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Determining Honeywell Maintenance Release numbers

If you use Honeywell’s Enterprise provisioner, their configuration tool, you need to use the settings file that matches the Android version and maintenance release number of the device you are using.

These settings files can be downloaded from the Honeywell software download site (https://hsmftp.honeywell.com/) under Software and Tools, Device Management, Enterprise Provisioner, Provisioning Bundles.

A typical description of a bundle is: “EP Bundle to be used with Android 11 MR 04 Mobility Edge Devices”.

It’s easy enough to find out the version of Android in Settings, About, but where is the Maintenance Release number?

If you scroll to the bottom of the About screen you’ll see that the last entry is a Build number; for example 94.00.03 (0037).

The MR number is the last two number after the last period. In this case it’s MR3. Scroll down the file listing of provisioning bundles and you’ll see a file named HON660Settings_93-94.00.03.exe with a description of “EP Bundles to be used with Android 12 MR 03 Mobility Edge devices”.

Download this file and run it.  Start (or restart) Enterprise Provisioner and you can now select that setting file from the drop down list:

 

 

 

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Enterprise Browser License Error Message

One of our customers purchased a number of CT60s and licenses for ICP (Intermec Client Pack), which consists of Launcher, Terminal Emulation, and Enterprise Browser. The license is perpetual, but the software maintenance that comes with the initial purchase expires after a year.

Without maintenance, you are not eligible for software upgrades or support, but the software itself will still function. Our customer’s CT60s began displaying this error message a year after purchase:

Needless to say, this message caused some concern. We purchased a one month maintenance license (part # DCP-SFT1M) for each device to ensure that they continued to work and applied them to all of their CT60s except for one.

Once the expiration date went by, the warning messages disappeared, even on the one device that we left untouched. The software continued to work.

Our conclusion was the the license error messages were incorrect.

 

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Can’t default Honeywell Xenon or Voyager scanner

Honeywell has changed the factory default bar code for the Xenon and Voyager lines of scanners. I don’t know when this happened, but the current manual (as of February 2022) has the old default code and doesn’t work with recent firmware releases.

Why they didn’t make this backwardly compatible is anybody’s guess.

The default bar code in the quick start guide works, so you can use that, but if you want to generate your own using Bartender, follow these instructions.

Create a Code 128 Symbol on your label and right click on it to bring up Properties.

Edit the Data Source and enter the characters Tilde (hex 126) followed by the text “DEFALT” followed by a period (hex 46)  followed by a Caret (hex 94) and the number 3.

These last two characters will generate a Code 128 Function 3, which indicates to a scanner that this is a configuration bar code.

Your printed code should look like this:

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Setting a CK65 back to factory default

Here’s the procedure to set a CK65 back to the initial shipping from factory state.

Restart the CK65 by holding down the power button and selecting Restart from the pop up menu.

When the Honeywell splash screen appears, press and hold the green button and hold down the power button. Release these keys when the Restart Boot Loader screen appears.

Press the green button until the Full Factory Reset screen appears, then press the power button.

The CK65 will erase all data and do a Factory Reset.

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Honeywell CK65 RF settings

Any RF settings other than the typical set up of SSID and security are not so easy to find on the CK65. Here are two configuration locations for Android 10:

Go to Settings, Network & Internet, and tap on the SSID you are currently using. A sprocket icon will appear to the right of your network name, tap on it. Now tap on the pencil icon at the top of the screen. You’ll be prompted to enter the password and the SIP keyboard will pop up. Minimize the SIP keyboard and you’ll be able to scroll down and change from DHCP to a static IP number.  If these are not visible, tap on Advanced Options. Restart the CK65 after you’ve switched from DHCP to Static, or vice versa.

To get to the Honeywell Proprietary RF settings go to Settings, Location, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth scanning, and turn W-Fi scanning off. Next, go to Settings, Network & Internet, and toggle off  the Wi-Fi switch to the right of your SSID name. Tap on Wi-Fi (which should now be off) then Wi-Fi preferences, Advanced, scroll down and tap on Honeywell Proprietary Settings. You can now modify these settings as needed.

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CK65 Enter Key does not work in Honeywell Launcher

When you start Honeywell’s Launcher application it automatically changes the pop up keyboard type (SIP) to the Honeywell Enhanced keyboard and it disables all other keyboard choices.

If you start Chrome within Launcher you’ll notice that the Enter key on the CK65’s physical keyboard doesn’t work. You can enable Gboard when you’re in Chrome which fixes the issue but it will occur again when the CK65 reboots or Launcher is restarted.

To get around this you have to modify the Launcher XML configuration file. To do this, click on the three vertical dots on the top right corner of Launcher and select Export Configuration.

Exit Launcher and turn on Provisioning Mode within Honeywell settings then put the CK65 in a dock connected to a PC with a USB cable. Enable File Transfer by swiping down from the top of the screen.  Scroll down the notification list and  tap on the last item on the list to enable File Transfer. On your PC you should see a file named Honeywell Launcher.xml in the Honeywell folder on the CK65.

