Updated 05/09/22
Setting up your Scanner
Carriage Mode
In order for your scanner to insert Barcode IDs into GrowFlow search fields, your scanner will need to be in "carriage return" mode. In this mode, after the scanner input is read, a return key is hit (like hitting the ‘Enter’ or ‘Return’ key on your keyboard). This allows the ID to be automatically searched in GrowFlow.
Open a basic text editing program like 'NotePad' or 'TextEdit' and then scan the barcodes on a few plant tags or inventory stickers. If you see the ID numbers being entered on individual lines, your scanner is in the correct mode for use in GrowFlow. Hooray!
If you see the ID numbers being entered on the same line, with no spaces or line breaks separating the ID numbers, you’ll want to change your scanner’s mode to carriage return mode.
How to Change Your Scanner’s Mode
Different scanner models will have different sets of instructions to change the mode. If you’re uncertain how to do this, or can’t find the instructions in your user manual, try using a Google search. Include the name of the manufacturer of the scanner and the scanner model in your search.
You should be able to find a user manual through the maker’s website to help with changing the scanner’s mode. You may also be able to find a barcode, or series of barcodes, that, when scanned in sequence, change your scanner’s setting for you.
If needed, we recommend contacting your scanner maker’s customer service line to receive instructions on changing the scanner’s mode to carriage return.
Using your Scanner in GrowFlow
Grow Overview / Plants Page
Scanning comes in handy especially when you need to locate a number of different plants in your grow facility within your GrowFlow account. You might need to do this because plants are being moved from room to room, such as when progressing veg plants into their flowering room, or when moving one or more plants into quarantine.
Note: If you'd like more guidance on moving plants from room to room, please review this article.
Instead of typing out each ID number by hand into GrowFlow, you can scan the tags of your plants in your facility to quickly pull them up. You can scan IDs into the search bars on both the Grow Overview and Plants pages.
Grow Overview:
Plants Page:
(Washington only) Pro-Tip! When labeling your plants, make sure that the ‘Truncate ID’ setting is not applied on the label in the V2 Editor. This would shorten the IDs to their last five digits. For best practice, we recommend searching by the full Plant ID on the Grow Overview and Plants pages.
Inventory Overview
On the Inventory Overview, scanning works in the same way. By placing your cursor in the search bar, you can scan the barcode of any item in your physical inventory to locate those items. Using a scanner to input inventory numbers might come in handy if you are making the same change to multiple inventory items at once, such as modifying the product assignment or moving the items to a different room.