Succes using the Intelliscanner 3000 with MacOS X

[ernst]

Encouraged by the fact that their website made a Mac-friendly impression I ordered an Intelliscanner 3000 from Intelli Innovations.

And though it scanned flawlessly right out of the box, it turned out that the documentation provided was not Mac-oriented at all.

I wanted to trigger a script before and after scanning, but unfortunately the manual only mentioned the codes for emulating the shift-, alt- or control keys, no Apple-key ...

The codes for the shift-, alt- or control keys where all in the range from Hex 80 to Hex B1, so I optimistically started trying codes from Hex B2 upwards, and YES, success!

It turns out that Hex B4 is the Apple-make code (pressing the Apple key), whilst Hex B5 is the Apple-break code (releasing the Apple key). They just could not be bothered to print new booklets I suppose?

Having tackled this one I started making the script in Filemaker that would be triggered by the barcode reader sending an 'Apple-5' key-event just before the actual barcode was scanned. The script should take me to a separate layout and enter the barcode in a global field on that layout.

It turned out that default rate at which the scanner was sending the keystrokes was much to fast for Filemaker. Upon scanning the script would trigger but after switching to the scan layout the designated field remained empty... And unfortunately the manual of the scanner did not indicate any possibilities to enter a delay between the prefix (pre-amble) triggering the script and the actual data.

Thus I tried lowering the overall rate at which the scanner transmitted its key-presses and things started to behave as intended, but helas, slow...

Looked like: two down, still one more to go, so I experimented some more and found the solution for this last challenge...

It turned out that the 'Custom Dialog' scriptstep placed in the Apple-5 triggered script would neatly capture all the key presses on the highest available speed!

To finish it off I programmed an extra 'Return' key suffix (post-amble) in the scanner to make Filemaker exit the custom dialog step and continue the script after scanning.

Extra advantages of using the 'Custom Dialog' script step to enter the data are:

- no flagging necessary, as soon as the dialog is open the script can not be re-triggered.

- no separate post-amble script needed.

- the script can also be triggered manually when that's appropriate, the script will then pause in the custom dialog and allow either manual entry or scanning. The 'Apple-5' preamble will be ignored in this situation.

Resum

[ernst]

Follow up...

Today I did a google search on the following phrase:

'cheap barcode scanner usb'

...and stumbled across a website of a company that claims to sell a really cheap handscanner that's actually the same as a lot of much more expensive scanners available on the market. They also had a manual for download on their site, so I downloaded it and found that it was -almost- identical to that of the 'Intelliscanner 3000' I was ranting about in my previous post.

One nice difference was that THIS manual had some extra pages, on which I found the extra codes for Apple make / Apple break (and some Windows stuff too) that I had found myself by trial and error...

I'm gonna order a scanner (for $ 79 in stead of $299) and will let you all know if it works. But my feeling is that it will.

For those who would also like to have a go at it: the URL is:

http://www.kanecal.net

Regards,

Ernst.

[Aaron Lamperti]

Regarding the IntelliScanner I wrote to Intelli and asked them about it and this was their reply

"We have two suppliers for the IntelliScanner hardware. Each provides the

same physical scanner, however, the firmware/manual are slightly different

from each supplier. Both meet our listed specifications for the

IntelliScanner 3000i, which does not officially support holding and

releasing the command key.

That said, one of the two suppliers provides scanners that allow you to hold

and release the command key (it's actually in the documentation for the

scanner itself -- same instructions as what you sent). We can't list this as

an official feature for the scanner since we can't, by default, guarantee

one supplier over the other.

If you'd like to order a scanner from our online store then forward me your

order confirmation e-mail, I can mark it to be shipped from stock that does

support this feature. We just received a batch of new scanners today, and I

opened one up to make sure this would work. It seems to work perfectly."

Seems a little strange, but it leads me to wonder which supplier Kanecal uses. Have you gotten your 'cheap' scanner and tested it? I'd love to hear what you find out.

And thanks for the post, I've wrestled with this very question before and ended up throwing my hands in the air!

Aaron Lamperti

----------------------

Exhibits technician

Montshire Museum of Science

[ernst]

Hi Aaron,

I did not yet order a scanner at Kanecal, but will do within a short time. I'll report how that turns out.

By the way, did you actually check Kanecal's website? They actually have a manual of the scanner they supply -an unicum for a company that sells scanners- which explicitely states the Apple / Windows Make and Break command. And the typeset of the manual really looks like they appended this (and some other) features, the first 40 or so pages are really identical!

I've got the feeling that the reply you had from Intelli is a sort of trying to cover up for the fact that they either did not know about this, had some old stock, or just did not care.

And personally I find the difference between $79 and $299 enough to expect from a company with such a clear Mac-appeal to ship you a Mac-happy product.

But OK, enough ranting & raving, I'll let you how this all continues...

regards,

Ernst.

[Aaron Lamperti]

I went ahead and ordered the Kanecal scanner and it works perfectly. I programmed a prefix of (hex) B4 31 B5 and it runs script 1 when I scan. Very nice.

I noticed that when the first line of the script is a custom dialog, I can keep the scanner speed at fastest and get the whole barcode. However, if I set a few values first (set field...), I have to slow the scanner to medium or the dialog doesn't come up it time to get all the characters.

Thanks Ernst for the link to Kanecal!

Aaron

[ernst]

Hi Aaron,

Thanks for reporting your experiences with the Kanecal, good to know that the scanner is OK.

As for the script steps