Symbol LS 2208 Barcode scanner - how to make it work?

Eddie Lascu

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May 15, 2007, 5:09:01 PM5/15/07

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Hello there,

I have this LS 2208 barcode scanner that used to work until recently when my
test environment crashed and the IT department had to reformat the HD and
reinstall Windows XP. After the computer came back, i started to re-install
all the POS devices and the barcode scanner is the only one I don't know how
to make it woek again. It simply drives me crazy, knowing that it worked a
few weeks ago and now it's not working anymore.
My environment is windows XP with VS2005 (so .NET Framework 2.0). I have POS
for .NET 1.1 and since that required it, I also had to install .NET Framework
1.1). Symbol told me to download the latest OPOS driver, which is version
3.24.
Can anyone give me some ideas what else to try? I spoke with technical
support from Symbol, and they tell me they haven't tested it under a .NET
environment, but I know for sure it worked.

Thanks in advance for any suggestion,
Eddie

Eddie Lascu

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May 15, 2007, 5:44:00 PM5/15/07

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Further to my question, I searched the archives for Symbol LS2208 scanners
and I have found a post that was suggesting to create a configuration XML
file and use the "Example Scanner" service object. I did just that, my
Symbol_Scanner.xml file dumped in the Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft
Shared\Point of Service\control Configurations folder has this structure:

Thanks to Mr, Liming's book (p. 88), I was able to prepare a working
config file for my Symbol LS2208:

Now the object is created successfully, I can open it, claim it and enable
it. The Data Event is fired, but when I try to decode the scanned data, it's
not coming well formated. Here is that code:

protected void OnDataEvent(object source, DataEventArgs e)
{
Byte[] abyScanData = m_Scanner.ScanData;

//Decode ASCII
string strData = Encoding.ASCII.GetString(abyScanData);
MessageBox.Show(strData);

// re-enable the device
m_Scanner.DataEventEnabled = true;
}

Tracing inside this call I can see some ASCII characters, including the
barcode scanned, but there are other illegal characters that make the string
un-displayable.

Any thoughts?
Regards,
Eddie

Sean Liming (eMVP)

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May 15, 2007, 7:58:17 PM5/15/07

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1. One catch in your XML below '&' should be '&'
2. The scanner may have prefixes and suffixes with the data. Some scanners
have setup directions to disable this information. for example a booklet
with bar codes to be scanned. You should be able to disable the prefix and
suffix.

Regards,

Sean Liming
www.sjjmicro.com / www.seanliming.com
Author: Windows Embedded for Point of Service / POS for .NET Step-by-Step
http://www.sjjmicro.com/WEPOS.html

"Eddie Lascu" <Eddie...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
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Eddie Lascu

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May 16, 2007, 11:03:00 AM5/16/07

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Hi Sean,

Sorry, the XML config file came from a different post I found on this forum.
My XML config file looks like this:

I do have a Quick Start Guide with lots of bar codes in it. One says
<Data><Suffix>, but it didn't make a difference. I will call Symbol and will
ask them about ways to solve this issue.

Thanks for your suggestions,
Eddie

"Sean Liming (eMVP)" wrote:

>
> 1. One catch in your XML below '&' should be '&'

Eddie Lascu

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May 16, 2007, 1:21:00 PM5/16/07

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Hello Sean,

I spoke with Tech Support from Symbol and they think that those extra
characters I get are not because of some settings I have in the scanner. We
switched the device to Keyboard Emulation and I get the barcodes coming up
clean in Notepad.
Just to give you an idea, I was playing with the label from a bottle of
water, scanning the UPC code. The code is "0 121590 8" but when the app
decodes it it returns: "\0\r%%\001215908\n" where the two '%' are in fact
holders for some squares that are undisplayable characters.

Got any idea?
Regards,
Eddie

"Sean Liming (eMVP)" wrote:

>
> 1. One catch in your XML below '&' should be '&'

Sean Liming (eMVP)

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May 16, 2007, 2:04:22 PM5/16/07

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I know with my HHP scanner I had something similar. Turing off pre and
suffix got rid of the extra characters.

Maybe someone else has an idea.

Regards,

Sean Liming
www.sjjmicro.com / www.seanliming.com
Author: Windows Embedded for Point of Service / POS for .NET Step-by-Step
http://www.sjjmicro.com/WEPOS.html

"Eddie Lascu" <Eddie...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

news:D031F762-22B7-4C4F...@microsoft.com...

Eddie Lascu

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May 22, 2007, 5:24:00 PM5/22/07

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I couldn't make it work so I switched it to keyboard emulation mode. In
addition to the possibility that it can be an input device for any edit box
in any form in the GUI, is there another danger that I should consider?