In our library, we use a bunch of MS 9520 Voyager barcode
scanners. In general, these are fantastic, reliable scanners and we have
not had any fail.
Recently though, we have had some interesting problems as
the barcode scanner has randomly read only part of the barcode on an item.
This is what our Circulation department discovered:
“Just wanted to inform you all of
another barcode scanning error involving a set of headphones. We were
alerted of the issue today because the book that was erroneously charged was
generating overdue notices and the patron came in to ask about it.
The actual charge happened on April
30 at 7:54pm. The book that was charged has an accession number of
8XXXX. At the same time my reports show the book being charged, the
headphones with barcode 4000000008XXXX were also charged. (Last five
digits of the barcode match the book’s accession number.) The time stamps
are the same down to the second—7:54:27pm. This makes me think that
perhaps nothing even popped up in Voyager to indicate that the book was
charged. This particular set of headphones has been charged 123 times and
this is the first time this book was charged as well. So it’s definitely
not consistent.
In previous communications I’ve had
with our library consortium, I’ve heard that some scanners allow for setting a
fixed code length. I’m not sure we can have a fixed length because our
item barcodes are 14-digits and our ID card barcodes are 12-digits. But
do you know if any settings exist that would allow us to set a minimum length
(i.e., greater than or equal to 12 digits)? I just can’t wrap my head
around the irregular nature of these incorrect scans. From what I’ve
documented, this appears to be the 7th instance of this in the past
two and a half years. Any ideas you might have would be welcome.”
While relatively infrequent, these errors are a nuisance and
I decided to set out to find a way to set the minimum barcode scanning length
to 12 digits.
I started with a Google search and turned up nothing so I
then decided to consult the rather thick manual that came with our 9520
scanners. After pouring through the manual, I found a section ambiguously
entitled “Additional Decode Features” which outlined instructions to set a
minimum symbol (or barcode) length. My excitement was quickly dampened
when the instructions for setting a minimum length made little sense. The
instructions were not clear and they incorrectly referenced the location of
additional necessary configuration information in the manual. After more searching
through the manual, I finally found what I needed and tried to decipher the
required steps.
Essentially, the configuration process requires that you:
1. Scan the “configuration mode” barcode at the beginning of
the manual
2. Scan the barcode to enter the minimum symbol length mode
3. Scan barcodes for “code bytes” the set the minimum symbol
length
4. Scan the configuration mode barcode one last time
The problem was that the code bytes section, which provided
no instructions, made it look like I had to figure out the hexadecimal
equivalent for our minimum barcode length. I kept on going through the
prior instructions to figure that out and was about to give up when I decided
to ask one of our programmers, Ian, for his perspective. After looking through
it for a few minutes, Ian realized that I had over-thought it and said that the
code bytes simply stood for digits. Could it really be that simple?
Indeed it was.
I tried it over again and in step three, I scanned the byte
that corresponded with 0, then 1, then 2, equating to a minimum length of 12.
I finished the process and scanned some test barcodes that I
had printed and VOILA, it worked! Anything less than 12 digits simply
does not scan now.
Now we will get to see if this solves this random problem
for us.
-Matt S
