Change barcode scan beep volume for motorola devices

Question

I am developing some .net applications with c# for various Motorola devices running Windows Mobile and Windows CE. These include the MC9190 and the WT41N0. On these two models, it beeps very loudly when a barcode is scanned. Is there anyway using the Motorola emdk or by changing a registry setting to make the beep quieter without turning the beep off altogether.

Solution 1

I don't know if this works for all Motorola devices, but you could try including Symbol.Audio and:

using Symbol.Audio;
...
using (StandardAudio audio = new StandardAudio(Device.AvailableDevices[0]))
{
    audio.BeeperVolume = 1;
}

You can inspect the audio.BeeperVolumeLevels property to see what the maximum volume level is.

Solution 2

In Symbol scanner terminology this is called "feedback", and by default it's the local feedback setting that gets in the way of properly managing the audio.

In your application, after you create the reader, the following settings control it:

    _BarcodeReader.Parameters.Feedback.Success.BeepFrequency = 2000
    _BarcodeReader.Parameters.Feedback.Success.BeepTime = 20

_BarcodeReader being the reader object. I set it to lower frequency for a shorter time above.

If you need to eliminate the beeping altogether:

_BarcodeReader.Parameters.Feedback.Success.BeepTime = 0

You may want to add your own wave file:

_BarcodeReader.Parameters.Feedback.Success.WaveFile = "decode.wav"

This is also the case with the DataWedge software that ships with MC9xxx and MC3xxx series. If you're using DataWedge, look for "local feedback" under the feedback menu, from Scanner, under Basic configuration.

The scan audio can only be managed from the feedback settings, volume control and other methods have no effect. It seems Zebra (previously Motorola) used high-volume default for loud industrial settings, wish they had considered a better way to configure though.

Comments

[badcook]

The original question seems to be asking for a software fix, not a hardware/user workaround.

[Shinigamae]

This is a question regarding development work I assume. You can't technically do that on the client devices except asking the users to do that themselves.

[JasonH]

For our MC32N0 this worked (thank you @can.do !! Our customers were going crazy with that loud beep!), and the method I called from my VS2008 CF3.5 C# application was a little different, but basically the same: barcode21.Config.ScanParameters.BeepTime = 0;

[JasonH]

And for a "mellow" sound, I added this setting: barcode21.Config.ScanParameters.BeepFrequency = 1000

[can.do]

Glad that worked for you. We now use a data-file and menu options for various configurations for the feedback.