Barcode Scanner to SLC5/03

Having issues with a barcode scanner. With the PLC I'm using the barcode scanner is picking up 4 characters (2 at the beginning and at 2 at the end) that aren't actually supposed to be part of the characters being sent to the PLC. My assumption is that they are special characters that represent the beginning and end of the data but the PLC doesn't know that and actually thinks they are part of the data being sent. If somebody could confirm that this is actually correct. Is there a way to solve this?

For extra notes:
Barcode Scanner is called Motorola DS4208
Manual here: http://2dbarcodepilot.com/docs/Hardware_Configuration_ Guide.pdf

How is the data getting to the PLC?
What kind of PLC?
What data format is the barcode data in the PLC?

Rs232, channel 0 port
SLC500 series, 5/03 is the exact model as I mentioned in the title.
ASCII

Leeroy said:

SLC500 series, 5/03 is the exact model as I mentioned in the title.

Click to expand...

Oops, i somehow missed those big bold letters.

Okay, the data is in ASCII, but is it in "A" type ascii file or "ST" type of string file?

Since it's connected serially, there are options in the serial port settings in the SLC CH0 user settings (assuming user ascii mode) for the termination characters. If those are set to match what the device is sending, that should take care of the trailing characters.

The leading characters, you may have to get rid of with some ladder logic.

The AEX (Ascii extract) command can do that for you (with ST file type).

It's in String (ST) format. Yes it's user ascii mode, I've never used the termination characters before so since the 2 beginning characters are ^J and ending characters are ^M, should I try putting those charcters instead of what's there already?

EDIT: Just found out those termination characters are in hex format, should have know that.
Tried changing but that didn't work, the plc likes to see the carriage return(\d, what's in the termination character 1 before changing) as the termination character, which does makes sense. When I changed the character it was just adding on to the string and not going to the next line (the cr and lf).

Another problem, I tried printing off a couple of other barcodes to scan and now they don't have the leading characters I was mentioning, why could that be? If it has to do with ink that would be funny.

I don't think that the termination characters will "fix" the beginning of the string, they simply tell the ARL instruction when the end of the line of text has been read. Be careful changing them, since they will also be appended to any AWA instructions you might be using.

The AEX should work for your string.

To remove two characters, you want something like this:


EDIT: If the lead characters "come and go" you could extract them to another working string element, then use an ASR (ASCII string compare) instruction to see if they match the bogus characters (by populating another spare string element with those unwanted characters), then only remove them if there is a match.

Okay I see how that would fix/get rid of the beginning characters. The thing is that when I printed off different barcodes just to use them for teseting purposes, the beginning characters didn't even show up anymore, just the ending ones.