Attendance system with barcode scanner VB.NET

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I am planning a Office Management Software for a school... In this my major challenge is attendance.. I want to use BarCode Scanner for Attendance. I will print ID Cards with BarCodes. So they can scan it easily... but I am confused that ..
BarCode scanner will work with PC only and My Software will run on Main Control PC... There are 15 classrooms in the school... I can not install PCs for each class.. So, how I manage... If I purchase 15 BarCode scanners and place in each class and connect all with Main Control PC by using USB HUB..
will it work? or will it be stable?

When We scan a BarCode, a beep sound always flash. I don't know it form BarCode device or PC with that BarCode device is connected... If it is from PC then in my case how they will know the Code has been scanned.. please give suggestions...

please help....

What I have tried:

I am just trying.. please help...

Posted 22-Jun-17 0:36am

Rajan Pandit

Updated 22-Jun-17 1:18am

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F-ES Sitecore 22-Jun-17 6:52am

These appear to be hardware questions, not software ones. I'm sure there are scanners out there that suit your purpose, ones that maybe communicate back to a single "control" PC.

Rajan Pandit 22-Jun-17 7:19am

ok.. let me tell one thing... If I connect 15 BarCode Scanner with a PC, will all work properly at a time... with my software. ... means data will be add to sql server or some will skip..

F-ES Sitecore 22-Jun-17 7:21am

If you get a scanner system designed to do that then yes it should, but you'd need to choose the hardware first then code according to that hardware's needs.

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Solution 2

Quote:
If I purchase 15 BarCode scanners and place in each class and connect all with Main Control PC by using USB HUB..

I think it is a wrong solution, simply because USB is very limited on the length of cable, it is about 5 to 10 meters maximum. I fear your classrooms will not be that close.
You need to gather informations about how far away are the classrooms and see with manufacturer what are the possibilities.
I would certainly choose a scanner with an ethernet link and serial emulation.
The PC having a driver that show a virtual RS232 per scanner.

Posted 22-Jun-17 1:18am

Patrice T

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OriginalGriff · Accepted Answer · 2017-06-22T01:15:00

It's probably not a good idea: USB doesn't have good range - even powered hubs can be no further than a 5m cable from each other, so to use USB to connect the barcode scanners, you will heed a considerable number of powered hubs, each of which will need to be plugged into a mains supply continually. And that adds a heck of a lot of "point of failure" locations, as well as considerably increasing the cost. And ... it's not going to work very well either.

The problem is that a barcode scanner looks to the PC as if it was a keyboard: the article number you scan is generated as keypresses, so if you have 15 classrooms all trying to take attendance at the same time - which is what happens in schools, given they run to a rigid timetable - there is a very good chance that the article number streams from several scanners are going to get mingled together, and there is no way to identify at the PC where a particular code came from unless you write your own drivers for the scanners.

Instead, I'd suggest that you look to a Raspberry Pi or similar with a scanner connected for each class, and use the school WiFi to send back the data to a central facility. Simpler, safer, and more reliable.