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Cataloging or Recording Model Railway Items


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9 minutes ago, 4railsman said:

Melmerby

The barcode is also known as UPC and is the specific barcode shown on the vast majority of goods that go through a lot of channels before reaching the end user. The code is numeric.

 

What is needed is a database that someone has designed for that product type or within the EPOS used when the item gets scanned at the warehouse or till when you offer to buy the item. Some mobile phone apps like CD/DVD/Movie or Book catalogue apps have a builtin scanner facility that links to IMDB or Amazon for example.

 

The QR scanner you are referring to is usually used to take you to a location where further information can be obtained about the product or service you are viewing.

 

Hope that helps

OK, thanks for that

What do you need to scan the normal barcodes? Do the QR scanner apps work with numeric bar codes as well?

Or is it something completely different?

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Google lens on an Android phone seems to magically find things. It would be really nice if you could just automatically poke this into a Google docs spreadsheet....

 

Screenshot_20200513-161447.png.bddfb170a93c7d8749b01274561432ba.png

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32 minutes ago, melmerby said:

Where do I find that?

It's not on my Android device and I cant find it in the app store.

 

I just have it on my phone. It's the thing to the left of the bin icon at the bottom of this picture. It's also in the play store as a standalone app. If it doesn't appear for you it's probably not compatible with your device.

 

Screenshot_20200513-170607.png.52a413b7b5965b1a322a78d7dda0fdce.png

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There are other barcode scanner apps for Android. I currently use 'Barcode Scanner' by ZXing Team, but I can't vouch for whether it's the best/most secure/etc.

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This is one of the things I keep putting off until I acquire a round tuit, but that hasn't stopped me relaying the fiddle yard in a way which completely alters the operation of the layout this week, so perhaps this is a timely reminder.  I don't have a huge fleet of stock, but lose track of what retrofits, replacement wheels, and such has been done to which items.  It is also good to keep track of provenance.  

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33 minutes ago, 30801 said:

 

I just have it on my phone. It's the thing to the left of the bin icon at the bottom of this picture. It's also in the play store as a standalone app. If it doesn't appear for you it's probably not compatible with your device.

 

 

I don't have it on my phone (Android 9).

But it does have a QR scanner app and I have found that will scan barcodes and search the web. It did identify the product I tried (a Hornby coach) and found one on e-bay!

Not sure how I can use it for catalogue entries though.

 

I've tried a few more and it will read various sizes & colours OK but it seems to rely on Google search and unless it can be found on e-bay it fails

Could do with a bit more flexibility.

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Hmm just downloaded that google lens,  that could be useful 

 

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Using the scanner I mentioned above that is on my phone I scanned the barcode on a tub of margarine and it took me to the manufacturers website with a full desciption & a picture of the product!

Unfortunately it can't find many model railway items:(!

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20 hours ago, Philou said:

CD burning: A word if I may? Don't bank on your home-burnt CD lasting forever - they don't! You might get 10 years but they do 'fade' such that they're no longer readable. By all means use a CD but back it up some where, XD card, micro-card or USB/thumb/flash drive or if you have one, a separate hard drive. I use a Western Digital 'Passport' drive. Now in TBs for not a lot.

 

You could suggest to SWMBO to do the same for all your household stuff too. It's surprising how it all adds up. Very surprising.

 

Does this also apply to the DVD copies of home movies made a few years ago?

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Regarding CD/DVD-R/RW longevity, much depends on the type of recording layer used in the disc, and on how it's stored. I have CD-Rs from two decades ago that are still readable, so they can last quite a long time in some cases.

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@Colin_McLeod I've never burnt a DVD so I can't speak from personal experience. What I do understand is that the burning process on a home computer, CD (and presumably DVD), is not the same as a factory process. I think a factory CD/DVD is an actual pressing (think LP) and then coated/protected, whereas at home the silver surface layer is burnt using a laser. After time, the layer which forms the dimples (the '0's and '1's) will gradually revert to its original state. It's not as permanent as thought.

