Barcoding News

Your environments couldn’t be a tougher place for scanners to survive. Drops to concrete, spills, dust, heat, cold, rain, snow and more. This is why Zebra developed it’s new 3600 series of ultra-rugged scanners. When it comes to industrial strength for your most challenging environments, the 3600 Series is in a class of its own. Built to a unique set of specifications, the nearly indestructible 3600 Series is dust proof, spray proof, waterproof and more, designed to handle everything your environment and your workers dish out every day.  You won’t find a tougher scanner.

It’s still surprising to see that there are still NiMH (nickel–metal hydride) batteries being used in some non-industrial Bluetooth scanners

Cons of NiMH batteries include:

• NiMH suffers from “memory effect.” Memory effect describes the specific situation in which NiMH batteries gradually lose their maximum energy capacity if they are repeatedly recharged after being only partially discharged. The battery appears to “remember” the smaller capacity.
• High self-discharge rate.  NiMH batteries lose their charge as they sit.
• It takes longer to charge them.
• Cannot operate at extreme temperatures. At extreme temperatures, NiMH voltage output will drop.

Advantages of NiMH:

• It’s cheaper.

Advantages of Li-Ion:

• Smaller and lighter.
• Faster recharge.
• Minimal discharge when not in use.
• Temperature tolerance. It can tolerate low temperature and warmer environments compared to NiMH cells.
• It is not susceptible to voltage depression, aka memory effect.

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Brother has announced that its RuggedJet 4 Wi-Fi handheld receipt and label printers now support Apple AirPrint wireless technology. AirPrint from Apple allows users to wirelessly print from iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch devices directly to RuggedJet 4 printers with ease.

Built-in AirPrint compatibility allows instant printing from iOS devices without the need to download or install drivers or interfaces and simplifies the RuggedJet user experience, making the thermal printer even easier to use. Moreover, all existing RuggedJet 4 Wi-Fi printers are backward compatible with AirPrint via a simple, free firmware update available from Brother.

With AirPrint support built in, an organization’s application developers benefit in that they do not have to spend time programming the printers or dealing with installation and set-up. Businesses and government agencies benefit as well by gaining device flexibility and the agility to future-proof their technology investments.

With the RuggedJet 4 certification complete the RuggedJet 2 will be the next MFi certified printer in October 2016 followed by the RuggedJet 3 in December.

Zebra’s companions series scanners, CS4070 and CS3000, are the easiest and more effective way to add enterprise-class scanning to any mobile device. If your workers are using tablets, laptops and smartphones, they all share a common challenge with the consumer-grade camera used to capture barcodes making scanning slow, uncomfortable and impossible unless the barcode is perfect.

With Zebra’s companion series you can assure every barcode is scanned with the first effort for improved workforce  efficiency.

The County of Montgomery library reached out to Barcodes, Inc. to get a recommendation on a barcode scanner that is capable of reading a Codabar barcode symbology for their inventory and check-in/check-out applications. Their current solution resulted in ineffective barcode reads and occasionally the user had trouble reading barcodes off of the books. Barcodes, Inc. was able to recommend the AirTrack S1 as their library barcode scanner. The S1 features a small, lightweight and ergonomic design with a flashing green light for good-read feedback. Its linear imaging scanning also gave the library workers better scanning capability to avoid ineffective reads.

In the end, the County of Montgomery library was satisfied with Barcodes, Inc.’s scanner recommendation and even more impressed that Barcodes was able to configure the devices before shipping in order to read and parse only the information required from the books. Their book accountability and workers’ productivity has improved drastically since the implementation of their new library scanning solution.

For more information about our library solutions, contact one of our representatives.

When it comes to tracking anything from basic inventory to patient data, choosing the right type of barcode can be the difference in how effective your system works. Everyone is familiar with the standard picket fence 1D linear barcodes but more and more applications are migrating to 2D barcodes. Both types of codes have their benefits and advantages and our specialists at Barcodes, Inc can help you determine which is the best fit for your needs.

RFID has become the leading technology to improve your effectiveness of any tracking application from assets and inventory to receiving shipments. Empowering your workforce with RFID readers and tagged items they can accomplish more in less time with a higher degree of accuracy.

The Honeywell 70 Series RFID is the no-compromise, next generation family of ultra-rugged mobile computers that add passive UHF reading to the already impressive feature set of 70 Series devices. When it comes to accomplishing routine data collection tasks with greater efficiency and accuracy, the 70 Series RFID mobile computers are the answer. These devices combine advanced RFID reading and a no-compromise design with best-in-class ruggedness, battery life, and ergonomics. Intelligently designed into three different form factors yet built on a singular core platform, the 70 Series RFID gives you the benefits of specialized devices with the reduced complexity and cost savings that come from adopting a common platform.

The 70 Series RFID family is intelligently designed into three form factors:

• CK70 RFID
• CN70 RFID
• CN70e RFID

With the aid of the 70 Series RFID readers you get the benefits of specialized devices with the reduced complexity and cost savings that come from adopting a common platform.

A nationally recognized labor union was searching for a way to automate their voter registration process and increase registrations. Historically, labor workers had to fill out a manual form to get registered to vote. This time-consuming process resulted in a low voter registration across the United States, including Nevada, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and others. Barcodes, Inc. was able to recommend the AirTrack S2 as their new voter registration scanner. The S2 features a 2D imager scan engine, lightweight design, and is able to withstand repeated drops from 5 feet onto a concrete surface.

The labor union was satisfied with Barcodes, Inc.’s scanner recommendation and even more impressed that Barcodes was able to configure the devices before shipping in order to read a barcode off of an individual’s driver’s license and parse only the information required and into their software program, thus saving both the union and the individual a lot of time. The labor union’s voter registration spiked, their accountability of registrations improved, and their start-to-finish registration process time decreased immensely.

For more information about our AirTrack barcode scanners, contact one of our representatives.

Barcodes, Inc has recently been  recognized by CIOReview for our in-depth expertise in delivering Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) solutions that help businesses overcome common challenges in a constantly evolving technology landscape. Selected as one of the 20 most promising solution providers, we continue our focus on providing comprehensive solutions from consultation, hardware/software deployment and ongoing support.

Fixed or mobile, no matter the scale or size, one of our Asset Management Specialists can tailor an ideal tracking solution for your specific business needs.

Read the full article here

Barcodes, Inc. was talking to a customer about the Honeywell Xenon 1900’s blistering scanning speed.  We hooked up the scanner and put it in its stand which automatically puts the scanner in presentation mode (scanner scans without a trigger pull).  The customer did what customers do all the time – started passing the same barcode underneath the scanner over and over.  He was not impressed.  The scanner seemed sluggish.

Here is why – Honeywell programs its scanners to pause for 750 ms (this is the default) before the scanner can reread the same barcode.  750 ms – if my math is correct – is ¾ of a second.  This protects against accidental rereads of the same barcode.  It can also be used to keep the scanner from reading codes to fast into an application.

Barcodes, Inc. explained this to the customer and told them to turn off Reread Delay if they really wanted to see the scanner fly.  We explained that the best way to test scanning speed is to put the scanner into a real life environment or scan different barcodes vs the same one over and over.

In the user guides are barcodes that set the reread delay to 500 ms, 750 ms, 1,000 ms and 2,000 ms.  There is even a barcode that allows the user to set their own time.

So why is understanding this so important? It allows your scanner to optimize its scanning speed.