Great little bar code scanner
Written: Apr 16 '06 (Updated Apr 16 '06)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Compact, relatively inexpensive, fast reliable scans
Cons: No software supplied
The Bottom Line: If you need to scan bar codes, this model offers batch scanning capabilities for the price of a tethered scanner. Make sure you can deal with software issues first.
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| majid's Full Review: Motorola CS 1504 Wired Handheld Barcode Scanner |
One of my cousins works for Symbol, the world's largest bar code reader manufacturer. The fashionable action today is in RFID, but the humble bar code is relatively untapped at the consumer level. The unexpected success of Delicious Library (a Macintosh program to manage your personal library of books, CDs and DVDs) shows people want to manage their collections, and as with businesses, scanning bar codes is the fastest and least error-prone way to do so. Delicious Library supports scanning bar codes with an Apple iSight camera, but you have to wonder how reliable that is.
If you want something more reliable, you need a dedicated bar code scanner. They come in a bewildering array of sizes and shapes, from thin wands to pistol-like models or flat ones like those used at your supermarket checkout counter. For some reason, the bar code scanner world seems stuck in the era of serial ports (or worse, PS/2 keyboard wedges), but USB models are available, starting at $70 or so. They emulate a keyboard - when you scan a bar code, they will type in the code (as printed on the label), character by character so as to not overwhelm the application, and follow with a carriage return, which means they can work with almost anything from terminal-based applications to web pages. Ingeniously, most will allow you to program the reader's settings using a booklet of special bar codes that perform changes like enabling or disabling ISBN decoding, and so on.
The problem with tethered bar code readers is, they are not very convenient if you are trying to catalog items on a bookshelf or read in UPC codes in a supermarket. Symbol has a unit buried deep inside its product catalog, the CS 1504 consumer scanner. This tiny unit (roughly the size of a 9V battery) can be worn on a key chain, although I would worry about damaging the plastic window. Most bar code readers are hulking beasts in comparison. It has a laser bar code scanner: just align the line it projects with the bar code and it will chirp once it has read and memorized the code (most cheap scanners just have a sensor but no laser, making it harder to align the scanner with the bar code and to get a high-contrast readout for reliable reading). The memory capacity is up to 150 bar code scans with timestamps, or 300 without timestamps. The 4 silver button batteries (included) are rated for 5000 scans — AAA would have been preferable, but I guess the unit wouldn't be so compact, but it is clear this scanner was not intended for heavy-duty commercial inventory tracking purposes.
I bought one to simplify the process of listing books with BookCrossing (even though their site is not optimized for bar code readers), but you have other interesting uses like finding out more about your daily purchases such as nutritional information or whether the company behind them engages in objectionable business practices. I can also imagine sticking preprinted bar-coded asset tracking tags on inventory (e.g. computers in the case of an IT department), and keeping track of them with this gizmo. People who sell a lot of books or used records through Amazon.com can also benefit as Amazon has a bulk listing service to which you can upload a file with barcodes.
Another interesting related service is the free UPC database at upcdatabase.com. You could scan every package you throw away, and automatically produce a shopping list of stuff to buy to restock your shelves.
You can order the scanner in either serial ($100) or USB ($110) versions, significantly cheaper than the competition like Intelliscanner (and much smaller to boot). I highly recommend the USB version, even if you have a serial port today — serial ports seem to be going the way of the dodo and your next computer may not have one. The USB version costs slightly more, but that's because they include a USB-Serial adapter, and you can't get one retailing for a mere $10. The one shipped with my unit is the newer PN50 cable which uses a Prolific 2303 chipset rather than the older Digi adapter. Wonder of wonders, they even have a Mac OS X driver available. $110 may seem expensive for a scanner, but keep in mind the cheapest USB scanner costs about $70, and that's for a model that doesn't even have a laser, so the CS1504 is actually relatively cheap for what it offers.
The scanner ships without any software. Symbol mostly sells through integrators to corporations that buy hundreds or thousands of bar code scanners for inventory or point of sale purposes, and they are not really geared to be a direct to consumer business with all the customer support hassles that entails. There are a number of programs available, mostly for Windows, but they don't seem to have that much by way of functionality to justify their high prices, often as expensive as the scanner itself.
I wrote my own software to access the scanner. It works under Windows, Mac OS X and any UNIX variant (if you use a serial port). It does require you to install the Python programming language and the pyserial module, so this is probably not for the faint of heart, but if you are interested, you can download it for free here:
http://www.majid.info/mylos/weblog/2006/03/27-1.html
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
majid
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Member: Fazal Majid
Location: San Francisco
Reviews written: 53
Trusted by: 5 members
About Me:
I'm the CTO of an Internet startup
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