Scanner devices for POS for .NET - recommended solutions

Question

In the past I have been critical of HHP scanners because of some flaws in their POS for .NET implementation.

Recently, Honeywell released a new version of the service object (version 1.12.1.17) that supports POS for .NET.  (They also have a separate OPOS version).

We have recently tested this service object on the 3800 series, 4600 series and Xenon 1900 series scanners. 

The service object works well with all types of barcodes (1D and 2D) and also works on x86 and x64 Windows OS (we tested on Windows 7).

The documentation is a bit sparce, but it does work wel in our opinion.

This purpose of this post is to thank Honeywell for supporting the POS4NET community, and encourage you all to buy their products.  In fact, with the ease of use of using POSfor.NET service objects over legacy OPOS drivers, we got rid of our scanners from other manufacturers and we exclusively use Honeywell products now.

 

 

Answer 1

Great feedback! I found the HHP scanners worked well as I was developing the book. 64 bit support is going to be a real plus.

-Sean

---

www.sjjmicro.com / www.seanliming.com / www.annabooks.com, Book Author - ProGuide to WES 7, XP Embedded Advanced, WEPOS / POS for .NET Step-by-Step

Answer 2

@Woodchux,

This might be the problem I'm currently having. I purchased a 3800 series scanner. I have downloaded and installed HSM POS4NET Suite.

I'm able to open and claim the scanner in POS4NET Validation Utility, but not in TestApp.exe for POS for .NET

The validation utility says SOVersion : 1.12.1.16

It sounds like I need the service object, 1.12.1.17 ?

If so, how do I get this??

Answer 3

Here are some things to try.

1. contact Honeywell and ask them to write a true native .NET service object.  The one they have now (i think version 1.12.1.7) never worked flawlessly for me, but it is pretty good if you are patient.  It is a hodge podge of different code and assemblies (.net and c++).  As far as I know version 1.12.1.7 is the latest version of pos4net driver they make, and i think my reference to 1.12.1.17 was a typo. 

2.  Take the source code for TestApp.exe and recompile as x86. Then try it again. I think this will solve the problem with opening/claiming the device.

Answer 4

Thank you for your help. Not a problem, I have made some progress and now I can continue working in Sean's book :)

Even though the testapp is not working, possibly because of the way it is compiled, I'm still able to work with the example code from Sean's book.

2 devices are returned in this collection. The first one throws an exception with an inner exception of a null reference when I call the Open() method.

However, when I access the the second device, it works fine. I'm able to open and claim the scanner and scan a bar code.

        explorer = New PosExplorer(Me)
        Dim devices As DeviceCollection = explorer.GetDevices()

        Dim device As DeviceInfo = devices(1)
        'Dim device As DeviceInfo = explorer.GetDevice("Scanner")

        If device Is Nothing Then
            ListView1.Items.Add("No scanner found")
        Else
            scanner = CType(explorer.CreateInstance(device), Microsoft.PointOfService.Scanner)
            scanner.Open()
            scanner.Claim(1000)
            scanner.DeviceEnabled = True
            scanner.DataEventEnabled = True
            scanner.DecodeData = True
        End If

Here are the two devices, the one with COM1 is the one that works.

Why does this one work?
How can I access this device instead of Dim device As DeviceInfo = devices(1)

Answer 5

As i recall you may have to use the COM1 port device.  it is just a consequence of a imperfectly written driver.

As I recall i experiecned this same behaviour.