USB Barcode Event

[dave_helmut]

Howdy,

I need to do "Simple COM port emulation" as well.

I put my scanner in that mode, but did not see any COM ports in my device manager.

I need to use multiple scanners per PC so keyboard emulation doesn't work for that.

Are you able to see the virtual COM port? How do you know which COM port your scanner receives?  Are you able to change the port settings?

Thanks!

Dave

[Pablop]

Hello Dave,

I was using a Symbol Technologies (Motorola) scanner, with a USB cable, hence the "virtual" com port. If you have a scanner that has a serial port connector on it, you want to connect it to an existing hard wired serial port on your computer, it will not be a virtual port.

If yuo are using a USB connection and want serial port opeeration, you will need to get driver software from the scanner supplier. And most likely set the scanner to emulate a serial port device by scanning in the correct setup code.

What scanner are you using?

[NickNZ]

I have successfully used a Symbol (Now Motorola) LS2208 USB barcode scanner with events.

I have a dialog that prompts the user to enter or scan (if enabled) a barcode, & checks the data before returning. 

So it has an event structure with "OK", "Cancel" and "Key down" (To filter user input - eg discard letters) and a dynamic  "barcode scan" user event.

.

To configure the scanner I had to Scan the IBM HAND HELD USB barcode and install the OPOS drivers on the PC. (easist way is to install their TESTSCAN App as the COM (Componet Object Model ) needs registering).

I then added an activeX container the the VI front panel and selected the OPOS Scanner Control.  I found an UnifiedPOS spec that detailed the properties / methods etc required to interface to the scanner (chapter 22 in version 1.7 of the spec - see javapos.com).

From there I had to register a call back dynamic event that calls a VI that reads the data from the scanner when the scan event occurs. The call back then passes the scanned data to my main event case.

*****

While I have only used Symbol scanners  you can only have one USB scanner per host. I have an app at the moment where I need two scanners (Two seperate test slots on 1 PC), where I have to implement it using the serial interface cable.  Same deal with the USB "virtual" COM port - only 1 per host/PC).

The quick start guide with the LS2208 scanner does not include the USB virtual COM port mode. You have to go to motorola's website & download the driver that includes the barcode to configure the scanner. 

Hope this is useful 🙂