At 21:06 26-06-98 -0500, Doug Yowza <yowza(a)yowza.com> wrote:
On Fri, 26 Jun 1998, Shawn Rutledge wrote:
> > might help (yes, I'm really just trying to find a use for these cool
laser
> > scanners and wands I have).
>
> Me too! I picked up a couple of the stainless steel round wand type
with a
> red laser in the end. They have a 9-pin plug and
were evidently
intended to
> plug directly into a serial port. But the laser
didn't light up when I
did
that; so I
figure maybe the software would have to enable/disable a certain
combination of control lines, if the thing is really powered off the port.
Do you happen to know any more about how these work?
There appear to be many different types. I think you can find wands that
plug directly into a PC serial port, but all of mine seem intended to plug
into specific "portable data terminals" (which I also have) from which I
can download the scanned data. There are also several different types of
barcodes, and not all wands/scanners can handle all barcode types.
There are also "Wedge" types which may work without too much setup. These
connect in the PC keyboard cable 'twixt the kbd and system box. There is
the problem though of 'teaching' the wand/scanner which type of code it is
supposed to read and interpret. That's where the software, or at least a
manual with scanable setup data, may come into need.
--Chris
-- --
Christian Fandt, Electronic/Electrical Historian
Jamestown, NY USA
Member of Antique Wireless Association
URL:
http://www.ggw.org/freenet/a/awa/