Last Updated on 2013-11-18.

Problem

Using the Motorola MT20xx Barcode scanner, you may have seen that the pre-installed “Scan Item” application does not allow quantities of 0; error “The quantity number must be between 1 and 99999” appears.

This setting might be useful if you use the “Separate” option for the transfer, i.e. if you choose quantity 0, the code would be transferred 0 times. But for option “Together”, where the quantity is transferred as number in a single line with the scanned code, quantity 0 can be useful e.g. for yearly inventories.

Solution

I asked my vendor for a simple possibility to change this behaviour, but according to him, Motorola’s official solution unfortunately is to modify and compile the application yourself, as the “Scan Item” application should be only a sample, but for our usage it is enough.

To make things short, I modified the code and compiled it, you can download it here:

ScanItemEx for Motorola MT2070

Info: I used the source example which is from the official Motorola EMDK package, I modified a few lines to allow 0 quantity values. If it is a problem for Motorola I share a compiled / modified version of Scan Item, please let me know and I will remove the files from here.

Installation on the device

To install the modified Scan Item application on your MT2070, do the following steps:

1. Configure the Scanner to use ActiveSync in USB Options.
2. Connect scanner and PC, e.g. with a Motorola USB cable. Windows 8 should do everything itself, so you can access files on the scanner via Windows Explorer after the drivers have been installed.
3. Extract the above Zip file to a location on your local PC hard drive.
4. Move the whole folder to [MT2070 device]Application, so you create the folder [MT…]ApplicationScanItemEx with the executables in it. Note: Mark the folder when moving, not the files inside, as renaming the remote folder afterwards might not work. Also make sure you place it under “Application” and not elsewhere like Program Files, as data could be lost after a cold reboot otherwise.
5. You can test the application by opening File Explorer on your scanner device, and then start the exe in the path where you transferred it to.
6. Modify [MT2070 device]PlatformNavigator.XML, so the “Scan Item” link points to your alternative exe (the original “ScanItem.exe” cannot be modified, it resides in Windows. The XML file includes the default menu structure. You can also download an already modified file here MT2070_NAVIGATOR_modified. Make a backup copy of your XML file before.
7. Do a warm reboot (Press Number 2 + Trigger). When the menu appears again, you should be able to start your Scan Item application directly with the original main menu link.

Optional: Modify and compile the application yourself

Experienced users can change the source themselves, of course. Unfortunately, the EMDK package only supports MS Visual Studio 2005 and 2008 (it does not find 2010 and 2012, as the Windows CE support there is very limited).

So it would be the best to e.g. create a virtual Windows 7 VM in Hyper-V, install Visual Studio 2008 there, install Motorola EMDK and have a look at the included samples. You can emulate the device and then transfer the compiled executables to your MT20xx device as described above.

Also read the Integrator Guide downloadable also from Motorola, it provides more useful details.