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Barcode Hardware Recommendations
There are many options and manufacturers of barcode scanners and
printers, and picking the components may provide some difficult options. As
a recommendation here are some basics to look for:
- Pick a Scanner with embedded Fuzzylogic. This provides
scanning support in sun-light and non-perfect conditions as well as the
capability to scan slightly damaged labels.
- Requires support Code 39 (most every scanner
supports this encoding).
- Select a name brand product (you get what you pay for here). Example:
Symbol 302FZY.
- Select an industrial grade scanner if possible. This will reduce the
chance of damaging the scanner when dropped. It is highly advantageous
to purchase a scanner that is drop proof to concrete. We are after all
in a rough environment. They will get dropped. Also, industrial grade scanners handle dust
and non-perfect conditions very well.
- Wireless versus synapse (hard wired) connections. The wireless offers
flexibility and performance but is much more expensive (roughly double that
of a synapse setup).
- Synapse connections (hardwired to the PC) have a reduced range of motion
but are substantially cheaper and will not suffer from as many potential
failures that may occur with the wireless versions. Batteries and failed
communications are more likely to occur for wireless configurations although
the today's technology is quite superior. As with most any set of
components, the more components there are, the more likely something may
potentially go wrong.
However, industrial grade versions should perform very well and for a long
period of time. For synapse setups, select the longest possible synapse
cable (which may also be extending by using a
serial cable extension, i.e. patch cables. These cables
can be added to the end of the synapse cable increasing the range close to 35ft (from the PC).
Recommendations:
AXWare Systems highly recommends SystemID Warehouse (http://www.systemid.com) for
your scanner and label printing needs. In particular the Symbol 302FZY scanner
and related synapse and power cables. Note: the synapse cable powers the
Scanner.
A RS232 Patch cable and connectors can be used to extend the Synapse cables
reach but some precautions to the overall length should be made. The
longer the cable the higher potential for inaccurate communications between the
PC and Scanner (although none were seen in the R&D of the Scanner interface).
Barcode Printers
AXWare For Windows provides support for dedicated printers as well as normal sheet fed
or continuous paper fed configurations. As such the choices for printing
barcodes is somewhat large and may depend on your needs (and environment that
you are faced with). The harsher the environment the more robust a
solution is required (especially in the label area).
Three types of print label configurations are supported.
- Sheet Feed labels - Avery 5160/8160
(or equivalent) for non Barcode Label Printers. Most of these type of labels are paper based and are
not very hardy. They will work just fine under normal sunny conditions but if
your area experiences any mild weather conditions, their performance will
degrade. Humid and wet conditions will undoubtedly make the printed
material fail and make it unusable by the Scanner. A hardier and more robust
solution is required for any 'unkind' environments or weather conditions.
- Continuous Feed Labels (same size as
the Avery 5160 labels but in a continuous stream). Same issues and concerns as #1.
- Dedicated Barcode label printer.
The one used by AXWRATS Specifically is the Brother P-Touch 2500PC (TZ tape)
style of printers. They provide a laminated label that that will
withstand abuse, is water proof and is of high quality.
- Other Dedicated label printers:
Support for other dedicated label printers is also provided - in particular
Dymo. They offer quite a variety of labels and the program has been
modified to provide barcode and time-slip labels. These type of printers offer
a very good compromise to the more expensive Brother printers although the
labels will not stand up to the same abuse.
Note: There are other many other label
printers available depending on your requirements and the amount you'd like to
invest (spend). They provide different levels of performance, hardiness,
and provide a varied set of ribbon materials (wax/risen), and different label
materials as well (paper to industrial grade materials). These style of
printers are very expensive but probably offer the most bang for the buck.
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