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1. Introduction
1.1. How to download data from scanner
The major difference between the HT660/PA96x/PA982 and a standard HPC/PalmPC is
barcode input capability. The WinCE Reference Manual contains no information regarding
barcode input.
This section will introduce the programming structure of the barcode sub-
system and the programming utility library for the HT660/PA96x/PA982. Inside the
HT660/PA96x/PA982 there is an advanced decoding chip to control SE900 laser engine and
to handle barcode decoding. Below is system diagram for the HT660/PA96x/PA982
barcode:
According to the above diagram, the HT660/PA96x/PA982 communicates with Decoder
Chip by mean of serial port COM2. Its communication parameter is fixed on 38400,N,8.1.
Normally, the Decoder Chip is in sleep mode when COM2 is not activated. When COM2 is
activated, the Decoder Chip will start working, and it will decode the barcode “signal” from
the laser engine when the trigger key is pressed. After decoding, barcode data and its
symbology type will be sent directly to HT660/PA96x/PA982.
Many programmers find it difficult to control the Decoder Chip via programming language
alone, especially if they are not familiar with barcode and serial port controls. Because of
this, Unitech provides the following utility library and program for the user or application
programmer to control the Decoder Chip:
1. Application program “Scan2Key.exe” is a useful application program that can read
input data from the laser scanner and then directly input the data into
HT660/PA96x/PA982’s keyboard buffer. “Scan2Key.exe” makes barcode data input
simple, and can be especially valuable to those programmers not familiar with COM
port programming. User program simply reads the barcode data from the keyboard. For
barcode symbologies setting, you can run
Scanner Setting
from
Control Panel
to
define all of supporting symbologies and delimiter.
2. Utility library:
For programming control, HT660/PA96x/PA982 provide USI.DLL to let user control
scanner input, symbologies setting and profile controlling. Please refer to
2
for detail
API lists.
USI.DLL is Unitech’s new scanner function library on HT660/PA96x/PA982. For
backward compatible issue, Unitech still provide Scanner3.DLL and ScanKey3.DLL for
existing PT930/PT930SA user to port their software into HT660/PA96x/PA982, but
several APIs on Scanner3.DLL and ScanKey3.DLL have already been removed on
HT660/PA96x/PA982. User can refer to
0
and
5
for detail supporting API.
CPU
COM2
Advanced
Decoder
Chip
Laser
Engine
