Is there any barcode examples I can use with a serial barcode that we have

[JShaw]

Hello,

I have been asked to see if I can read a serial barcode into Labview, I have no experience with barcoders but we want to look at scan and check machines PLC to see if it passed our helium mass spec. test. If it passes we want to pass the barcode on to our label printer, if failed we don't want a label printed. Are there any examples that I could try to read my scanner with?? I am familar with Labview 7.1, cFP2020, SCXI and USB hardware. Any quick solutions would be greatly apprieciated as I am on another project for the rest of the year.

Cheers!

John 

[Ray.R]

Hi JShaw,

To answer your first question: yes.  It is implemented quite often.

If you have not yet purchased a barcode scanner, let me recommend a wedge-type scanner as it is the simplest to implement.

I have implemented serial barcode scanners from Symbol.  Basically, you communicate or rather read it as a serial device.  That means the port has to be configured, transfer speed, etc.  Actually, the process of initialization should be described in the owner's manual.  I don't know if there are examples posted in the forum.  The last time I worked with a serial barcode reader was in 2002 (?).

JLV

[mikeporter]

Serial barcode scanners are very easy and you don't have to worry about the wedge seeing a barcode at an inopportune time and having it enter in extraneous data where ever the cursor happens to be sitting at the moment. When the scanner sees a barcode, it scans it and spits the ascii string out to the serial port on the computer. Your program reads the data fro the buffer when it sees there is data present to read (the bytes at port serial property will tell you that).

Last driver I wrote to do this took about 30 minutes... Including creating a user interface for it.

Mike...

[Dennis_Knutson]

Mike makes a good point about wedge scanners but if you have a pop-up with a single string control, they are the absolute easiest to use. The entire program for reading it is shown in the attachment. I also set the key navigation for the OK button to the enter key. Most scanners can be set to append a CR/LF at the end so the VI stops automatically. I just bought several USB scanners and they work great.

[Ray.R]

Hi Dennis,

I haven't tried newer USB barcode scanners.  If I read correctly, you are saying that they are easy to implement as well?  That's good.  I would prefer USB over both wedge and serial-port types..  Personal preference, maybe, but there is more flexibility when using USB devices.. 😉

Thanks,

JLV

[Dennis_Knutson]

Just plug it in and go. It shows up in the system as a second keyboard. The ones we bought are IDAutomation model SC5 and I think were about U$120. They are CCD and not laser scanners and seem pretty rugged. I agree about USB. We're kind of forced to go all USB with new development because all the new test stations are cPCI based with a single slot computer. The mouse, keyboard, network adapter, GPIB, serial ports, are all USB. Even for legacy stuff, instead of opening the computer to replace a dead card, we just plug in a new USB device and are back running in a couple of minutes.

[Ray.R]

Thanks Dennis,

Very interesting.. Don't you just love USB.. 🙂  Plug it in and the scanner emulates a keyboard..  (??).  Plus, no clutter from the wedge cables.  I do like the CCD.  

😄