Magnetic Stripe Reader with Blynk

I am trying to use a TTL magnetic stripe reader (used to get info from cards with a black stripe on the back) to temporarily turn on an LED when a card with 11 characters is swiped. It only works before I integrate the Blynk code; one can toggle between the Blynk and Blynk-less code by commenting/uncommenting chunks of code preceded by “BLYNK VERSION ONLY” or “NON-BLYNK VERSION ONLY”.

When connecting to Blynk, over USB for Arduino Mega, pressing the virtual button that should allow me to start card swiping never resets the virtual button to 0 or turns on the LED as I would expect with my 11-character card.

I have had bad luck making functions and using serial for my hardware with previous projects, and shamefully but successfully threw most of my code in a function I call rest_of_code while avoiding the use of serial besides Blynk’s needs. I abstained from those decisions with the below code, but diagnosing any flaw(s) might begin with scrutinizing my code under those topics. Thank you.


// BLYNK VERSION ONLY
//#define BLYNK_PRINT Serial1 //print
//#include <BlynkSimpleStream.h>
//char auth[] = "7pWdjr_v_M66N6aK8yrB9_v2B9CLsm1Q";

int ccri_swipe;
int led=13;
int cld1Pin = 9; // Card status pin
int rdtPin = 19; // Data pin
int reading = 0; // Reading status
volatile int buffer[400]; // Buffer for data
volatile int i = 0; // Buffer counter
volatile int bit = 0; // global bit
char cardData[40]; // holds card info
int charCount = 0; // counter for info
int DBUG = 0;

void setup() {
  
  //BLYNK VERSION ONLY
//  Serial1.begin(9600);
//  Serial.begin(9600);
//  Blynk.begin(Serial, auth);
  
 Serial2.begin(9600);
 // The interrupts are key to reliable
 // reading of the clock and data feed
 pinMode(led, OUTPUT);
 attachInterrupt(4, changeBit, CHANGE);
 attachInterrupt(5, writeBit, FALLING);
}

void loop()
{
  //Blynk.run(); //BLYNK VERSION ONLY
  rest_of_code();//NON-BLYNK VERSION ONLY
}

void rest_of_code(){
   // Active when card present
   while (ccri_swipe!=1){
     while(digitalRead(cld1Pin) == LOW){
        reading = 1;
     }
     // Active when read is complete
     // Reset the buffer
     if(reading == 1) {
       if (DBUG == 1) {
          printBuffer();
       }
       
       charCount=decode();
  
       if (charCount==11)
       {
        digitalWrite(led, HIGH);
        delayMicroseconds(16383);
        ccri_swipe=1;
       }
       
       reading = 0;
       i = 0;
       int l;
       
       for (l = 0; l < 40; l = l + 1) {
          cardData[l] = '\n';
       }
       
       charCount = 0;
     }
   }
   ccri_swipe=0;
   //Blynk.virtualWrite(V6, 0);  //BLYNK VERSION ONLY
   digitalWrite(led,LOW);
}

// Flips the global bit
void changeBit(){
 if (bit == 0) {
 bit = 1;
 } else {
 bit = 0;
 }
}
// Writes the bit to the buffer
void writeBit(){
 buffer[i] = bit;
 i++;
}
// prints the buffer
void printBuffer(){
   int j;
   for (j = 0; j < 200; j = j + 1) {
      Serial2.println(buffer[j]);
   }
}

int getStartSentinal(){
   int j;
   int queue[]={0,0,0,0,0};
   int sentinal = 0;
   
   for (j = 0; j < 400; j = j + 1) {
       queue[4] = queue[3];
       queue[3] = queue[2];
       queue[2] = queue[1];
       queue[1] = queue[0];
       queue[0] = buffer[j];
       
     if (DBUG == 1) {
       Serial2.print(queue[0]);
       Serial2.print(queue[1]);
       Serial2.print(queue[2]);
       Serial2.print(queue[3]);
       Serial2.println(queue[4]);
     }
     
     if (queue[0] == 0 & queue[1] == 1 & queue[2] == 0 & queue[3] == 1 & queue[4] == 1) {
         sentinal = j - 4;
         break;
     }
     
