Barcode Fun

Originally Written November 13, 2006

I finally received my barcode scanner this weekend. This LS2208 Handheld Barcode Scanner is a true laser scanner and performs very well. It will be perfect for my pantry scanner idea. I am a little dissappointed in it not being able to scan the 18 digit Interleaved 2 of 5 barcodes that you get on slot tickets.

Along with this new toy I also recieved a Magtek mag stripe card reader. I wanted to get a mag stripe card writer, but the price was too prohibitive. It would seem they would both be about the same cost, but the reader was about $35, and the writers are $500 and up.

Oh well, time to get my Netburner and the barcode scanner going. I like the setup of the LS2208, you simply plug it in, scan from a set of pre-made barcodes to set it up. It also makes it less likely to need any display, just a quick beep and you know you’ve set it up right. I bet this would be a great way to not use an LCD on my netburner. It would simply require 2 barcodes, one for incoming mode and one for outgoing mode. I have an 8 character 2 line display LCD laying around that I could use for it, and will likely use anyway.

In order to save some bandwidth, I think I’m going to mirror the upc database and only do xmlrpc lookups if the lookup here fails. I also registered the domain pantryscanner.com in case I get the application to the point that it is usable for everyone.