Reading from an USB barcode scanner

Question

I\'ve got this nice USB barcode scanner and I\'d like to readthe input using the USB driver and not the keyboard input.

How can this be accomplished using .NET? any

Answer 1

If it is a USB reader, you should find the .net drivers that come with it, such that you get a class which provides the IO and perhaps more functionality.

If the scanner has internally a USB to Serial converter, then you should see in your Device Manager which COM port is in use by the scanner. In that case, you can use the SerialPort class for communication to the device. Note that you should set the settings (i.e. baudrate, parity bit, stop bit, etc) correct before you can have any communication.

Answer 2

You can read (and control) the device using USB HID reports.

http://www.codeproject.com/KB/cs/USB_HID.aspx

http://www.florian-leitner.de/index.php/2007/08/03/hid-usb-driver-library/