 

Cheers,

 

Philip

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I forgot to add that the loss of information is gradual. If you have burnt a lot of CDs or DVDs at home, it may be worthwhile spinning them up and checking they're all there. My CDs of 10+years ago are now no longer readable. Fortunately they were backed up on a portable hard drive.

 

To be certain, I ought to mirror my 'Passport' onto another portable HD that I have somewhere. Spinning iron or SSD seems to be the way to go. Having said that, flash is only good for a certain number of write/rewrites.

 

Cheers,

 

Philip

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1 hour ago, Colin_McLeod said:

 

Does this also apply to the DVD copies of home movies made a few years ago?

Probably as the technology is similar, although a DVD-R I made some years back shows less sign of degradation than similar CD-Rs

The different types CD-R, CD+R, CD-RW etc are all slightly different but similar

 

5 minutes ago, Philou said:

@Colin_McLeod I've never burnt a DVD so I can't speak from personal experience. What I do understand is that the burning process on a home computer, CD (and presumably DVD), is not the same as a factory process. I think a factory CD/DVD is an actual pressing (think LP) and then coated/protected, whereas at home the silver surface layer is burnt using a laser. After time, the layer which forms the dimples (the '0's and '1's) will gradually revert to its original state. It's not as permanent as thought.

 

Cheers,

 

Philip

Manufactured CDs are pressed into the label side of the plastic disc (polycarbonate?) then a reflective layer is applied then then a protective layer and then labelled

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7 hours ago, TheQ said:

Hmm just downloaded that google lens,  that could be useful 

 

I've now found it in the Google store and downloaded it to my phone, seems to work similarly to the pre-installed scanner.

However it has a very good OCR, which the pre-installed app doesn't, that will be useful.

It can even read my hand writing!:)

Edited by melmerby
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My tablet which is Android 5 cannot not find Google Lens in the store but can find Smart Lens and MS Office Lens (both free) and both work fine.

Smart Lens also has an excellent OCR like Google lens.

MS Lens converts straight to PDF, which in itself might be useful.

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2 hours ago, Philou said:

@Colin_McLeod I've never burnt a DVD so I can't speak from personal experience. What I do understand is that the burning process on a home computer, CD (and presumably DVD), is not the same as a factory process. I think a factory CD/DVD is an actual pressing (think LP) and then coated/protected, whereas at home the silver surface layer is burnt using a laser. After time, the layer which forms the dimples (the '0's and '1's) will gradually revert to its original state. It's not as permanent as thought.

 

Cheers,

 

Philip

 

2 hours ago, melmerby said:

Probably as the technology is similar, although a DVD-R I made some years back shows less sign of degradation than similar CD-Rs

The different types CD-R, CD+R, CD-RW etc are all slightly different but similar

 

Manufactured CDs are pressed into the label side of the plastic disc (polycarbonate?) then a reflective layer is applied then then a protective layer and then labelled

 

Thanks guys for that information

 I was thinking about getting my old super 8 footage scanned using modern technology as an improvement over the quality of the DVDs I got made in the late noughties. I may have to speed up that decision now.

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58 minutes ago, smokebox said:

You can sometimes get that error if you try to download it to a tablet when the app is designed for a phone, and vice versa.  Age of device not being the limiting factor I think.

Seems not a very well thought out app if that's the case.:)

MS Office Lens was designed for Windows Phone environment but the Android version works fine on the tablet.

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9 hours ago, melmerby said:

"This app is incompatible with your device"

Not bad for a 4 year old device:jester:

 

 

Quite normal!

 

We're all going to need new TVs shortly (or at least another decoder box....

 

I must check some CD-ROMs I bought on eBay some time ago.

Now where did I put them?   :scratchhead:

 

VHS tapes were only supposed to last 10 years too. The ones I tried during a recent clear out all worked.

Edited by Il Grifone
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