Copy this file to your desktop and use Notepad to edit this entry:

<Key name=”key_gboard_mode” desc=”Keep Gboard option in Soft keyboard” flags=”16″>false</Key>

Change the value from “false” to “true” then copy the XML file back to the CK65’s folder \honeywell\persist.

Reboot the CK65 and start Launcher. You will now see Gboard as an available SIP choice. Enable it the enter key will begin working. Android will remember your keyboard choice so this change will persist through reboots.

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Configuring a Honeywell Xenon Scanner to be GS1 compliant

If the following data is encoded in a 128 symbol

{Start C}{Function 1} ]1710091510123456789012{Function 1}2002

where the first Function 1 after the Start C symbol indicates it’s a GS1 bar code and the second Function 1 is a delimeter after a variable length field. When a scanner reads this symbol it should output:

]C11710091510123456789012<GS>2002

Note the output starts with a [C1 indicating a Code 128 GS1 symbol and the second Function 1 code gets translated to an ASCII Group Separator character <GS>, or Hex 1D

The Xenon does not do this by default, but if you scan these two configuration labels, it will behave per the GS1 spec:

 

 

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FTP difference between older PX4 and new PX4ie

Older PX 4 printers allowed an FTP connection as an unknown user with no password. You could then copy files to the printer’s c: drive. You can’t do this with the PX4ie. To demonstrate this I started a command prompt from Windows and connected to an older PX4:

C:\Users\Sybil\Desktop>ftp 192.168.0.28
Connected to 192.168.0.28.
220 EasyCoder FTP Server v.1970 ready.
500 Sorry, no such command.
User (192.168.0.28:(none)): INTERMEC
230 User logged in (no password).
ftp> put lbl.txt MYLABEL.TXT
200 PORT command OK.
150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for ‘MYLABEL.TXT’
226 Transfer complete.
ftp: 34 bytes sent in 0.20Seconds 0.17Kbytes/sec.
ftp>

Note that the printer let us sign in as the user INTERMEC with no password. The put command copied lbl.txt to the printer’s c:  drive as MYLABEL.TXT.

You can’t do this with the PX4ie. The security has been changed to prevent unknown users from connecting via FTP to the printer. The file structure has changed in the new printer;  the c: drive has been mapped to /home/user on the PX4ie.

To accomplish the same task with the new printer you’ll need to provide a user name and password and specify the destination folder. So now this FTP command sequence becomes:

C:\Users\Sybil\Desktop>ftp 192.168.0.77
Connected to 192.168.0.77.
220 Welcome to Honeywell Printer PX4ie  14321961033
200 Always in UTF8 mode.
User (192.168.0.77:(none)): admin
331 Please specify the password.
Password: pass (hidden)
230 Login successful.
ftp> put lbl.txt /c/MYLABEL.TXT
200 PORT command successful. Consider using PASV.
150 Ok to send data.
226 Transfer complete.
ftp: 34 bytes sent in 0.00Seconds 17.00Kbytes/sec.
ftp>

These new commands are compatible with the older PX4 printers, so with this small change to your FTP commands will work with both printers.

Note: If you omit the /c/ folder destination in the put command, the file MYLABEL.TXT will be copied to  the /home/user/admin folder.

Update

I discovered that you can log into the PX4ie as “user” (lower case) without a password and the printer will allow you access to the /home/user (i.e. c: drive) folder.  So, in the first example above, substitute “user” for “INTERMEC” and the new PX4ie behaves the same as the older printers.

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PX940V Can’t calibrate verifier

If you cannot calibrate the PX940V’s verifier, try this.

Most times this failure is due to dirt on the glass over the verifier,  often not visible. To confirm this is the issue, print a test label and connect to the printer’s web page and look at the verifier’s image under Verification, Verifier Image. You’ll probably see something like this:

The vertical black lines aren’t on the label, it’s dirt on the verifier glass.

Open the front verifer arm.

Clean the glass with isopropyl alcohol and Q-Tips, or an alcohol wipe. Repeat until there are no lines on the verifier image, then try to calibrate the verifier again.

Note the row of label sensors next to the verifier.

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Installing a PC4ie dual serial board

There is a new dual serial I/O board for the updated Honeywell PX4 industrial printer, the PX4ie. The part number is 50147018-001 and it is currently shipping. Unlike the old board, which was dual RS232 out of the box, you need to install two jumpers and two IC (integrated circuit) chips into the board.

You are working with static sensitive devices here, so make sure you ground yourself before touching the board or ICs.

For UART A the jumper connects the two pins on the right of P4 and the IC gets installed in the socket pictured here. Notice the semi circle on the bottom of the chip (it’s clearer on the next picture), it lines up with the semi circle on the board:

UART B installs the same way:

Again, note the semi circle cut out at the bottom of the IC. This time the jumper is installed at P8. Make sure that you don’t bend any of the pins on the IC when you  insert it into the socket.

The rest of the installation is described in the Honeywell installation manual. Click on the documents tab to get this manual.