Barcode Scanners

A wide range of barcode scanner products exist. You can go from a cheap handheld device for perhaps less then £100 through to complex multi-directional barcode scanners for over £1000.

A barcode scanner consists of a light source and a detector inside a combined unit. You hold the barcode scanner over the product barcode, and, after optionally pressing a button, the device reads the barcode and transmits it to the computer.

First of all, the “press a button” part. Some barcode scanners detect the proximity of a barcode automatically and read it without any additional human intervention. In other words you do not have to press a button on the barcode reader. Such scanners are easily identified as those which light up a red laser if you waft your hand near them. Other barcode scanners require you to press the button, and some have it as a configuration option. For reasons beyond me, this feature is known as “code gate”.

Pressing a button is sometimes handy if you are scanning a code off a sheet which has many barcodes printed on it – having the button control stops you inadvertently scanning the wrong barcode.

Multi-directional barcode scanners will scan any barcode presented to it regardless of how the scanner or barcode are oriented. This is common in a supermarket where the goods are passed rapidly by a fixed scanner without the need to put each barcode “level” with the scanner.

Cheaper barcode readers will require you to orient the product barcode with the axis of the scanner .

Typically a multi-directional barcode scanner will be fixed to the desk, whereas the uni-directional types can be moved by the till operator to point at products. The former are more expensive and the later are more apt to be damaged or suffer wear to the cables. However, a fixed scanner is useless in environments like garden centres and DIY stores where it is not always practical to bring the product to the fixed scanner. A moveable scanner on a long curly telephone cable is key. Like wireless keyboards, you can get wireless barcode scanners, but they will suffer from the same problem as wireless keyboards and mice: Flat batteries and intermittent service!

A lot of older barcode readers and barcode scanners use LED (light emitting diodes) as a light source. These are horrible devices and usually require you to press the reader up against the product barcode. Modern laser barcode scanners will read the product barcode at a distances, often of over 12 inches distance.

A typical barcode reader will deliver the scanned barcode back to the computer in one of three ways. USB, keyboard wedge or RS232. Serial port barcode scanners (RS232) are very old fashioned and are usually found accompanying an Electronic cash register, rather than a PC based epos system, however these devices can be used with a PC. Until recently the large majority of barcode scanners were “keyboard wedge”. This means that the barcode scanner devices is wired in between the keyboard, and the computer keyboard socket. The barcode reader usually had two plugs. You plugged the barcode scanner into the keyboard port, and your regular keyboard was attached to the other plug on the scanner.

As far as the computer was concerned, it behaved exactly like a keyboard. As far as the computer was concerned, each time you scan a barcode, it was just as if you have typed the barcode in on the keyboard and pressed ENTER / TAB.

This often resulted in a lot of clumsy wiring.

Modern USB barcode scanners should are much easier to install. You just plug it into the computers USB port, and the driver is installed, often automatically. The computer will treat the barcode scanner as another keyboard – in other words the USB barcode reader behaves like an old fashioned keyboard wedge barcode scanner. This has the advantage of meaning that new USB scanners often work with older EPOS software with little or no modification.

This keyboard style behaviour can easily be demonstrated by opening up Word or Notepad or similar on your computer and scanning some barcodes – simple!

May I draw your attention to the mention above of “pressing ENTER/TAB”. This feature, amongst others is usually configurable. A barcode scanner will be delivered with a “programming manual” which is a book containing hundreds of special programming barcodes. You normally scan a code from the beginning of the book to put the scanner into “programming mode” and then scan one or more of the “programming command barcodes”. This system allows you to configure many different aspects of the barcode scanners such as the “terminating character” – or scanning suffix as it is know. You can also add prefixes, you can enable or disable certain types of barcode, change the noise it makes and event reset it to the factory defaults if you should mess things up!

You can also use the same scanner with different EPOS systems when your supplier lets you down and you have to get a new system. However, don’t expect your new supplier to give you support on your old scanners.

The main downside of very cheap barcode scanners is the appalling build quality. Spend a bit more and make sure you get something more rugged. Till operators are not usually very kind to EPOS hardware!

Make sure you buy a laser based USB barcode reader – either single or multi-directional depending on your needs.