Bar code scanner

Eivind Mork on 2013-03-22

Yesterday I got a note from the post office that told me that a package could be picked up. I could see that the package was from China, but that was all. I buy all kinds of stuff from China that costs a few bucks, so this could be anything. When these packages arrive three weeks later, I have often forgotten about it. So what could this be? This was kind of like Christmas 🙂

It showed up to be one of the two barcode scanners I had bought from eBay. I will tell more about my plans for these barcode scanners later.

The scanner has a USB interface. I didn’t know anything about what kind of interface it was, so I just hoped it was a USB keyboard. In the worst case scenario I would have to make a driver for it.

The setup method was very cool. The manual actually just consisted of a very long list of bar codes that would make the device do stuff. One beep would make it work as a USB keyboard (not a serial device). I can also configure if it should end with CR, LF, CR+LF or nothing. There were also a bunch of other modes.

The scanner has a laser beam that is activated by a button. It is very fast and accurate, and works in low light. Very cool!

I bought two that looked similar and had very similar specs. The reason I bought two was because I wanted at least one that could be used in Linux, and since they were cheap, I bought two. Could be practical anyways 🙂 I expect the other to arrive soon since they were both shipped from Chine about the same time.