Scanner Input w/ Modified CueCat--Can't Make It Work

[andrewjnyc]

I purchased a modified CueCat on eBay earlier this week to assist in adding by entire DVD collection to DVDpedia, but the scanner doesn't seem to be working at all--when I plug it into my MacBook's USB port, it's seen as a keyboard, and there's plenty of lightt coming out of it, but scanning just ain't working. Is it an issue of how I'm holding the scanner? I've dragged it slowly across the bar code, both touching the DVD case and from an inch or two away, and it just doesn't work. Do I need to be scannning numbers and not bars? Should I go from right to left instead of vice versa? It's totally baffling. And while I underscand configuration/testing functions for a scanner aren't required in the 'pedias, they'd sure be a welcome psychological comfort blanket in situations like this...

[Conor]

You should only have to hold it over the bars. It might be you are not at the proper distance from the bars for it to read it correctly. You can use a text editor for debugging. There is nothing special about the CueCat, it should act as a keyboard and send the keystrokes for the number followed by a return. So typing should appear in a text editor if the CueCat is working properly. (It should appear in the find text field in DVDpedia as well; you want to set DVDpedia to add the first result automatically and return to the find panel in the preferences and then open the find window before scanning.) It could be in the modification of the CueCat a wire came lose and you have to have it changed. (DVDpedia does not require a modified CueCat it can translate the encoded information, but a modified one is better for wider compatibility with other programs.)