How to get serial data in Arduino from a barcode scanner?

Question

I want to interface my barcode scanner with an Arduino using RS232. I have connected 2 (RX), 3 (TX) and 5 (GND) of the RS232 with the corresponding pins of MAX232. I am taking TTL outputs on Arduino pins 6 and 7.

This is the code of the Arduino program:

#include <SoftwareSerial.h>

SoftwareSerial mySerial(6, 7); // RX, TX

void setup() {
  Serial.begin(9600);
}

void loop() {
  // run over and over
  if (mySerial.available()) {
    byte x = mySerial.read();
    Serial.println(x);
  }
}

I am not getting any output on the serial monitor when I scan a product.

Answer 1

Assuming your Arduino has only one hardware serial connection (it's something like an Uno rather than a Mega) you're quite right in using software serial, the Arduino will already be using pins 2 and 3 to communicate via USB to the Serial monitor so you can't use them to communicate with the scanner.

However carefully look at your first line of code, you've asked software serial to use pins 6 & 7 yet hooked the barcode scanner to pins 2 & 3. Move those pins over to the one's you've specified.

Secondly in your setup function you've begun communication with hardware Serial but not software serial. You'll need to add something like mySerial.begin(XXX) where XXX is the baud rate for the scanner.

Finally you haven't told the Arduino what pinMode to use for 6 and 7. You'll want pinMode(6, INPUT) and pinMode(7, OUTPUT) in there too.

Answer 2

RS 232 works on different voltage levels than Arduino, I believe the values you are getting on the screen will have no meaning whatsoever, If the scanner output is TTL then yes it would work, but in my own experience that logic is inverted and you have to add a 1 to software serial:

SoftwareSerial mySerial(6, 7, 1); // RX, TX

The first step is checking what voltage level is given by your scanner output.

Answer 3

I tried this as well, for some reason it is NOT WORKING on pins 6 and 7, but it works perfectly using pins 10 and 11 instead. Of course, you still need to add the mySerial.begin().