prawnjoe

Anyone know if there is a way to use my phone to scan a bar-code to my laptop using USB link?

Would be useful for me in work to be able to quickly scan a bunch of codes straight into a spreadsheet.

Couldn't find anything to do this myself.

zartemis

Using the phone to scan a bunch of barcodes sounds painful. If you have a lot of barcodes to scan, I'd just pick up a modified cuecat usb scanner. I got one on ebay for less than $10. Much, much faster than the phone.

I can see how having the phone do it would be useful if you just had one to do every now and then, but if you are doing a bunch of them to a spreadsheet, just get a Cue Cat.

Or an app like Memento,where you can set up a list with a barcode field, scan barcodes to the list, then export as CSV and import into your computer spreadsheet. Program is free. But the Cue Cat will be much easier and quicker.

beckx020

PC_BCR - Android app on AppBrain

Haven't ever used it tho.

zartemis

Nice find. If it works as indicated, it gives you a wireless barcode scanner -- no need to be tied to your PC. Scan your books in one room, with your PC in another. Wireless barcode scanners are a bit more expensive than USB ones, so this app would be quite useful. Good way to scan books into LibraryThing.com, say.

I've now tried it out. It does work, although the install on the PC side is a bit cumbersome (it supports Windows and Linux). It's easy to set the software to put a tab or a space between barcode numbers transfered to computer. One problem you'll have is that if you can't get the scan to work and you are scanning a whole bunch of items, there is no way to enter the number by hand on the phone and keep going. You'll have to skip the item or switch to your PC and enter it manually.

Last edited by zartemis; July 3rd, 2010 at 03:58 PM.

beckx020

Maybe a good suggestion to the developer?

cginetbr

I use this Barcode2PC ... It works by using the internet or wifi.

Good luck.

BerryWing

I have an app that might help you.
It's called "Scan to Spreadsheet"

Granted it does not scan directly into the PC, but it will build a spreadsheet of scanned barcodes on your phone. You can then export to the SD card or email the file to your PC where you can edit it.

Scan to Spreadsheet also allows you to edit columns. For instance, give one column the title QTY and the value of 1. So when you scan several barcodes, the QTY can be summed on Excel after you export the file.

Hope that helps

Also available for the iPhone.

Last edited by BerryWing; November 12th, 2011 at 12:09 AM. Reason: Forgot to add app name.