Scale Price Tags

[barry not logged in]

hi dale,

i really like the idea of price tags for the scales.
this is especially used for stuff like from the deli, seafood and from the meat department.

the tages are in the format of something like
xxxxxxxpppppc

where xxxxxxx is the 'item'
ppppp is the price
and c is the check digit.

i think the best way to implement this scales price tag is to add a pricetag like 1234567000000 where 1234567 is the item and 000000 is the price.

what you do think?

[Jonathan]

In my experience, the scales I have worked with only allow 4 digits for price, up to 99.99. Amounts higher than this have the price printed on the label but do not recieve a barcode on the label. I actually have a hobart scale at home in my basement, and if I can get programming information for it I'll try a few things myself to see what the different items and prices show up as (in particular the check digits).

[Dale Harris]

I have been working on a "scales" feature and that is what we are going to be talking about in the chatroom today and tomorrow. If you are interested or have anything to contribute to this topic then be there between 8:00 and 10:00 pm CST (Chicago) time.

http://www.home-nets.biz/chat/

You do not have to register, just enter a username and click the [Chat] button.

[ChrisKraus]

Here Is What I Do:
I Have A Stock Number With The Price Programmed In For 1 Pound (Or Kilogram or whatever unit of weight is used with your product) Then, what you do is type in the scales reading into the Quantity field when ringing up the sale. So all you need your scale to print out on the label is the weight.

- Chris

[smckane]

Here in the UK, Morrisons who I now sadly work for, use this method for pricing nearly all their ownbrand gods - excellent for pricing accuracy - pack price=barcode always. Nightmare for running promotions, planning when goods will be available with the correct barcode on the box!

They use the format FFSSSSSSPPPPPC (with C as a check digit, I may have the number of Ss wrong :-) ). The default system price is the ppKg or usual pack price, it also works if you type in 0s after the stock elemtent (ie a file price of 1.49 would come up if the the sequence ended 00149C or 00000C).

This has cut down on a lot of shelf price checking as you just print a label out that says PRICED :-) Now, if only the IBM tills would scan the damn things.....

Stewart

[Dale Harris]

smckane,

Tonight on chat is devoted to the new "scales" feature, probably tomorrow night also. People will be there from 8:00pm to 10:00pm CST (Chicago) time.

Join us.

[Dale Harris]

I have a BETA version of the POS program that is ready for testing.

This file consists of only a new POS.EXE CF2.EXE and POSCONFG.EXE files.

Make a new folder on your hard drive and then copy all the files in your current POS folder there. Now download the file above to the NEW folder and unzip it. Use the new folder for testing. The new files will be labeled as version 6.18 BETA 2.

Please remember that the whole purpose of this excercise is for you to test the new feature and post your comments here. Does it work for you? Are the instruction hard to understand? How could it be made better? What do you like/don't like?

Here are the instructions...

Many scales will produce a barcode label to attach to a package that contains the stock number for the item and the price for the package (price per unit weight times the weight, i.e. 1.30 per pound at 4.5 pounds = 5.85. The price for the package printed on the label will be 5.85.) If the stock number for the item was 75698 then the barcode printed on the label may have this number encoded 275698405853. As you can see the digits 2 - 6 are the stock number and digits 7 - 11 is the price.
It would be very swell if the POS program could decode these barcodes into the stock number and the price. So it will, but you are going to have to do some work.
Scale barcodes must contain 3 things, a 'flag' to tell the POS program that this is a scale barcode (which is the same on every scale barcode,) the actual stock number for the item, and the total price for the package.
Use the "Scale" feature in the POSCONFG.EXE program and enter a sample barcode number printed by your scale. If the stock number is less than 14 digits long then enter leading zeros to make it 14 digits long. If you compare several barcodes printed by your scale you will see that they all begin with the same digits. For example you may have scale numbers like 234242111422, 216985412578, 269856475124, each one of these numbers begins with the digit "2." And, importantly, no other 12 digit stock numbers in your stock table will begin with "2." Now from left to right, under the stock number, place "F" under the part of the stock number that holds the scale flag (including any leading zeros.)
To mark the location of the stock number place the letter "S" under the stock number digits. To mark the price place the letter "P" under the digits representing the price. Be careful, one or more of the digits in barcode will be used for a parity check or other purpose and not be part of the flag, stock number, or price. Do not place any letters under them.
For example if flag is '2', the stock number is 56987, and the price is 23.56 then you should enter...
<pre>
00256987223561
FFFSSSSS PPPP
</pre>
.

Once you have filled in a sample scale barcode number and identified the parts by placing the letters underneath press [TAB] to set the flag in the program. This is important, the flag will not be set unless you press [TAB]
Pressing [TAB] will also show you the stock number that you must use to enter the stock number into the stock table. This will usually consist of the flag plus the stock number followed by trailing zeros. In the sample above the stock number for that item would be 256987000000. When you enter the item into the stock table you must enter the price per unit weight as the price. For example if the price is 2.98 per pound then you would enter 2.98 as the price. If the price is 8.45 per kilogram then the price entered in the stock table would be 8.45.
Now when you scan a scale barcode into a sale it will recognize that the item is from the scale. It will look up the item in the stock table by 256987000000 (NOT 00256987223561), use the description entered for that item. Use the price in the stock table for the price, and calculate the weight of the package as the pieces. For example if the price in the stock table is 4.30 and the price on the scale barcode is 12.36 then the weight (pieces) must be 2.874. NOTE: I do the best that I can but your scale and the POS program may round off differently and there may be a rounding error of .001 on the weight (pieces) or .01 on the price.
For this feature to work properly it is absolutely required that the scale and the POS program have the same price (per unit weight) for the same item. If they are not the same then you wil have to ring up the package by entering (for example) the 256987000000 number as the stock number then manually enter the price and weight (pieces) so that the total price for that item comes out to the same price that is on the scale label.

[Andrew]

Just wanted to comment on a good chat we had last night about the scales feature.

It was a shame however that we only got on extra person (thanks RJ) to come in and talk about it with us and beta test what Dale's worked hard on.

Come one guys - one of the best ways to get involved is in the chatroom, it's live it's direct, it's where all the DHPOS gossip comes from. I know it's hard with time zones, but heck - chat for me is at 2pm, after coming off of a night shift, but I still make time.

It's all well and good to request features and make suggestions but we don't know all about most of the things suggested - we need feedback, and while the forum and email are great, the chatroom provides a live feed into the heart of DHPOS and most of the creations are born/discussed in there.

Join (most of) us at 20:00 - 22:00 CST (Chicago Time) at http://www.home-nets.biz/chat