they are 29$ new on newegg On Fri, Mar 2, 2018 at 4:49 AM, Anthony Coghlan <[email protected]> wrote:
> Thanks, Peter. I think I’m going to try the barcode reader you use if I > can get it on eBay cheaply, as it may be more reliable anyway. Perhaps I > have to try loading the driver and program with REX temporarily disabled as > an experiment. I suspect a conflict in memory and don’t otherwise know how > to resolve that. > > Best wishes, > Anthony > > > > On Friday, March 2, 2018, Peter Noeth <[email protected]> wrote: > >> I don't have a REX in my M102, but I have been using the BCR to do >> "pantry" and "wine cellar" inventory. Both are in the basement, so are not >> readily accessible when one wants to know what is down there. I am not >> using the Radio Shack wand, but instead am using a UniTech >> MS120-NTCB00-SG "industrial strength" wand. It is "plug-in" compatible with >> the RS wand, and has a sapphire tip that doesn't abrade the barcode labels >> and keeps dust out of the wand. It also has better "dynamic range" so has >> no problems reading low contrast barcodes or ines in color. I am using the >> sample "Simple Inventory" program (with some modifications) that came with >> the RS Barcode Reader package. I read the "database" file into Excel >> and keep a printout in the kitchen. The program works well, and barcode >> reads are quite reliable once you get used to the swiping speed needed. >> >> As to your program conflicts, problem with many of the early computers >> with "operating systems" supplied by Microsoft, is the RAM driver concept >> is limited in practical use. Microsoft intended the RAM driver facility to >> patch a ROM driver that may have bugs or add additional planned system >> expansion (like the DVI, Bar Code Reader, TDD, Option ROM, etc.). Later >> third party developers who had a product that used their own RAM driver all >> seemed to locate them in the same address in memory (top of available RAM, >> the logical place to put it). This creates memory conflicts. Especially in >> computers using the Intel 8080/8085 processors that do not support >> "relative" addressing. Without relative addressing, the user cannot move a >> driver to a different starting address in memory without recompiling it >> first, and since the user does not get a copy of the source code, he is >> usually out of luck. >> >> There were a few attempts using programs that would read the code of the >> driver and attempt to find all of the JMP and CALL instructions and patch >> them directly to a new base starting address, but it was not always >> successful, as often times the driver would contain inline data bytes that >> would confuse the conversion program. These programs usually worked on >> computers using the Z80 processors, since it did support relative >> addressing. >> >> Regards, >> >> Peter >> >> ------------------------ >> >> <snip> >> >> Message: 14 >> Date: Fri, 2 Mar 2018 00:57:07 -0500 >> From: Anthony Coghlan <[email protected]> >> To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> >> Subject: Re: [M100] Bar code reader with REX >> Message-ID: >> <[email protected] >> ail.com> >> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" >> >> Yes, that was the drive belt I used also if I recall, made by Russell >> Industries. I can?t find my old purchase info from eBay, but it was about >> $9 at the time. (I think Brian mentioned that price as well.) It was so >> nice to see the drive come to life! >> >> Best wishes, >> Anthony >> >> >> All on the list: any tips on reliably using the bar code reader? Thanks. >> I?m threatening to inventory our pantry if I can get it working, though my >> wife doesn?t think that?s such a practical application... :) >> >> <snip> >> >> >>
