Sounds interesting and would definitely be useful for retail.
There isn’t anything in that which stands out as impossible to you is there?
It would obviously apply more to situations like that above where they are selling something home/handmade or perhaps second hand like charity shop or something as these would not have the origional barcodes from a manufacturer.
Which makes me begin to think maybe there is not a huge need for such a setup as obviously the majority of situations you could just use the standard barcode on the items packaging.
Am I forgetting a major area where this would be ideal?
just about everything is possible with SambaPOS we just have to figure it out 
1 Like
We have a sample for free coffee coupon label printing here.
http://sambapos.org/wiki/doku.php/en/barcode_printing_tags
I think printing barcode labels will be something similar.
The more I think about it the less useful it becomes… Obviously most/all packaged products will have a unique barcode on them anyway. I can’t think of a huge amount of retail product bases which need barcode.
When I think of things without I think of bakery or candy shop, which would work better with touch buttons.
Will have a play and see what I can work out but think I’ve unsold myself on the value of such a setup :-/
Its good for consignment etc.
1 Like
Sorry going to have to sound dumb, when you say consignment I think delivery/currier?
What environment are you thinking.
Would be good to understand a sample workflow.
As I said it’s not something I need for my setup but would love to give back something which someone else can use.
I love the way all of a sudden a use for samba I hadn’t imagined/though about come to light all the time 
Well I agree with most of what has been discussed.
To add:
How about Bar coding your Customers by providing a Customer Card?
How about setting up Bar Codes for fast access to packaged products i.e Kits containing several products?
Bar Codes was the predecessor to Mag Cards (MSRs) and are far cheaper as you do not require a $2,000 AUD Mag Card printer to encode a 3 track Card (like a Credit Card).
You can download a free Bar Code font say the most common one is 3 of 9 “Code 39” and and most printers can print the font. I am not sure how Samba implements the font but you just ensure your product code or customer code is printed in the bar code font.
Most Bar Code Wands and Mirror Bar Code scanners can read multiple types of Bar Coded Fonts.
My opinion - Bar Codes are now “old” technology but are still the most reliable and cheapest form of key assignment. The Scanners never seem to break and the Bar Codes can be produced in adhesive sheets that peel off and can be stuck onto cards or products.
Mag Cards and Readers wear out very fast and the reader becomes unreliable and staff then choose not to use them.
Proximity readers are great but expensive.
Ok chiming out now.
PS: The Bar Code itself remains the same printed length for say “10123” and “23004422”. Sorry if I have repeated anything already discussed but just wanted to share the appreciation for this project by helping when I can.
1 Like
A good point, again being cheap option for id.
I like that idea! 
Also saying that I remember once being in a bar where there were bacodes on the back of the pumps.
The bartender had a little wireless scanner which is ran over the barcode as he pored a drink, when he got back to the till everything was all rang in ready. Was impressive idea but not sure if it would be that much more efficient that the regular way lo.
True but as with all tech its allot cheaper now for sure. I have a 3 track writer I bought new on ebay for £95 and works just fine for me.
As you say it is still a very cheap option for these type of applications and ideal for sticker type identification and tracking.
Again things are always dropping in price.
I prefer RFID for till login personally, reliable and durable.
However Not so expensive now days. I bought several small readers for only £10 each and a bag full of RFIS fabs for pennies each. Although they are probably cheap and cheerful in a disposable society for £10 you can have spares and replace if they die
Thanks for the additional used of a barcode printing setup, I will defiantly give it a go and welcome any input from anyone else interested to discuss.
No problems @JTRTech, can I ask where you purchased the RFID fobs from? Also how did you manage the keys or are they preprogrammed on order?
I just got them off ebay, was something like £12 for 20 or something like that.
They are the little round blue disc ones like some apartment blocks use for keys…
They come programmed with a serial number - maybe 12 didgets long which just becomes the PIN number.
The readers were cheap and didn’t have a setting application but worked straight out the box with a <cr> suffix
I have seen a MSR reader and RFID reader&writer from china for about £30 which I will try and get next time.
As I understand you would need to be sure to get rewritable rfids as not all are writable.
12 didgets pin seems excessive to me so if. Could rewrite down to 4 didgets, you could still login manually if you didn’t have the RFID to hand and knew the pin.
The plain readers were about £10 from uk supplier and as low as £5 ish from china if you don’t mind waiting.
They are clearly the same item just resold by uk distributor - but isn’t that the case for almost anything, what isn’t made in china nowadays lol
Here is a link, was £7 for 10
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/5-100Pcs-500-RFID-125KHz-Proximity-ID-Identification-Token-Tag-Key-Keyfob-UK-/321695428641?var=
The USB readers were £5.20
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-USB-RFID-ID-Contactless-Proximity-Smart-Card-Reader-EM4001-EM4100-Windows-/331362761637
2 Likes
This is the MSR reader and RFID reader/writer I looking to try at some point.
Bargain if it works.
1 Like
Perfect @JTRTech Thanks.
We do membership software at lots of clubs with around 1,000 members on average per club so cost is important.
1 Like
MSR reader looks great. I think I commented before it’s really important to get a configuration program for MSR’s as the 3 tracks all have leading characters which need to be stripped in some apps.
But it seems you are all over these, Cheers Paul
Is that a viable option over scanning your barcodes?
For that kind of quantity savings/costs soon add up.
I have seen listings for larger qty, 20 was just what I ordered to cover what I needed without spending too much ensace it didn’t work.
I was cautious after having difficulty with an MSR reader which wouldn’t seem to correctly carrage return and so would enter pin but not enter/login.
FYI quick check on ebay I found 100 RFID cards for £55 and 100 RFID fobs for £25
Don’t know about other features, login doesn’t matter as only accepts numerical didgits, main thing is correct carrage return function (for login anyway)
£24.98
Looking back should have just ordered £100 for the extra £1 lol 
Note these aren’t the ones I tested
There’s a china supplier with different colours.
Expect you could barter a little for 1000
That’s good pricing.
The issues are cost versus RELIABILITY versus read points (POS; Access Doors; Self Registration; and Kiosks).
Unfortunately when the user has to do the reads the most unreliable of all are the MSR’s! Many clubs are not enforced the use of MSR’s as when misreads occur they are almost instantly dropped…
My thoughts only @JTRTech.
Ps; yes we would look at 100,000 in fact lol.
Wow thought you said 1000…
For that kind of quantity you would probably be best going direct to china, ate you familia with alibaba?
Dallas key was one I always wanted to try but could not find any decent info about setting up and ust readers are like £80plus
MSR are cheap but like you said become unreliable.
Just had a quick look, they do RFID everything, wristbands key rings, stickers.
First fob I saw was from $0.12 for over 500