Thanks for Jason at Muse Comics for the quick rundown of how he set up his barcode scanner.

 

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You bought a new barcode scanner. You plugged it in and it will scan any barcode in your store EXCEPT comic books and graphic novel barcodes! These barcodes are typically known as “ISBN+5” or “ISBN13+5” or “UPC 5-Digit Addenda” and it takes some reprogramming of your new scanner for it to be able to recognize these unique barcodes. If you’re shopping for a new barcode scanner you MUST make sure the scanner can read “ISBN+5” or “ISBN13+5” or “UPC 5-Digit Addenda” barcodes. MOST retailers of these tools don’t put this information in the item descriptions so you will need to look up the owner’s manual before you purchase a new scanner.

 

This is my experience setting up a new barcode scanner tool for our POS system. I’ve included all my specs and details of our hardware to help others troubleshoot. The links I’ve provided worked to reprogram my model of scanner. You will want to check the manufacturer website of your barcode scanner and find the owner’s manual. In my case some of the reprogram codes I needed were in my quick set-up guide AND in the owner’s manual...Did we mention you’ll need to look up the owner’s manual for your barcode scanner?

 

The scanners don’t need hardware/software drivers so once you plug them in (direct power or usb) you then need to use the owner’s manual (don’t be fooled by the quick set-up guide) of your scanner tool. You’ll need to use the new barcode scanner and use it to scan the barcodes from the owner manual to reprogram your new scanner. We were able to look up the reprogram barcodes we needed online in the owner’s manual but there are several setting (reprogram scans) you’ll need get yours to work correctly in your system.

 

REPROGRAMMING SCANS:

NOTE—most scanners will make a delightful *beep* sound if it registered a reprogram scan. If you hear a low pitch *buzzer* sound then it didn’t take the reprogram scan.

Add a “carriage return” Suffix—this sets the barcode scanner to essentially hit the “enter” key after it scans a barcode. HOWEVER, this will send a “carriage return” entry. If your POS requires the number pad “enter” you will need to follow the instructions for reprogramming the scanner to a keyboard key of your choice...and I’m sorry for you.UPC 5-Digit Addenda: Turned “ON”—this will allow the scanner to read the longer barcode of a comic book & graphic novel BUT your scanner may ad the space and depending on your POS it may not understand the barcode if it has a space between the numbers (Addenda Separator).UPS Addenda Separator: Turned “OFF”—this setting removes the space in the barcode.

 

If you’ve really mucked this up you can always scan the “Restore to Default” code and the scanner will revert back to exactly how it was programmed when you took it out of the box.

 

Operating System: Windows 11

POS System:  Comic Shop Assistant

Barcode Scanner:  Honeywell Xenon XP: 1950GHD—USB

 

LINKS:

https://prod-edam.honeywell.com/content/dam/honeywell-edam/sps/ppr/en-us/public/products/barcode-scanners/common/documents/sps-ppr-xen195x-en-ug.pdf?download=false

Pg190 (172): addenda 5 “on”

Pg191 (173): addenda separator “off”

 

https://prod-edam.honeywell.com/content/dam/honeywell-edam/sps/ppr/en-us/public/products/barcode-scanners/general-purpose-handheld/1950g/documents/sps-ppr-1950-en-qs.pdf?download=false

Suffix “CR” on