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Thread 'Smart' Portable Barcode Scanners
Wed, Jan 15 2014 6:08 PMPermanent Link

Adam H.

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone has had any experience with portable barcode
scanners (not the USB/HID variety that uses a computer, but a completely
independent one running it's own Operating System).

I have a request from a client where they would like to be able to run
barcode scanners and a software application that would link back to a
DBISAM database on a server (using DBSRVR).

I don't even know if this is possible or not. I know that there are
various models of barcode scanners out there in the field that run
various operating systems including Windows Mobile 6 - but have no idea
whether or not there is anything that would run a Delphi application.

Cheers

Adam.
Wed, Jan 15 2014 11:34 PMPermanent Link

Raul

Team Elevate Team Elevate

Adam,

We used to work with the Symbol (part of Motorola) devices that ran
Windows Mobile but now they also have Android based devices (for example
TC55 model and others). I know of number of other solutions out there
that are usually phones with barcode scanner (for example spectralink
8452/8453 phone, honeywell doplhin 7800 series etc). None are very cheap
though.

For us the barcode part was secondary function so we never had to get
into heacy-duty barcode reading. For our purpose at the time it was
simulated as keyboard input - set focus on edit control, have user press
the scan button and we see barcode string coming into field.

There are likely lot of cheaper windows devices as well - ebay shows
stand-alone scanners starting at $80.

At the time nothing was usable with delphi so we did not use it.

I'd also stay away from windows mobile 6.x as i think its time is over.

These days i'd start at looking at something with proper web browser and
consider an EWB app first.  Ideally this is android or such newer device
since you need a modern browser.

Alternative would be to look into Android based platform and see if you
can do the same thing using XE5 mobile - since it's a basic GUI app with
some network connectivity the delphi might be able to handle it.

In either case you want to make sure the device can simulate the barcode
reading as standard keyboard input into any app or browser field.

Have not done much recently with these types of devices but maybe the
post helps you along a bit.

Raul


On 1/15/2014 6:08 PM, Adam H. wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I was wondering if anyone has had any experience with portable barcode
> scanners (not the USB/HID variety that uses a computer, but a completely
> independent one running it's own Operating System).
>
> I have a request from a client where they would like to be able to run
> barcode scanners and a software application that would link back to a
> DBISAM database on a server (using DBSRVR).
>
> I don't even know if this is possible or not. I know that there are
> various models of barcode scanners out there in the field that run
> various operating systems including Windows Mobile 6 - but have no idea
> whether or not there is anything that would run a Delphi application.
>
> Cheers
>
> Adam.
Thu, Jan 16 2014 5:01 PMPermanent Link

Adam H.

Hi Raul,

Thanks for the suggestion. I was thinking more along the lines of a
standalone application accessing a database, and didn't consider
something such as a web based option where the scanner simply acts as a
keyboard.

Definitely food for thought - appreciate it.

Have a great weekend!

Adam.
Tue, May 6 2014 10:24 PMPermanent Link

Steve Williamson

Foresiight Software

Koamtac manufacture a range of bluetooth barcode scanners that act as a HID device (keyboard emulation) and can be used on both Android and iOS.

You can then build either a web-based application using ODBC to connect to your DBISAM database, or a native app using Delphi > Datasnap > FireDAC > ODBC.

http://koamtac.com/
Mon, May 12 2014 6:17 PMPermanent Link

Adam H.

Thanks Steven,

> Koamtac manufacture a range of bluetooth barcode scanners that act as a HID device (keyboard emulation) and can be used on both Android and iOS.
>
> You can then build either a web-based application using ODBC to connect to your DBISAM database, or a native app using Delphi > Datasnap > FireDAC > ODBC.

Unfortunately we were looking more for a all-in-one device running it's
own O/S.

In the end the project has been postponed. We found a company that is
dedicated to programming scanners, but it's their own software and I
couldn't write the software for it myself.
Wed, May 14 2014 8:43 AMPermanent Link

Peter Hodgson

Its 10 years since I worked with a hand held scanner and the one we used had its own programming language.

It ran in Windows and emulated the scanner.

Took a bit of figuring out. It was quite like Basic. It had a debugger so it was easy enough to use.

Peter
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