Operation Manual

Message Formatting
172 PowerScan™ M8500
Messages from SCANNER Command Keys
PowerScan M8500 Keypad
The PowerScan™ M8500 series scanners with display have 3 command keys that can each
be associated with a character to send to the host.
By pressing the keys on the scanner, the associated character with
its relative message
formatting is sent to the Host. For example, keys can be used to select items from a menu
sent to the scanner display by the application program.
The general format is:
[Header] [Scanner_Addr] [Scanner_Addr_delimiter] ] [Cradle_Addr] [Cradle_Addr_delimiter]
[Time stamp] [Ts_delimiter] [Code ID] [Code Length]
KeyID
[Terminator]
[Items in square brackets are optional.]
The messages are handled by the system as if they were barcodes, that's why KeyID can have
so many fields appended to it. If in your application there is some chance of reading a 1-char
barcode identical to KeyID, the way you can distinguish between the two is to enable the
Code ID: The KeyID is the only 1-character long EAN 8 code.
Refer to "Network Parameters" on page 152 for a compete description of the optional message
fields in square brackets.
The default characters associated with each key (KeyID) are shown in the following table:
Default Key Identifiers
Key
KeyID
▲
(left) Key
'<'
ENTER
(center) Key
'='
▼
(right) Key
'>'