How a 2d barcode scan engine to be integrated with your kiosk, POS terminal, or Arduino / Raspberry Pi Micro-controller?

By RTscan,  June 2014 / Update in Jan. 2019

We have been often asked by our customers about how to integrate the 2d barcode scan engine ?  or what’s the interface of the 2d barcode scan engine module ? So here we try to explain in details:

RTscan OEM barcode scanners available with 4 types of interface:

I.   TTL serial

II.  USB-VCOM (USB virtual com port) 

III. USB-HID ( keyboard simulation) 

IV. RS232

V.  TTL to DuPont line interface adapter for Arduino or Raspberry Pi

I. The 2d barcode engines themselves with TTL serial interface :

TTL is a kind of signal / interface, the 2d scan engine output with TTL level signal , to work with PC terminal, usually we need to design electronic circuit that:

TTL -> TTL to terminal directly ,  this is the way that people used most often to integrate the scan engine to others terminals, and we can provide the 12pin connector together.

12 pins connector

RTscan can provide above flat cable and the 12 pins connector together with scan engines, if you need them, please tell our sales team when you place order.

Pin definition: 

We also provide USB / RS232 emulation kit board which already includes TTL to RS232, or TTL to USB, or TTL to Dupont line interface which connect the Arduino or Raspberry Pi . For details, please read section II, III, IV, V below:

II. USB Virtual COM Port

RTscan provides a emulation kit board (also called development kit board) with USB interface, fix the barcode scan engine in the emulation kit board, and connect the emulation kit board to terminals via USB cable.

Its requires drivers for USB vitual COM, and it works in protocol of serial port, so we call it virtual com port.

With USB virtual com port, the driver supports all Windows OS: Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows 8, Win10.

III. USB-HID ( Keyboard simulation)

With this interface :

No need any extra driver and we often called it "plug and play", just plug in the USB cable and run the scanning, the decoded data will be show us wherever we place the cursor just like we input data by keyboard. So we can say it can work with most of software such as MS Words, Excel, Notepad...

IV. RS232: 9 pins standard RS232 interface 

RTscan provides a emulation Kit with 9 PINs RS232 interface, fix the barcode scan engine in the emulation kit board and then connect them to your device via RS232 interface.

With this interface :

No need any driver and the scanner can work with any OS, includes all Windows OS, Linux, Android. 

But usually we need extra power adaptor for RS232 interface.

V. TTL to DuPont line interface adaptor -> Arduino or Raspberry Pi

See adapter solution 1 as below: simple but without buzzer 

See adapter solution 2 as below: with buzzer . And power pin connect to the 5V.

•  Lear more about solution for Arduino, please read: Arduino Barcode Scanner
• Lear more about solution for  Raspberry Pi , please read: Raspberry Pi Barcode Scanner

Or contact us now to get more information: info@rtscan.net.