Honeywell Xenon: keyboard country, Enter and Tab suffix

A Xenon in USB keyboard mode sends key presses, not letters, and it assumes a US keyboard. If Windows uses another layout, some characters change. This guide shows how to set the keyboard country, how to add or remove Enter or Tab after each scan, and how to return to defaults. It applies to the corded 1950g and the cordless 1952g.

Where to find the bar codes

• The 1950g Quick Start Guide and 1952g Quick Start Guide contain the suffix and default bar codes and a short list of keyboard countries, which includes Finland but none of our other markets.
• The Xenon XP Series User Guide, chapter "Program the Interface", section "Keyboard Country Layout", lists all countries. It is listed on Honeywell's 1950g product page; Honeywell may ask you to sign in to download it.

Check the keyboard layout on the PC

Select the input language icon on the Windows taskbar to see the active layout. On Windows 11 you can also open Settings › Time & language › Language & region, select ··· next to your language and then Language options; the layouts are listed under Keyboards. Note the exact name, for example "Estonian" or "Polish (Programmers)".

Scan the matching keyboard country

1. Open the User Guide at "Keyboard Country Layout" and find your layout in the table below.
2. Scan that bar code, for example Estonia.
3. Open Notepad and scan a bar code that contains letters, digits and symbols. Compare the result with the text under the bar code.

Honeywell's User Guide states that the US layout is the default whenever the interface is USB keyboard or keyboard wedge, so the scanner layout must be changed to match the PC.

Which setting for our markets

The list also contains a plain Poland entry; Honeywell does not say which Windows layout it matches, so prefer Polish (Programmers) on a standard Windows PC.

If your layout is not listed

These options from the Xenon XP User Guide help when no keyboard country matches:

• Match the PC to the scanner. Add a listed layout in Windows, for example Latvian (QWERTY), and select it on the scanning PC.
• ALT Mode (chapter "Program the Interface") sends special characters from the extended ASCII chart, such as è, as Alt key codes. Scan it after the keyboard country: 3 Characters or 4 Characters, depending on the Alt codes your system expects. The default is Off. Test it in your own software before you roll it out.
• Numeric Keypad Mode (section "Keyboard Modifiers") sends digits as if typed on the numeric keypad. This helps with number-only bar codes on layouts whose number row types letters. It is off by default.
• Keyboard Style fixes case problems: scan Caps Lock if staff work with Caps Lock on, or Automatic Caps Lock on keyboards with a Caps Lock light. The default is Regular.

If none of these gives the right result, contact us with the layout name and a sample bar code.

Add Enter or Tab after each scan

A suffix is a key the scanner sends after the data. The User Guide notes that the USB Keyboard (PC) interface bar code also adds a CR (Enter) suffix. Check what your scanner does in Notepad first.

1. Open the Quick Start Guide at "Suffix".
2. To press Enter after each scan, scan Add CR Suffix.
3. To press Tab instead, for example to jump to the next field in a form, scan Add Tab Suffix.
4. To send the data without any key after it, scan Remove Suffix.
5. Test in Notepad: with Enter, the cursor moves to a new line after each scan.

If you see two line breaks or an extra jump, scan Remove Suffix first and then the suffix you want, so only one is set.

Save your settings or return to defaults

Honeywell has two kinds of defaults. Factory defaults are Honeywell's settings. Custom defaults are your own set (User Guide, chapter "Get Started"):

1. Scan Set Custom Defaults.
2. Scan your settings, for example the keyboard country and the suffix.
3. Scan Save Custom Defaults.

• Activate Custom Defaults in the User Guide returns to your custom defaults, or to factory defaults if none are saved. Honeywell recommends it as the default bar code for most users.
• Standard Product Defaults in the Quick Start Guides resets the scanner to Honeywell's standard default settings.

On the 1952g, saving or activating defaults resets scanner and base and removes the link. Place the scanner in the base and wait for the link before you scan any further settings. More fixes are in our Xenon troubleshooting guide; setup is in the Xenon setup guide.