Barcode scanner USB to serial

I have a problem with a barcode scanner. It came with a USB Cable but in the manual it says that it can do RS232 communication. The modes it can operate are: Keyboard Wedge, which works fine but I hate it, and Serial (RS232) which is what I want but does not work for me: When ever I switch the scanner to Serial mode, it correctly responds (with the success beep) and stops sending the scans like a keyboard (so far so good). But the problem is that I dont know where it sends the scans when it operates in serial mode. Its cable is USB only, so how can I capture the scans in serial mode? I know there are programs that emulate a serial port (e.g I use com2com and com2tcp for other projects), but I cannot find something that reads a USB port and forwards the data through an emulated Serial port. What it seems I need is the reverse of a usual USB to Serial converter but in software(since my pc does not have a serial port): a program that can take the input from a USB connected device, and make it available to a program listening to a serial port.

Any suggestions?

UPDATE:

Found the model: is a ZQ-LS6000. Cannot find any kind of drivers though
I tried to make it work on Linux with a number of usbserial drivers (ftdi, pl2303, keyspan and the generic driver). None works. lsusb reports the VendorId as "Xenta" - vendorID=1d57 (xenta), productId=001c - but it didnt help in the search for a driver.

Paralife

Posted 2015-11-18T22:19:40.233

Reputation: 253

From other devices I've seen over the years, it's the device's USB driver that should be providing the virtual COM port. What's the make and model of the barcode scanner? Have you contacted the manufacturer regarding this? – Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 – 2015-11-18T22:23:55.860

"keyboard mode" is the ultimate compatibility mode: if you can type it, you can scan it. If you go with a serial mode, you will probably need a custom program to {do magic} after scanning – Yorik – 2015-11-18T22:27:37.857

its OEM stuff and there were no drivers, just a manual saying how to switch to RS232 mode, but no RS232 cable... only cable in the package is one side RJ45 and the other side USB. If it works as a keybord wedge maybe there is some software to redirect it to a virtual serial port I already have... – Paralife – 2015-11-18T22:29:12.933

@yorik: no I cant work with keybord mode. My application needs to open a serial port. I cant have windows losing focus and with it the scans. – Paralife – 2015-11-18T22:30:23.920

ive used ftdi drivers – Francisco Tapia – 2015-11-19T21:08:57.057

Have you used something like usbview to look at what it's doing? Based on nothing, I'd expect that after switching to serial mode it would appear as a different USB device (hopefully a USB CDC one so you don't need drivers). You might need to unplug/replug to get that to happen. If that's it, then you just open the virtual serial port like you'd do with a usb-serial adapter.

– Michael Kohne – 2017-07-18T17:50:45.050

Answers

Speculation below.

Most of the scanners I deal with (Metrologic & Symbol) will ship a code-book that lists every possible configuration code the scanner can take. Those code-books are fairly general for the model scanner. There can be many different models mainly: USB Cable, Serial, Keyboard Wedge.

Those configuration books/sheets will have settings for USB, Keyboard Wedge, & Serial regardless of what type they support.

I generally deal with more Metrologic scanners than symbols, but I know on Metrologic brands, if I had a bad cable that was USB and wanted to replace it with a RS232 cable, it would not work. The internals of the USB scanner don't support RS232.

It is in the book, and that part could be confusing, but in searching around I can't find any mention of that scanner being sold in a RS232 mode.

The price also being so low, compared to a Metrologic or a Symbol scanner leads me to believe it's a re-brand.

The company AZTPOS has a contact number you might try them.

What above answer mentions might work for you, but you might end up needing to buy a true serial scanner.

N. Greene

Posted 2015-11-18T22:19:40.233

Reputation: 585

For an emulated usb to serial port, you need to use file io. I had to change my code over to use it. Checkout CreateFile use**'COMn'** as the filename, where n is between 1 and 8. My examples are actually a class that I wrote in Delphi, so it won't be much use to you.

You set up a a ReadTimeout and Read the file.

Rohit Gupta

Posted 2015-11-18T22:19:40.233

Reputation: 689

We had a similar issue with a Eyoyo E-001 2D Barcide reader. Works fine in Windos 10 in Serial over USB emulation (shows up a serial port COMx where x is the next available port) However, to get it working on earlier Windows versions requires a driver (INF file) to invoke the USBSER.sys and create the port. We are chasing the manufacturer for same.

Try your scanner in this Serial over USB emulation mode and if it works there, you know at least the mode is upported and your next step is to get a driver for your OS.

ConnDublin

Posted 2015-11-18T22:19:40.233

Reputation: 1