First, do you have the drivers for the scanner? If not, your going to need the low-level docs on the scanner hardware so you can write your own device driver. That's just to TALK to the device. You'll probably find those docs in the SDK that you can't get. Next, you'll need the documentation on the command protocol the scanner uses. You have to know the language the scanner speaks. Again, probably in the SDK you can't get. Without these docs, your not going to know how to get the device initialized, send commands, receive and interpret responses, perform properly formatted data transfers, or whatever else the device needs... Next, there are no native classes to VB or VB.net that allow you to easily communicate over USB. You'll either have to search the web to try and find any or have to write something yourself. These would be good places to start: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/buses/hh/buses/usbhdr\_32nb.asp http://www.lvr.com/usb.htm RageInTheMachine9532