Magstripe causes program to hang/pause about magstripelib HOT 1 CLOSED

All the available() method does is return true when the CLS pin is low. Now, when you call the read() method it will block until CLS goes high. The actual data is read asynchronously by the interrupt handlers attached to the data and clock pins.

To remove this blocking behavior you will have to change the library itself and break read() into two separate calls: one to reset the buffer when CLS goes low and another to decode the data when CLS goes high. In between the two you can run your own code.

Another (perhaps better) way is to have read() return nothing if the buffer is empty or a card is still being read.

from magstripelib.