Barcodes

[TarponZeke]

I need to generate id badges for a customer with a barcode
on it. I then need to use a barcode reader to scan these
badges and store the reads into a table.

I can handle all the access programming part but I have
never worked with barcodes and readers at all.

This is a small client (long term care facility) with 100
or so patients. The patients go to the cafeteria to eat
and when they do this, they scan their badge. This kicks
off billing to the patient that they got a meal but it
also tells the management if a patient doesn't come to
dinner so they know to go figure out where the heck he/she
is.

Anyway, I think I need a font so I can print the badge
from my access application. I have looked up barcodes on
the internet and there are thousands of different things
with a very wide cost difference. I am not printing
millions of bar codes for products. I just need to print
badges out as new patients come into the facility.

I think need an affordable reader. I think a keyboard
wedge one will work fine. I can set up my application to
receive the data and do what it needs to do.

The reader has to be pretty durable though. It will be
used for each meal of the day and probably for 100 people
or so for each meal and the quality of employee using this
reader will not be the highest so it will probably get
banged around a lot. So it needs to be pretty tough.

Any help with this solution from someone who has
experience with this would be much appreciated. Some of
the font packages I have seen are $700 or higher and I
just need to print an occasional id card.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Fred Boer]

Dear TarponZeke:

The following link will give you lots of information:

http://www.granite.ab.ca/access/barcode.htm

Among Tony Toew's links on this page you can find a link to a free 3 of 9
barcode font. I've used a Dymo Labelwriter and a laser printer to generate
barcode labels, and they have worked fine with my wedge scanner. Remember
that you probably need to insert an asterisk before and after your barcode
number when you use the 3 of 9 font...

HTH
Fred Boer

 

[Guest]

you may want to look at this site. http://www.azalea.com/

I've worked with barcodes quite a bit with other apps, but not Access.
Printing should not be a problem. Have you thought of printing to an Avery
label, which can be stuck to a "badge" of some sort?

hope this helps
JMorrell

 

[Thomas Lutz]

For reading bar codes into an Access application, you have two
choices.
Most bar code readers are available with one of two output options.
The first option is called "Keyboard Wedge" output where you unplug
your keyboard, plug the bar code reader into the keyboard port on your
PC and then plug your keyboard into the bar code reader. This
arrangement makes the bar code reader appear as it it were simply a
second keyboard. Your original keyboard continues to work as normal
however when you read a bar code, the data encoded in the bar code
appears to any application running on your PC as if it were typed in.
The keyboard wedge interface is extremely simple however it has a few
drawbacks. If you scan a bar code, the cursor has to be in the correct
input field in the correct application otherwise you end up reading
bar code data into whatever application has the focus. This can cause
all sorts of potential problems if the cursor is not in the right
place when the bar code is scanned. The keyboard output also is
limited in that you cannot modify the data in any way before sending
it into the program that is to receive the data. For example, if you
needed to parse a bar code message up into pieces or remove some of a
bar code message or add in a date or time stamp you would not be able
to with a normal keyboard wedge reader.

The other possible output option is to get a bar code reader with an
RS232 or "Serial" interface. With these types of bar code readers, you
connect the reader to an available serial port on the back of your PC.
You would then need a program called a "Software Wedge" to take the
data from the bar code reader and feed it to the application where you
want the data to go. The disadvantage to this approach is that it is a
little more complex however you gain much more control over how and
where your data ends up when you read a bar code. With a Software
Wedge, you can control exactly where the data goes in the target
application and you can also perform all sorts of modifications on the
data before it is sent to the application.

TAL Tehchnologies sells a product called WinWedge which is a Software
Wedge for Windows.
Visit: http://www.taltech.com/products/winwedge.html
for more information about WinWedge.

TAL also sells a very high quality line of bar code laser scanners at
very reasonable prices. All their scanners are available with either
the keyboard wedge output or RS232 output. For scanners see:
http://www.taltech.com/products/bc_reader.html

This web site is also an extremely good place to obtain information
about bar coding in general be sure to look in the Resources section
of the site for a bar code tutorial.

For printing bar codes from Access, you would be best off using a bar
code ActiveX control like the one fromTAL Technologies at the
following URL:
http://www.taltech.com/products/activex_barcodes.html
If you need to print bar codes, I would recommend that you download
the demo of the TAL Bar Code ActiveX control from the above URL and
take a look at the sample Access database that is provide with the
demo.

You can also use bar code fonts to do the job and many are available
for free on the web however you will definitely want to test your bar
codes by printing them to the particular printer that you will be
using and then scanning them with the bar code scanner that you
purchase. Fonts are notorius for producing very poor quality bar codes
that are difficult to read. They also offer very little flexibility in
size. Three things that you should always do when using bar code fonts
are to test, test, and test again.

 

[ANNA PINCHOM]

For reading bar codes into an Access application, you have two
choices.
Most bar code readers are available with one of two output options.
The first option is called "Keyboard Wedge" output where you unplug
your keyboard, plug the bar code reader into the keyboard port on your
PC and then plug your keyboard into the bar code reader. This
arrangement makes the bar code reader appear as it it were simply a
second keyboard. Your original keyboard continues to work as normal
however when you read a bar code, the data encoded in the bar code
appears to any application running on your PC as if it were typed in.
The keyboard wedge interface is extremely simple however it has a few
drawbacks. If you scan a bar code, the cursor has to be in the correct
input field in the correct application otherwise you end up reading
bar code data into whatever application has the focus. This can cause
all sorts of potential problems if the cursor is not in the right
place when the bar code is scanned. The keyboard output also is
limited in that you cannot modify the data in any way before sending
it into the program that is to receive the data. For example, if you
needed to parse a bar code message up into pieces or remove some of a
bar code message or add in a date or time stamp you would not be able
to with a normal keyboard wedge reader.

The other possible output option is to get a bar code reader with an
RS232 or "Serial" interface. With these types of bar code readers, you
connect the reader to an available serial port on the back of your PC.
You would then need a program called a "Software Wedge" to take the
data from the bar code reader and feed it to the application where you
want the data to go. The disadvantage to this approach is that it is a
little more complex however you gain much more control over how and
where your data ends up when you read a bar code. With a Software
Wedge, you can control exactly where the data goes in the target
application and you can also perform all sorts of modifications on the
data before it is sent to the application.

TAL Tehchnologies sells a product called WinWedge which is a Software
Wedge for Windows.
Visit: http://www.taltech.com/products/winwedge.html
for more information about WinWedge.

TAL also sells a very high quality line of bar code laser scanners at
very reasonable prices. All their scanners are available with either
the keyboard wedge output or RS232 output. For scanners see:
http://www.taltech.com/products/bc_reader.html

This web site is also an extremely good place to obtain information
about bar coding in general be sure to look in the Resources section
of the site for a bar code tutorial.

For printing bar codes from Access, you would be best off using a bar
code ActiveX control like the one fromTAL Technologies at the
following URL:
http://www.taltech.com/products/activex_barcodes.html
If you need to print bar codes, I would recommend that you download
the demo of the TAL Bar Code ActiveX control from the above URL and
take a look at the sample Access database that is provide with the
demo.

You can also use bar code fonts to do the job and many are available
for free on the web however you will definitely want to test your bar
codes by printing them to the particular printer that you will be
using and then scanning them with the bar code scanner that you
purchase. Fonts are notorius for producing very poor quality bar codes
that are difficult to read. They also offer very little flexibility in
size. Three things that you should always do when using bar code fonts
are to test, test, and test again.



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