more than one scanner

this question may have been asked before but i searched and couldnt find an answer.....

can i hook up more than one barcode scanner to a slc 5/03 or 5/05??


my asumption is for the 5/03 there may be a module that gives you more serial ports than just the one on the processor

and the 5/05 use the same module for serial but could also do ethernet barcode scanners???

Try this:
http://www.rtaautomation.com/products/435/ASCIISLC505.html

escoplcguy said:

this question may have been asked before but i searched and couldnt find an answer.....

can i hook up more than one barcode scanner to a slc 5/03 or 5/05??


my asumption is for the 5/03 there may be a module that gives you more serial ports than just the one on the processor

and the 5/05 use the same module for serial but could also do ethernet barcode scanners???

Click to expand...

I will take a few liberties with your question. The I/O module that will give you more "serial" ports is the 1746-BAS (and 1746-BAS-T). You must write the program in Basic and load it into the module. This module has 2 ports (and can handle 2 ASCII input devices). You can put multiple BAS modules in a rack if needed.

If you have the option to go with ethernet Barcode scanners, I would take that route. I have used the BAS modules and the Basic program and subsequent PLC logic (from the M registers) can be unnerving if you've never done that before. The only problem is that the 5/03 is NOT ethernet.


So the big question is what do you need to hook up to (5/03 or 5/05) and what kind of communication on the scanners is available?

can i use 2 of these to hook up 4?? and how do i get the scanned data to the plc via ethernet??

currently i have one hand held scanner hooked up to the pc via ethernet and it is sending the data to the plc through a string input on rsview. i need to hook up 4 different scanners to 1 plc...which is currently a slc 5.03

Ebay an SLC505 then and go for the rta solution widelto mentioned above. Each RTA has two serial ports so you would need two I would think. They write directly to SLC STXX:X registers.
Easy setup with a web browser....

escoplcguy said:

can i use 2 of these to hook up 4?? and how do i get the scanned data to the plc via ethernet??

currently i have one hand held scanner hooked up to the pc via ethernet and it is sending the data to the plc through a string input on rsview. i need to hook up 4 different scanners to 1 plc...which is currently a slc 5.03

Click to expand...

Sorry, I was thinking controllogix. You can not put the data via ethernet directly into a 5/05 from the scanner (I'm pretty sure that you can't). In this case it really doesn't matter much which processor you use because you are sending the data from the PC to the PLC. My guess is that you are using VB or a DDE link to put the data in via DH485. You can put all 4 scanners on ethernet and put that data into the PC and then message over to the PLC, but someone must write that interface.

You can also use the 2 each of the 1746-BAS modules and write the data directly into the 5/03 M file. My personal feeling on automated controls is to put the data into the PLC. I dislike going thru different interfaces to get the data. On handheld systems, that is a different story since it is easier to control, the PC interface isn't a big deal.

PM me with your email and I will send a copy of my 2 port interface (note that there is an offset in the M file location) if you want to use the basic modules.


You can't just load it in and expect it to work though. You must have all the comms set correctly and you have to get the information out of the M file into a string file. There is quite a bit of programming for that that I no longer have access to (see my user ID).

There is also an input that tells when data is available on the module and there is also a way to handshake, but it would take me a while of digging through the AB website to find all that.

we currently have a slc 503 but if we add the scanners we will need to add code which means we need more memory in the plc i am advising them that if they want to add the lines to upgrade to the 5/05 and they are happy to do so...so when we add the 5.05 we now have the ethernet port on the 5/05 available. but how do i get multiple scanners readings into the plc?

escoplcguy said:

we currently have a slc 503 but if we add the scanners we will need to add code which means we need more memory in the plc i am advising them that if they want to add the lines to upgrade to the 5/05 and they are happy to do so...so when we add the 5.05 we now have the ethernet port on the 5/05 available. but how do i get multiple scanners readings into the plc?

Click to expand...

You must have a very large program if you are running out of memory.

You can either use 2 each of the 1746-BAS modules or 2 each of the RTA Automation modules "widelto" posted about. I have never used the RTA modules so I am of no help. If it does what it says it does, that is a much easier solution for a 5/05 and multiple scanners.

The RTA modules are great I stock 1 just in case I get q serial job. I don't think they do DH 485. You could use a Reflion G3.

Red Lion Data Station & Banner iVu

Take a look at the Banner iVu BCR barcode readers.
These are Ethernet capable barcode scanners. They are fairly inexpensive as Ethernet readers go, especially if you use the remote head units & buy only one setup screen.

You can connect these thru the Ethernet port on the Red Lion Data Station using a simple script file. The Data Station will write the contents of your barcodes via the serial port directly into designated registers in your PLC.

We are doing this at present with 8 readers into a small Mitsubishi FX3G via serial RS422 and it works great. The Data Station has drivers for AB SLC( and most others )as well. This is a very low cost and most of all EASY method.

Check out the modules from Prosoft (http://www.prosoft-technology.com/) They install in the racks and allow you to use ladder logic. I always had bad luck with Basic Cards.

Serial Splitter

We utilized a serial splitter and then set up the barcode scanners with unique prefixes within the barcode. Upon receiving the data from the barcode scanner we could then use code to determine which scanner it was then process data from there.

There were no issues.