[Info-vax] Hand scanners and VMS.

[Jan-Erik Söderholm]

Den 2022-07-22 kl. 06:39, skrev Grant Taylor:
> On 7/21/22 9:55 PM, Dave Froble wrote:
>> Thinking about it a bit more, perhaps a minimal cheap small PC might work.
> 
> Perhaps something like a Raspberry Pi?
> 
> I'm more than a little serious.  A Raspberry Pi or the likes could easily 
> take the input from the scanner and send it to something on the network.  
> Ir could even be a single (or few) port terminal server.
> 
> 
> 

Friday morning and I'll catch up with some of the replies... :-)

A common thanks for all replying. Hope you enjoyed some
real life stuff... :-)

Jan-Erik.

-------------------------------------------------------
The following are comments to Grant Taylor:

 > My limited experience with scanners is at Point of Sale...

Sure, "Wedge mode". No problem with that. Old scanners had a special
keyboard adapter cable, so that the scanner input came from the same
PS/2 port as anything typed on the kayboard. Today, an USB HID-driver
takes care of filling in the kayboard buffer...

Rest assured that after working with barcodes and scanners for
over 30 years, I do not how scanners worked before and today...

 > Is there any feedback other than the beep that most scanners make?

We usually sends commands for different beeping sequences and also
the "blink red LED" or "blink green LED" commands. But you are right,
there is an issue with user feedback. At the stations where this is
important, we also have an screen (a VT-screen) where any messages
or errors are displayed. But the scanner is usally not connected
to that screen. A but tricky since the screens are "thin terminals"
just running an Citrix session. Would need application changes.

 > Or is this use case more of an inventory / package tracking thing as
 > in a given package / article was seen at this point in time?

Exactly! They assemble chain saws and these are reported along the line.

 > Seeing as how the RS-232 connects to a computer /somewhere/, could you
 > do similar with the USB?

That was my hope with the Lantronix SGX 5150. Now, you *can* tunnel
the USB port to an IP port, but my problem (open question to Lantronix
support) is that the SGX only provides power on the USB port if it is
setup as "Host", not when setup as "Serial Device", which is a must
to be abel to tunnel the USB port.

 > Conceptually, could you connect one (or more) USB scanner(s) to the
 > host computer via USB and interface with it?

No, that will not work due to practial reasons. I'm not even sure that
our DS20e's has any USB ports.

-------------------------------------------
Reply to Dan:

 > An application I supported used standard scanners with bar codes using
 > terminal servers and Lantronix boxes.

Right, that has been our setup for many years.

 > I know that the terminal servers were set up as RAW TCPIP ports to do
 > this.

Do not have to do anything special, this is mainly what a terminal server
is for. Just enable "tunneling", if it is not "on" by default.

 > I don't recall the details, but I do have access to the code and can 
look > it up if needed.  All coding was done in Fortran at the time.

The Lanronix "tunnels" its RS232 ports by default to IP port 10001
and 10002. That we from VMS in the application startup we just do:

$ Telnet /create 10.32.157.47 10002 7414 -
          /protocol=none -
          /time=(noidle,recon=0:0:02)

This creates (in this example) a device named TNA7414.
That device is then just written and read (SYS$QIOW) from
a C routine called by our Cobol applications.

Same as it has always been, starting with TXA port and then
LTA (LAT) devices but today only TNA devices. Same C routine
and same QIOW call to the terminal driver.

The application "hangs" i the QIOW waiting for input from the scanner.

 > They also used USB scanners connected to some box that was on the
 > network as well, although I don't recall the manufacturer.

If you do have any additional information there, fine.

-------------------------------------
And then Daves replies:

 > I'm surprised there are still RS232 devices.

I surprised that you are so often surprised... :-)

 > Faced with such an issue, I would be looking ahead, not trying to
 > continue with yesterday's solutions.  Why?  Because yesterday's
 > solutions just might no longer be available.

Hm, right...

 > The first thing I'd be looking for is a device that lives on ethernet,
 > or wifi, but I trust wires more.  Terminal servers are a method of
 > connecting to ethernet, but I don't know what's still available.
 > A edvice that takes an RJ45 plug and talks TCP/IP would be what I'd
 > look for.

Did you even read my original post?
Have you looked at the Lantronix SGX 5150? Right, Lantronix calls this
box an "IoT Gateway", but it just the old "terminal server" in a modern
package... And it has both two RS232 and one USB (-C) connection.
https://www.lantronix.com/products/sgx-5150/

 > ...perhaps a minimal cheap small PC might work.

Yes, one possibility (but needing a changed application architecture)
is to hook up a thin terminal to the wall. We use screens with touch
screens for our web based applications. They run an Windows session
from some Citrix server and USB scanners does work on these by entering
the scanned data into the web application and sent to VMS over the
HTTP connection.

But that is a another setup needing other hardware and support.
And those screens costs 2-3 times as the Lantronix SGX 5150.

-------------------------------------
Duane Krahn:

 > Check to see if an alternate USB configuration mode exists for the
 > scanner, which emulates a COM/Serial port over USB.

It does, and is called "Serial Mode". Now, for the Lantronix to accept
a "tunnel" to the IP port, the USB port has to be in "Serial Mode" also.
But then it shuts down the power output on the USB port. One of the
points with having an USB scanner (apart from that they are easier to
find on the market), was to have one power source less.

 > Ask Lantronix support.

Absolutely. I do have an open tickt with them.

---------------------------------
Grant again:

 > Perhaps something like a Raspberry Pi?

Sure, anything can work. :-) And I do know the RasPi well.
This has to be rock solid, preferable out of the box functionality,
in an 24/7 manufacturing environment.