Planet Arduino

Taking a paper list to the grocery store seems like a good idea, at least until you get there and try to use it. Did you remember to bring a pen? Great. How about a clipboard so you don’t punch through the paper when crossing something off? Apps are easier to use for this, especially the ones with checkboxes, but you’ll still have to enter everything manually. Wouldn’t it be easier (and way more fun) to just scan the barcodes of stuff you need into a list before you chuck the packaging?

That’s exactly the idea behind [DavidE281]’s barcode scanner, which is designed to work with the Bring! app. All he has to do is scan a barcode, and the product ends up in a tidy list on his phone. It’s a simple build that’s based around the M5StickC, which is an ESP32 dev kit that has a small display and a 6-axis IMU along with some other goodies. [David] combined it with a 2D barcode scanner that has a serial port and designed a printed case that joins them together.

Here’s how it works: the M5Stick sends the barcode over MQTT to an external Raspberry Pi that’s running Home Assistant. The Pi does a lookup in a spreadsheet and sends the data to the Bring! app over a community-built API. At the same time, it sends the product name back to the M5Stick’s display to confirm that it was added to the list. Check out bite-sized demo video after the break.

Scanning barcodes is super fun. So why not use an IoT barcode scanner to keep track of everything you own?

One of our favorite things about the rise of hobbyist development ecosystems such as the Arduino is that it’s now possible to make a MIDI controller out of almost anything, as long as you have the the shields and the dedication. We’re glad that [James Bruton] takes the occasional break from making robots to detour into instrument making, because his latest creation turns it up to 11.

This awesome guitar uses a barcode scanner to play notes, and various arcade controls to manipulate those notes. The barcodes themselves scan as ASCII values, and their equivalent integers are sent to an external MIDI device. This futuristic axe is built on an Arduino Mega, with a USB shield for the barcode scanner, and a MIDI shield on top that [James] connects to various synths in the video after the break.

In between shooting barcodes, the right hand also controls octave shifting and changing MIDI channels with the joystick, and doing pitch-bends with the rotary encoder. The array of arcade buttons on the bottom neck let him switch between single player for monophonic synths, and multiplayer for polys. The other three buttons are press-and-scan programmable single-note sounders that assist in chord-making and noodling.

We particularly dig the construction, which is a combination of 20/20 and 3D printed boxes. [James] found some angled PVC to serve as fretboards for the four necks, and a nice backgrounds for bar codes.The only thing we would change is the native beep of the barcode scanner — either silence it forever or make it mutable, because it doesn’t jive with every note. It might be nice to get the gun to scan continuously so [James] doesn’t get trigger finger. Or better yet, build the scanner into a glove.

Want to do something more useful with that barcode scanner in your parts bin? Use it to manage your household inventory. But first, reacquaint yourself with the history of the humble barcode as presented by [Adam Fabio].

Thanks for the tip, [baldpower]!