Hi All,

Not too sure where to post this (maybe one of the kind moderators can help me!).

I have a completed and fully functioning database used to manage serial numbers and purchase orders. It controls WIP in a manufacturing plant and uses pre-printed barcodes to manage goods. I print a label to stick to finished goods cartons that go to stores and eventually satisfy purchase orders.

I want to roll the system out to my storeman. He needs to be able to scan the barcodes on the cartons into a field on a form. It's nice and simple with only one field on the tab list. However, the storeman is not always near to his PC and whilst a wireless scanner would be OK, he often won't be able to see his PC screen and therefore verify that all is well.

Has anyone any experience with remote devices like the Wasp WDT2200? I'm presuming these can gather a load of data and 'dump' it into the relavent field when the unit is docked to a host PC? Has anyone done anything like this? Is it feasible?

Many Thanks

Graham

I did an app a while back that used a LaserLite wand that stored multiple scans. The way it worked, the user scanned mutliple items which were stored in the wand's memory. The wand was then placed in a docking station and code was intiated thru Access to store the Wand's contents to a text file. From there it was just a matter of reading in the text file and processing it according to the work flow.

Hi Scott,

Thanks for that.

Is this an 'automatable' process? Would the various stages be invisible to the user? It's tenable if it's possible to get a bit of code that deals with the entries, but not a lot of good if I have to manipulate a text file every time!

What I'm hoping is that it's possible to make some form of replica of the input form on the handheld, load a temporary dataset whilst it is docked to the PC, take it away, scan data into this record set and hen update it when it's re-docked. I bet it's not that simple though!

Graham

You can probably do that if you gat a Palm or PocketPC based scanner. What exactly is being scanned> What's the work flow?

A packing label is created at the end of the build process that concatenates a serial number with a model number. The remote scanner is actually required on a separate database to read this piece of information into a subform to record all the units shipped for a particular PO. The operator typically has 3 -5 POs to pack on any day, and there may be between 1 and 100 units to record for each PO. As the barcodes are scanned into a single field on a subform, it is pretty simple (my scanners are set to read the data and then add a carriage return).

I guess the remote terminal doesn't even need to see the PO. If the storeman scans a list of serial numbers, as long as it is possible for him to review them on the terminal, it can then dump them into the subform on docking.

Should be a piece of cake, right?

;-)

The app I did was a records tracking app. File folders were scanned to a box whihc was then sent to an archive storage facility. So the scenario is not dissimilar. The wand first scanned the box barcode, then each folder that went into a box. Since the box barcodes had a different prefix, it was identifiable where each box started. So you could do similar by scanning a PO, then each item.

Hmm. Sounds like it's quite possible then!

Thanks for your input Scott, I'll give it a go I think...

Graham

glad to assist