Connecting multiple SPARKFUN 2D BARCODE SCANNER BREAKOUT boards

I’m looking to connect up to 8 barcode scanners to one arduino but cannot figure out if I can set the address on the bardcode scanner or, if all are connected over USB how I would talk to each scanner breakout board individually to prompt one module at a time to read a barcode and report that back to an Arduino. Can I connect all the barcode readeres together over USB and then prompt each indivudally with a GPIO? Thanks!

Barcode Reader:

https://www.sparkfun.com/products/18088 … X1EALw_wcB

Datasheet:

https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/b/5/0/e … 40NS4wLjA.

They all have the same VID/PID, so your host device would likely think they are all the same COM port :-/

You could use them individually with something like 8 Pi Pico W’s (using usb A ↔ usb micro adapters); or poll them over UART incrementally

Most USB hosts allow multiple devices with the same VID/PID and would assign different com port numbers, though in my experience it isn’t obvious how they would map com port number to device, and may re-map at will.

In this case, since you want to connect to an Arduino, I would use the 3.3v logic TTL serial port instead. Either use a processor that has enough serial ports or use a mux that would allow you to have one processor port talking to multiple scanners, one at a time.

/mike

You could use multiplexer boards to switch between multiple barcode readers.

https://www.sparkfun.com/products/13906