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How to copy files to a CN70 or CK70 computer

This post covers copying files to the Intermec/Honeywell CN and CK series computer with Windows Embedded Handheld 6.5, it doesn’t cover the new Android computers.

Connecting a dock to your computer with a USB cable and using Windows Mobile Device Center is very  easy, but Microsoft broke this in Windows 10. WMDC works fine under Windows 7 and is your best choice if you are running this OS. There are some tips on the internet about running WMDC in compatibility mode under Win 10, but they didn’t work for me.

Another easy option is to put your files on a USB stick and then plug the stick into the USB A connector on the side of a single docking station for your CN/CK computer.  Once inserted click on Start, File Explorer, My Device and you should see the USB key in the pull down menu show up as “Hard Disk”:

You can copy files to the computer over your wireless network too. There’s an FTP server program available on these devices, but it’s a hidden file. Click on Start, File Explorer, then scroll down to the Windows folder. Click on the Menu button on the bottom of the screen and click on “Show All Files”. Now scroll down this folder listing and look for the file “ftpdce”.  Press the stylus on this filename and hold it for a couple of seconds until the menu pops up and select “copy”.  Scroll back to the top of the Windows folder and click on the Start Up folder. Press the stylus on some white space and hold if for a couple of seconds. When the menu pops up select “Past Shortcut”. Now the FTP server will start when window boots.

Press the power key and choose the Reboot option.

I use FileZilla as an FTP client, but feel free to try your own; I had no luck using FTP within a browser. Find the IP address of your your computer by clicking on Start then ISpyWiFi. Keythis IP number into FileZilla and log in with the user name “intermec” and a password of “cr52401” and you should see this screen:

Other options are Intermec’s Smart Systems (free, big install) or Soti’s Mobi Control (licensed, reliable, if you have a lot of devices).

Good luck, email any questions to info@accuratedata.com.

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How to identify a bar code symbology Part 2: Industrial 1D codes

There are over a hundred of types of 1D barcodes, but only a few are commonly used today. These are Code 128, Code 39,  and Interleaved 2 of 5, with Code 128 being the most common and Interleaved 2 of 5 (I 2 of 5) the least.

Less common 1D codes still used today are Codabar, Code 93, Code 11,  Two of Five, and MSI code.

2D barcodes are becoming more popular; I’ll write about them at a later date. 1D codes only contain data in one dimension, in the widths of the bars and spaces.

The first step to identifying a code is to note how many different bar and space widths the code uses:

Code 39 and I 2 of 5 only have two different widths of bars and spaces. If it has more than two, it’s usually Code 128, which uses four different widths. UPC uses four bar widths too, but you can usually recognize UPC from the guard bar patterns.

If the code only has two widths the next thing to look at is the start/stop patterns. The first (and last) five bars in a Code 39 symbol are narrow, narrow, wide, wide, narrow. I 2 of 5 starts with two narrow bars and ends with a wide and narrow bar. I 2 of 5 is numeric only, so if the code has two bar widths and alpha characters, it’s probably Code 39.

Note that the start or stop pattern in I 2 of 5 is not unique and can easily be found in the symbol itself, making this code vulnerable to short scans. The red line below represents a laser beam from a scanner going across an I 2 of 5 symbol:The laser exits on a wide and narrow bar pattern that could be interpreted as a stop code, resulting in a short scan. You’ll often see I 2 of 5 printed with bars above or below the code, called bearer bars,  to prevent short scans.

Most scanners can be set to read I 2 of 5 as fixed length codes,  preventing the short scan issue. Here’s a tip: To find out how many characters are in an I 2 of 5 symbol, count the number of bars, subtract 4 (for start/stop) and divide by 2.5. For example, the symbol with the red line through it about has 24 bars, so 24 – 4 = 20, divided by 2.5 gives you 8.

Another method of eliminating short scans is to enable a check digit in I 2 of 5. Always enable a check digit if you are going to read variable length I 2 of 5 symbols.

I’ll cover Code 39 and Code 128 in more detail later.

 

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How to identify a barcode symbology Part 1: UPC codes

UPC is an abbreviation for Universal Product Code. It uses four different bar and space widths and encodes each number using two bars and two spaces.

We all can identify UPC-A (at least in the states) with its telltale guard bars, the 12 numeric characters printed in groups of 1, 5, 5, and 1. These numbers are the system digit, manufacturer’s code, item ID, and check digit respectively. The guard bars are the two lines that are longer than the rest at the beginning, middle, and end of the symbol.

UPCA symbol
UPCA symbol

The guard bars can be considered as start and stop code and don’t encode any data. There was some talk about UPC being the “Mark of the Beast” mentioned in the book of Revelations because the number six, when printed on the right side of the symbol is two narrow bars, so the conspiracy theorists thought UPC secretly contained “666”. I occasionally got questioned about this at trade shows.

There are a number of variations of UPC. There’s UPC-E, or zero suppressed code that is usually used on small items:

There’s UPC with a 2 or 5 digit supplemental codes used on magazines and periodicals; the supplemental number indicating the issue:

In Europe, it’s EAN, or the European Article Numbering code:

The first three digits in an EAN code indicate the country code and unlike UPC, the manufacturer number and item number are variable length. Notice that there are 13 numbers in an EAN code even though there are the same number of bars as spaces as a UPC-A code. UPC numbers have left and right parity; so a digit printed on the left side has a different pattern when it is printed on the right side. The extra number is encoded by varying the parity pattern on the left part of the EAN symbol.

There is also EAN-8 and EAN with supplemental codes that are similar to UPC-E and UPC with supplemental codes.

One special version of EAN worth mentioning is Bookland code. The country code of 978 has been assigned to a fictitious country, “Bookland” and is used to mark books. Bookland code uses the remaining EAN 10 digits to encode the ISBN number and uses a 5 digit supplemental to encode the suggested price:

The first digit in the supplemental code indicates the currency type. Check this out next time you buy a book. There are other versions of UPC, but they are pretty obscure.  RSS (Reduced Space Symbology) is also being used in retail applications.

For more on UPC  check out ADAMS1 and the GS1 organization.