Want to use both on screen keyboard and HID keyboard at same time

I'm using the Symbol LS4278 barcode scanners as well trying to use the OSKB while having the scanner connected.

Has anyone found anything else that would keep it up. I've tried using the Apple Bluetooth Keyboard first, but since the setup will be used by our staff they will not be able to switch between the two bluetooth devices easily.

It would be nice if there was a barcode that could be scanned by the reader that would either send the same command as the eject key on the keyboard to bring up the OSKB or something to turn the bluetooth off on the scanner which would effectively temporarily disconnect it while the keyboard was used.

Any thoughts?

I am having the same issue. Talked to a few people at Apple. They say wait until the updated OS, it might allow that.

It would also be nice, that if you shut off the bluetooth scanner, it would automatically reconnect with the iPad......

I am able to connect a Symbol LS4278 bluetooth laser barcode scanner with an iPad. I did have to set the scanner to use a Variable PIN code. See page 4-16 of the Symbol LS 4278 Product Reference Guide. (Who ever heard of a 400+ page manual for a barcode scanner?)

I also need to use the virtual keyboard on the iPad as well as the bluetooth barcode scanner. Standard iPad apps disable the virtual keyboard if a bluetooth kb is attached and an HID bluetooth device is in essence a keyboard. I did notice that the iPod Touch/iPhone apps I have will present me with the iPhone virtual keyboard even if I have the barcode scanner attached. So it is possible to use both simultaneously; either the Apps need to be written to accommodate it, or Apple needs to make the disabling of the Virtual Keyboard an option (this would be a very nice thing to have in iPhone OS ver. 4. PLEASE.

The Symbol LS4278 reattaches to the iPad seamlessly, with no user action necessary.

I am working on the spec for adding forklift mounted touch devices with bluetooth barcode scanners to our Warehouse Management System and this would make for a slick and inexpensive hardware configuration.

"I am able to connect a Symbol LS4278 bluetooth laser barcode scanner with an iPad. I did have to set the scanner to use a Variable PIN code. See page 4-16 of the Symbol LS 4278 Product Reference Guide."

I'm curious as to all the scanner settings you had to use to make this connection. I'm working on a proof-of-concept along these lines for our company with an LS4278 and my iPhone, but thus far have not been able to get the phone to see the scanner. I set my scanner as a HID Slave, tried both general and limited discoverability, NA keyboard, immediate auto-reconnect, variable pin (per your comment), enable/disable auth, enable/disable encyrption.

Eureka, well sort of... I discovered something interesting. If you pair an Apple bluetooth keyboard to an iPad you can enable the on-screen keyboard (oskb) by pressing the eject button on the bluetooth keyboard. If you then connect the the LS4278 then go back into an app that accepts text such as the notes app, the oskb and the barcode scanner will now both be working. Cool, except if you hide the oskb you cannot get it back. If you use Apple's Numbers app though, you can activate the oskb at will while the barcode scanner is connected. So the capability is there, you just need an app that enables you to keep the oskb on screen. To make the functionality more universal, Apple should add a setting that would give the user the option to enable the oskb continuously.

I don't know for sure, but I don't believe that the function that controls the simultaneous use of the OSKB and a bluetooth HID device is something that can be activated by a scanned control character or such.

Based on the behavior I saw, it does persist at least until some other functionality comes along and turns it off, such as pressing the keyboard hide button on the OSKB itself. Which leads me to believe that even if someone came up with an App that set the function on, it would end up being turned off again etc. etc.

So I'm guessing that the only solution would be specific to an app that you would be working in, or else Apple will have to accommodate the need in the OS.

@ddaeges1: Could you please post the complete scanner settings you used to pair the LS4278? (So after a factory default reset?). I am also investigating a solution for our warehouse which involves a bluetooth LS4278 barcode scanner with iPod Touch or iPad. I already solved the communication issue with our MS SQL-server but a have a final hurdle in pairing the barcode scanner. Tried a lot of combinations already but you seem to have found the right one.

@Stryfe: You seem to have mastered the connection of the LS4278 to the iPad as well. Can you post the scanner settings and/or iPad settings? I have tried both HID and SPP Master with authentication enabled as per the instructions in this forum and the scanner connects. In SPP the scanner stays connected but no scan is transferred to f.e. Notes. In HID the scanner connects briefly and than disconnects, scanning a barcode then results in a communication error sounding from the scanner. Do you know what I am doing wrong?

After about an hour of playing with settings I finally got my iPhone 3GS with IOS 4 and a LS4278 working correctly. Here's the steps I took:

1. Reset Scanner to Default Settings
2. Set Scanner to Bluetooth Keyboard Emulation (HID Slave)
3. Set Scanner to Variable PIN Code
4. You should see the scanner in your iPhone/iPad Bluetooth list, Select it and it will ask you to scan in a 4- digit number. Be sure to use the alphanumeric barcodes (appendix E) and NOT the numeric ones in appendix D! Scan the four numbers and then scan the "End of Message" barcode.

As far as reconnecting is concerned as far as I can tell with these settings you need to go into the iphone's bluetooth and manually connect each time. Oh and its scanner or OSKB in IOS 4 also.

Finally I sorted out my problems as well. First of all the firmware of my LS4278 was outdated so it is very important to update the firmware with the Scan123^2 software which you can download from the Symbol site. Secondly I was using a version of the manual which I downloaded around the time I bought the scanner. The newer manual (also downloaded from the Symbol site) contained the programming barcodes for 'Variable PIN' and 'End of Message' (scanned after the last alphanumeric digit is scanned).

The instructions by Roadrunner are then very accurate to connect the scanner. Although I found out that the scanner automatically reattempts to connect when there is no connection but a barcode is scanned. So no need to manually connect each time.

I'm using a bluetooth barcode scanner too and would love to be able to popup the on-screen keyboard.
Most promising is a barcode that could send the same keystroke as the "eject" key on the apple keyboard.
This is the approach I am trying to figure out.
Does anyone have any pointers?

We just got Socket mobile CHS 7X today and found this issue, I contacted their tech support and she told me they are going to release either a new series of scanners that support this or a firmware update. It should be available this fall. I was surprised they could release this product without having this function works. To me, it's a must have before you claim it works with ipad/iphone.

Yes, that's how it works now. But most likely the real business process will have have some scanning and some manual inputting, turn the scanner on and off the whole time is not a real solution, but that's just my opinion.

This goes back fifteen years to a project where I wrote an app for wireless handheld scanners used in a warehouse environment.

It's not perfect and it depends on exactly what you need to enter, but, if the entries are predictable, one option is to print out a sheet of barcodes containing the text that you need to input... for example quantities, then scan the sheet. With the ipad, you can put a significant amount of barcodes on the back.

tip... barcode scanners have the ability to toggle the <cr> at the end of each scanned bar... this can be useful with the above, especially with a barcode containing just a <cr> stuck to the margin of the ipad.

Hope that this information is of value.
Beverly Howard

Sounds like a cool idea, but it won't solve our problem, we need manual input for fields like observation, which we can't really pre-define the values. For those feilds that we can pre-define, we already put them in the drop down lists that users can just touch and select.

The dream solution would be iPad comes with a built-in laser scanner, or at least an attachment. Like the one they use for checking out in their store, EasyPay?