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Now you can ring up your CharlieCard expenses

Beware his power, Green Line rider's might!

Beware his power, Green Line rider's might!

MBTAgifts has started selling Sesame Rings, which let you store your CharlieCard data on a ring, instead of on some boring old plastic card.

Last year, a group of MIT students launched a Kickstarter campaign to help them commercialize the rings.

THERE IS NO VALUE ON THE RING AS SOLD. Value must be added at a CharlieCard machine at an MBTA station.

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Comments

Well I know where I'm headed after work. Just hope it doesn't look that gaudy in person.

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if they dont have rings to accommodate sausage fingers?

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Does it expire after 10 years the way the card does?

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I'm wondering if these rings will expire in the same way that Charlie Cards will expire after a number of years. My current Charlie Card, for example, expires in 2023. I know that's a long ways off, but I'd hope that a ring could be expected to have a longer lifespan (like, forever).

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It probably has an expiration date.

Edit: I wonder what happened to the charlie cards that "prematurely expired", did they replace or "reset" them?

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My mother gave me one that expired a few months back. I brought it to DTX and they exchanged it and reloaded the balance.

One thing about these rings though, do they have the same long ID number that the cards do somewhere? I hope so so you can register it online and reload passes/cancel in case of theft.

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It does expire. I checked with MBTAgifts

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for punks to steal!

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pretty paranoid. they're gonna pull it off your finger? sometimes I wonder if i'm the only one under 60 on this site.

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There's always this concern about new things. I remember when Apple introduced TouchID, people were REALLY concerned that thieves would cut off victims' fingers in order to unlock phones.

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I was on the original kickstarter, got one of the first sets of handmade rings and love mine; I posted a 'bonking your way into the MBTA' video online at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eL8-YNUug_8

Here are the good and bad bits from my experience:

  • it works and is super convenient
  • It's easy to recharge at a kiosk but you have to visit a kiosk to learn your serial # if you want to manage it online
  • It's obvious jewelry and not super small. People tend to actually notice it and in business settings I've been asked 'what is that chunky ring'. Not as subtle as I'd like.
  • I guess wrong on sizing and can only wear it on one finger
  • I always have a charliecard in my wallet but I actually have to plan to take/wear the ring

Honestly the best thing about this was seeing how the MBTA supported these kids and gave them access to the RFID supplier. It's great to see them actually 'bless' this sort of thing rather than try to stamp it down hard.

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It's called free labor.

Now if only the MBTA (or Keolis) would get the MIT braintrust to develop an RFID system for the commuter rail.

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the geek shark.

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I want one. Not to wear but to keep it on my key chain instead of carrying around that silly card.

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Wait till the police pummel a fare evader who won't take their hands out of their pockets to show the magic ring.

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I'd wear the ring, NOT! NOTTY NOT NOT! N N N NOT!

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I have one that I got during the original kickstarter campaign. If you put it on you finger backwards, you can just wave your hand over the the sensor on the gate and it appears to open magically. guess that is why they call it a 'sesame ring'.

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