Tim Donahue wrote:
Unless I am mistaken, Jake is looking for a barcode scanner.

No you are not. That is what I understood.
These are typically not SCSI devices (none that I know of are, at least), they are typically Serial, PS/2, or USB HID devices.

I was reading that discussion on the SANE developer list. The list is 8 years old. I think somebody even mention there that bar code scanner can be attached as PS/2 thing. I thought I had seen something about SCSI bar code readers but I am probably mistaken.
All they do is translate the barcode scanned into ASCII for processing by some application.
I think that what my third link about "hardware solution" was saying. Are there such applications written for OpenBSD and what do they actually do?


Some newer scanners use Bluetooth, but there are also cordless scanners that talk to a base station that translates the wireless signal into serial, PS/2 or USB input


I can say with 100% certainty (I have one in front of me, ATM) that the Symbol LS1203 works with no problems with OpenBSD. Here is what dmesg reports when I attach the scanner.

uhidev1 at uhub4 port 1 configuration 1 interface 0 "?Symbol Technologies, Inc, 2002 Symbol Bar Code Scanner" rev 2.00/2.01 addr 2
uhidev1: iclass 3/1
ukbd1 at uhidev1: 8 modifier keys, 6 key codes, country code 33
wskbd2 at ukbd1 mux 1
wskbd2: connecting to wsdisplay0

As you can see, there is no SCSI black magic or any proprietary voodoo going on here. The scanner is simply detected as a USB keyboard, and acts just like one in my day to day use of it.

Tim Donahue
Thanks for the dmesg and for teaching me something new.

Best,
Predrag




Quoting Predrag Punosevac <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:

Jacob Yocom-Piatt wrote:

Dear Jacob,

That is very interesting question. I was always wondering myself if
it is possible to use those bar code scanners with OpenBSD.

Anyhow, this is what I found.

Obviously bar code scanners work completely differently than
Image scanners which are supported by sane-backends

http://www.sane-project.org/old-archive/2001-06/0111.html

The second thing I found is that they are not very hard for hacking
as they are essentially simple  SCSI  device.  Somebody  started
project  in  2000
http://sourceforge.net/projects/uscan/

but never finished. It looks like people have been sued over those
drivers as it looks to me that those scanners are very lucrative
proprietary market.

Finally, it looks that might be a very simple hardware solution for you

http://www.readerware.com/rwbarcodespec.html

Look at on the bottom of the page. There is bunch of scanners that
should just work with OpenBSD. How? It looks to me that when you scan
the bar code this bar code gets memorized by the device and you can
mount device memory as SCSI drive or download via the network.

Sort of like USB memory stick or Digital camera.
I have not looked things very carefully so I might be very wrong.
I am really curious if you really get those things to work with Open.

Please keep me posted.

Most Kind Regards,
Predrag

does anyone on list know if wireless (e.g. bluetooth) barcode scanners can or do work with openbsd? couldn't find much information about it after searching.

the application is inventory tracking, etc, where several users would concurrently scan and have barcodes register with a single machine. if the devices simply spit out the barcodes over bluetooth, i expect there is a way to achieve this.

cheers,
jake

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