   }
   
   if (DBUG == 1) {
   Serial2.print("sentinal:");
   Serial2.println(sentinal);
   Serial2.println("");
   }
   return sentinal;
}

int decode() {
   int sentinal = getStartSentinal();
   int j;
   int i = 0;
   int k = 0;
   int thisByte[5];
   for (j = sentinal; j < 400 - sentinal; j = j + 1) {
     thisByte[i] = buffer[j];
     i++;
     if (i % 5 == 0) {
       i = 0;
       if (thisByte[0] == 0 & thisByte[1] == 0 & thisByte[2] == 0 & thisByte[3] == 0 & thisByte[4] == 0) {
          break;
       }
       printMyByte(thisByte);
     }
   }
   Serial2.print("Stripe_Data:");
   
   for (k = 0; k < charCount; k = k + 1) {
   Serial2.print(cardData[k]);
   }
   Serial2.println("");
   
   return charCount;
}

void printMyByte(int thisByte[]) {
   int i;
   for (i = 0; i < 5; i = i + 1) {
     if (DBUG == 1) {
        Serial2.print(thisByte[i]);
     }
  }
   if (DBUG == 1) {
     Serial2.print("\t");
     Serial2.print(decodeByte(thisByte));
     Serial2.println("");
   }
   
   cardData[charCount] = decodeByte(thisByte);
   charCount ++;
}

char decodeByte(int thisByte[]) {
     if (thisByte[0] == 0 & thisByte[1] == 0 & thisByte[2] == 0 & thisByte[3] == 0 & thisByte[4] == 1){return '0';}
     if (thisByte[0] == 1 & thisByte[1] == 0 & thisByte[2] == 0 & thisByte[3] == 0 & thisByte[4] == 0){return '1';}
     if (thisByte[0] == 0 & thisByte[1] == 1 & thisByte[2] == 0 & thisByte[3] == 0 & thisByte[4] == 0){return '2';}
     if (thisByte[0] == 1 & thisByte[1] == 1 & thisByte[2] == 0 & thisByte[3] == 0 & thisByte[4] == 1){return '3';}
     if (thisByte[0] == 0 & thisByte[1] == 0 & thisByte[2] == 1 & thisByte[3] == 0 & thisByte[4] == 0){return '4';}
     if (thisByte[0] == 1 & thisByte[1] == 0 & thisByte[2] == 1 & thisByte[3] == 0 & thisByte[4] == 1){return '5';}
     if (thisByte[0] == 0 & thisByte[1] == 1 & thisByte[2] == 1 & thisByte[3] == 0 & thisByte[4] == 1){return '6';}
     if (thisByte[0] == 1 & thisByte[1] == 1 & thisByte[2] == 1 & thisByte[3] == 0 & thisByte[4] == 0){return '7';}
     if (thisByte[0] == 0 & thisByte[1] == 0 & thisByte[2] == 0 & thisByte[3] == 1 & thisByte[4] == 0){return '8';}
     if (thisByte[0] == 1 & thisByte[1] == 0 & thisByte[2] == 0 & thisByte[3] == 1 & thisByte[4] == 1){return '9';}
     if (thisByte[0] == 0 & thisByte[1] == 1 & thisByte[2] == 0 & thisByte[3] == 1 & thisByte[4] == 1){return ':';}
     if (thisByte[0] == 1 & thisByte[1] == 1 & thisByte[2] == 0 & thisByte[3] == 1 & thisByte[4] == 0){return ';';}
     if (thisByte[0] == 0 & thisByte[1] == 0 & thisByte[2] == 1 & thisByte[3] == 1 & thisByte[4] == 1){return '<';}
     if (thisByte[0] == 1 & thisByte[1] == 0 & thisByte[2] == 1 & thisByte[3] == 1 & thisByte[4] == 0){return '=';}
     if (thisByte[0] == 0 & thisByte[1] == 1 & thisByte[2] == 1 & thisByte[3] == 1 & thisByte[4] == 0){return '>';}
     if (thisByte[0] == 1 & thisByte[1] == 1 & thisByte[2] == 1 & thisByte[3] == 1 & thisByte[4] == 1){return '?';}
}

//BLYNK VERSION ONLY
//BLYNK_WRITE(V6)
//{
//  int pinValue = param.asInt();
//  if(pinValue==1){
//    rest_of_code();
//  }
//}