How to read input from multiple USB barcode scanners separately in Python?

Question

I am working with two USB barcode scanners and I want to read the input from each scanner separately. I am using the pywinusb.hid library in Python to interact with these devices.

I have written the following code to find the device path of each scanner:

import pywinusb.hid as hid

def display_device_attributes(device):
    attributes = [
        "device_path", "vendor_id", "product_id", "product_name", 
        "vendor_name", "serial_number"
    ]
    
    print("--------------------------------------")
    for attr in attributes:
        try:
            value = getattr(device, attr)
            print(f"{attr.replace('_', ' ').capitalize()}: {value}")
        except AttributeError:
            pass

all_devices = hid.find_all_hid_devices()

if not all_devices:
    print("No HID devices found!")
else:
    for device in all_devices:
        if device.vendor_id == 0x0581 and device.product_id == 0x011a:#Filtering my scanners
        display_device_attributes(device)

This code returns the following information for each scanner:

Device path: \\?\hid#vid_0581&pid_011a&mi_01#7&2404831b&0&0000#{4d1e55b2-f16f-11cf-88cb-001111000030}
Vendor id: 1409
Product id: 282
Product name: @input.inf,%hid_device%;HID-compliant device
Vendor name: Unknown manufacturer
Serial number:

Device path: \\?\hid#vid_0581&pid_011a&mi_01#7&5fb189a&0&0000#{4d1e55b2-f16f-11cf-88cb-001111000030}
Vendor id: 1409
Product id: 282
Product name: @input.inf,%hid_device%;HID-compliant device
Vendor name: Unknown manufacturer
Serial number:

The device path seems to be the unique attribute that differentiates the two scanners. I want to use this information to read what each scanner is typing into the system separately and print it to the console in the format: {device_path} {barcode_read}.

How can I achieve this? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

You can use the keyboard library in python. https://pypi.org/project/keyboard/

pip install keyboard

and use the device property inside the event

if e.device == 'device_id_1':
    print(f"{e.name} from device_id_1")

But be aware of this limitation for Windows:

https://github.com/boppreh/keyboard/issues/21

Events generated under Windows don't report device id (event. Device == None). #21