Raspberry Pi barcode scanner: connect oem barcode scanners modules with Raspberry Pi microcontroller (MCU)

If you are using Raspberry Pi microcontroller / single board computer to develop your system and need a 1d/ 2d OEM barcode scanner module at the same time, then this article would be helpful for you: here we introduce how we connect the Raspberry Pi 3 model B+ micro-controller with RTscan OEM barcode scanner modules and how to make them work each other.

When we try to integrate an OEM barcode scanner with Raspberry Pi microcontroller board, we would meet these problems:

1. The OEM barcode scanner with 12pins TTL interface, but Raspberry Pi board without this type connector, then how can we connect them together?
2. Whatever OEM barcode scanners we choose, how can we control the barcode scanner by Raspberry Pi and also upload decoded data to Raspberry Pi system?

Read below and find how RTscan provides solutions for above questions.

Part I: Introduction of Raspberry Pi 3 model B+ and RTscan OEM barcode scanners

Raspberry Pi 3B+:

Raspberry Pi 3 Model B is the latest iteration of the world’s most popular single board computer. It provides a quad-core 64-bit ARM Cortex-A53 CPU running at 1.2GHz, four USB 2.0 ports, wired and wireless networking, HDMI and composite video output, and a 40-pin GPIO connector for physical interfacing projects.

Raspberry Pi 3 Pinout

And for our application to connect with oem barcode scanner, we need the 3.3V (or the 5.0v) power supply pin, and GND pin, RXD, TXD pins.

And also, we will demo how to connect our oem barcode scanner with raspberry Pi via USB interface.

RTscan OEM barcode scanners:

They all with 12pins connector and TTL signal, and use FFC cable and connector like this :

In this article, we choose the RT203 as an example to do the connection and integration.

Part II: Connection solutions:

RTscan provides three types of solutions:

Solution1:

There is no buzzer in this solution and you can add buzzer by yourself in your system.

This is a most simple solution, just connect the 3.3V power supply, GND, RX and TX pins.

RT203 Pinout

PIN Connection:

Solution 2:

Add a buzzer in this solution, connect the 3.3V power supply, GND, RX and TX pins for the oem barcode scanner, and for the buzzer we connect 5.0V power supply, GND pins from Raspberry Pi and buzzer signal pin from the barcode scanner.

Solution 3:

We integrated the buzzer in the EVK board, and just connect the 5.0V power supply (the EVK need 5.0v power supply), GND, RX and TX pins.

For Raspberry Pi, if you prefer to connect the barcode scanner via USB interface, it also be fine, setup RTscan’s barcode scanner to USB-HID (keyboard simulation) mode and they work directly:

Part III, SDK/ Control the oem barcode scanner module via Raspberry Pi system:

We developed the SDK to work with our scanners, this way, you can copy our source codes and program your system very quickly and no need to write the whole code one by one; save your time and speed up your integration work!

We have developed Raspberry SDK for most of our oem barcode scanners, includes RT203 RT206 RT207 RT208 RT209 RT211 RT830B, if you want to learn more about them, please view links below:

OEM barcode Scanners

If you are using Arduino microcontroller, please read: Arduino barcode scanner