Creating Your Own Bar Codes - PSC Mini PowerWedge User Manual

Fixed-station decoder

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To program the Mini PowerWedge using custom bar codes . . .

Create Code 39 bar codes containing the programming I.D.

numbers and parameters you want to set. (This information

is available in the Mini PowerWedge Programming Reference.)

You can create the bar codes with a bar code printing pro-

gram, a word-processing program, a desktop publishing pro-

gram, or any other program that can use and print a Code 39

font. See the guidelines below.

Use a scanner connected to the Mini PowerWedge to read the

bar codes. The decoder beeps five times when programming

is successful. If a bar code contains an invalid programming

entry, the decoder beeps twice and ignores the entire bar

code.

Guidelines for Creating Batch Bar Codes

Keep the following in mind when creating bar codes for batch

programming:

•

Create your programming bar codes using the standard Code

39 character set, not the full ASCII character set. (The decoder

must read the bar codes in full ASCII Code 39 mode, how-

ever.)

•

The first and last character of each bar code must be an aster-

isk (*), the start and stop character for Code 39. (Most label-

printing software programs automatically place the asterisks

in Code 39 bar codes.)

•

The first asterisk of each bar code must be followed immedi-

ately by the characters $+$-. This lets the decoder know that

it is reading programming information rather than data.

•

Each bar code must end with EE and the final asterisk.

•

String data must appear in a programming bar code after the

I.D. number for the code parameter. Use two slashes (//) to

terminate the string. (Parameters that accept string data

include preambles and postambles.)

•

You must enter control or "action" characters (for example,

tabs, line feeds, or function keys) by encoding their Code 39

equivalents (see the Mini PowerWedge Programming Reference).

For example, to enter a horizontal tab, you would include the

character pair $I in the bar code.

User's Guide