supports i beleive upto 8mhz at various levels of voltage. Google it, im sure its around. ECM times, 110-140ms was about i was getting on average, with the omnikey im getting 70-90 ms now. romman you can increase your card speed a lot more than just 3.579mhz. I run my card at 6 mhz.

A