I'm looking to scan some barcodes in an industrial environment. Some of these barcodes I can't get right up on, i might have to be a few feet away to read them.

I've been searching for a good scanner but there are so many options (wireless, usb, ps2). The end goal here is to scan a bunch of bar codes, come back to pc, and download the serial numbers to an excel sheet.

Any recommendations or experiences?

2/5/2010 11:36:38 AM

the one with the most powerful laser?

2/5/2010 11:37:51 AM

most of the ones seem to be required to be directly hooked up to a pc. I was looking one that could store these and then whenever i got back to PC I could upload them.

2/5/2010 11:46:17 AM

ive only ever seen ones like this
http://www.barcodesinc.com/symbol/pdt8100.htm

but i dont know that it would work from more than a foot away

2/5/2010 11:52:01 AM

If you want to cache data on the scanner, then you want a PDT.
http://www.barcodesinc.com/hand-held/hand-held-portable-data-terminals.htm

If you want a wireless scanner that can send data back to your computer on the fly, then you want this:
http://www.barcodesinc.com/hand-held/hand-held-barcode-scanners.htm

Otherwise, it's time to break out the CMOS chips, class 2 lasers, and soldering gun.

2/5/2010 11:54:29 AM

i worked at a drug store in highschool and winter breaks my first couple of yrs of college. We used wireless laser scanners and they would work from several feet away with no problems. And I'd use them to scan stuff on the upper shelf of our warehouse as well. it was probably about 8' off the ground, then however high the labels were on the boxes. And i'm short (5' 6"), so it was working from a pretty good distance.

I don't remember the brand though.


It looked almost exactly like the bottom-center one in that picture (w/ the handle, screen and keypad). I'd be willing to bet it's the same brand. The scanners we used looked like maybe it was just a model or 2 off from that, but otherwise the same. maybe it's the same company, maybe not.

The website I found that on says that laser scanners can work from as far as 20ft away with the right conditions.


hopefully that helps a little

2/5/2010 12:03:02 PM

There's an app for that.

2/5/2010 12:38:52 PM

Quote :

"There's an app for that."

Oh?

Quote :

"Some of these barcodes I can't get right up on, i might have to be a few feet away to read them."

2/5/2010 12:51:49 PM

http://redlaser.com/


I haven't used it personally, but one of my coworkers has it and i played around with it for a few minutes and it worked pretty well.

[Edited on February 5, 2010 at 1:25 PM. Reason : there's probably at least a dozen others that are slight variations. ]

2/5/2010 1:25:16 PM

The error rate on any iPhone app from "a few feet away" using a camera phone camera to grab barcodes will be close to 100%. Hence my quoting above. Watch the video on the site. You have to be exactly perpendicular to the code and about 4 inches away.

2/5/2010 1:30:14 PM

thanks for the input

unfortunately i'll have to go with the expensive PDTs. Our warehouse is 100,000 square foot and i sometimes i may need to scan some shit on one side then walk to other side.

2/5/2010 1:31:49 PM

"Unfortunately?" Are you paying for it? PDTs are badass for inventory.

If you own the business, then yeah, that sucks.

2/5/2010 1:38:09 PM

yeah its hard for me to sell that price to the "commander" haha.

2/5/2010 1:43:42 PM

A long range bluetooth scanner might work (they make 150ft range receivers).

And maybe an iPod Touch (or a Nexus One with its super high res screen) running VNC to make sure the data is being collected properly.

2/5/2010 1:45:56 PM

I found a device with an expandable cache and will store your inventory numbers indefinitely until you're ready to offload them to your computer. 100% wireless and never needs to be recharged.



V That is pretty baller.

To everyone else: why the hell are you trying to use a camera to do barcode scanning? Until they come out with an iBarcodeScanner, no Apple product will be the viable tool for professional barcode scanning.

[Edited on February 5, 2010 at 1:53 PM. Reason : .]

2/5/2010 1:48:40 PM

i used to have this baller ass symbol barcode scanner attachment for a compaq ipaq. Its arround here someone at work but i have no idea where the power supply is. It had pocket excel too.

http://www.novatechgadgets.com/coipsysplaba.html

like that one

2/5/2010 1:50:55 PM

Good luck finding an ipaq that's compatible with that though. That is pretty sweet if you can find one, that's exactly what you need and is way cheaper than a professional PDT.

2/5/2010 1:56:23 PM

i have 2 or 3 here in the office. One is in my desk and has a pcmcia adapter sleve. The barcode scanner is on a second one somewhere. It should all work, but as i said, no power supplies or i'd have found a use for them ;-P

2/5/2010 2:15:59 PM

http://raleigh.craigslist.org/sys/1587542987.html

2/5/2010 2:39:13 PM

dolphin 7800s

honeywell makes them now

you can get one for around $900ish i think, i just bought quite a few of them and they're completely awesome.

2/5/2010 8:24:15 PM

i've got two sitting on the floor of my office

bc the software we have for our inventory system is so shitty they're useless.

2/5/2010 8:59:25 PM

2/5/2010 9:17:46 PM

2/6/2010 8:46:47 PM

/thread

2/8/2010 4:17:32 PM

I designed a system using barcodes to measure flow rates in a hospital environment. The reader had to be small, easy to use and programmable. These little scanners were loved by the nurses and the programing and syncing is simple. Great battery and reliability too.

http://www.koamtac.com/

2/8/2010 5:41:41 PM

Novicane, talk to Edward...think they might have followed through and started using those new scanners with that wireless infrastructure we mapped out years ago. Dunno if that would be an option but he might have done some research on them and have some good suggestions.

2/9/2010 3:19:51 PM

I got my scanner in.

Looks like i'll need to break out some visual studio and write a little scanning app.

I couldn't find any good apps that work for Windows Pocket PC for bar code scanning. The only one i did find was Tracer PTS. Anyone know of a good site that has a freeware for bar code scanning?

2/11/2010 4:10:44 PM