we have two physical store locations, for a total of 4 register POS stations. We have the IPad docking station, socket scanner, and startronics printer..
socket mobile scanners die quickly, disconnect frequently, and can barely read barcodes and are horrible.
So all this time we have been complaining for a better system to allow for any other barcode scanners, and finally just got the POS HUB and a nice HID scanner which scans great, but now have another issue….not all barcodes are being recognized by the HID software and now at checkout it is making it almost impossible to ensure all products are getting scanned in correctly.
anyone running into software issues with the new HID scanners??! How is everyone holding up?!?
We have over 250 brick and mortar customer orders a day which average cart of 8 products. Really need a way for efficient and trusted check out… can someone help or shed some light.
Barcodes can be finicky - make sure the barcodes that you’re generating are within the limits of what the barcode can handle. In other words, there are multiple standard types of barcodes you can generate - make sure you’re using the right standard for the barcode value that you’re using.
For example, “12345678” is a easy barcode that can be supported by a lot of the standards (Code-128, Code-39, etc.). However, “12345678987654321” is going to make the bars really tiny and a lot of scanners will have a hard time deciphering that. Shorter is better.
Other issues that may be causing a problem aside from having the value too long:
If the barcode is cut off on the edges of the label your scanner may not be able to read it.
If the DPI of your printer is not good (203 dpi is minimum and typical for thermal printers) then scanners will struggle with the low resolution.
Key things to know about barcodes:
How tall a barcode is really isn’t necessary to worry about - 1/4” is plenty for the scanner.
How wide the barcode bars are is critical - wider the better - which equates to shorter values that the barcode represents.
Code-128 is generally best and handles a wide range of values.
Code-39 is good for up to 10-12 characters.
So start at what you’re trying to get the barcode to represent and go from there. Good Luck!
I had trouble with the Socket ones doing that to me and I actually reached out to Socket and they sent me info and a barcode to scan so that my scanner would pick up the problem barcodes. So you may be able to reach out to the maker of the scanner and get that info or maybe even find online.