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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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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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Connecting a Serial Scanner to a Honeywell VM3 running Windows 7

The VM3 manual tells you to go to Control Panel, Enterprise Settings, Data Collection to set this up, but there is no Enterprise Settings (formerly Intermec Settings) to select in the control panel.

To access Enterprise Settings, start File Manager and navigate to \Program Files(x86)\Intermec\IVA\bin and right click on the “Intermec Settings” program. Add a shortcut to your desktop and you’ll have access to the features described in the manual.

Note: Select ASCII as the scanner type for a serial scanner and match the baud rate, parity, data bits, and stop bits and you’ll be good to go. If not, make sure the Virtual Wedge is enabled; it’s the last choice in the main menu.

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How to connect a Honeywell 6870 Ring Scanner to a Desktop PC

Most desktop PCs do not come with Bluetooth installed, so the first thing you need is a USB Bluetooth dongle. I used this one from Amazon. Plug this into your Windows 10 PC and the OS should automatically install the proper drivers. I got a message on one PC saying that the software didn’t install correctly, but Device Manager said it was working properly, so I ignored it.

Expand the hidden icons on your Taskbar:

Right click on the Bluetooth icon and select Add a Bluetooth Device:

The Settings screen will appear. Click on “Add Bluetooth or other device”

Choose the first option; the scanner will show up as an HID, or keyboard device. Wait for the 8670 to show up in the device list. This may take a few minutes.

Click on the text and the scanner should connect and the blue LED should light up. Windows will display this message:

Open Notepad and scan a bar code, it should appear. Refer to the user’s manual for any additional settings.

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More on the CN80

The CN80 has two options for scanners, the N6603ER standard range scanner, which turns out to be surprisingly good at DPM scanning,  and the EX20 long range 2D scanner. The EX20 uses the optics from the Intermec EX25 but the decode is done externally.

The result is a much snappier scanner. Pairing the Intermec optics with a Honeywell decode has improved the CN80’s read rate without sacrificing any of the distance performance of the EX25.

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First Impressions of the 8680i Wearable Scanner

The 8680i is a small 2D scanner that can be mounted on the back of a glove and is triggered by touching your thumb against the back of your middle finger. You can see the contacts on the glove:

The scanner connects to the glove mount by snapping it together, allowing it to break away if needed.

The scanner’s radio supports Bluetooth (standard) and 802.11 WiFi (advanced). The advanced scanner includes a software development kit that allow an application to send and receive data to the scanner through a socket connection.  The scanner has a small display that can show two lines of text. This picture doesn’t do it justice, it’s really pretty bright and readable:

Put together, it looks like this:

The scanner can also connect to a computer or handheld via Bluetooth, but I think the best use of this device is using the 802.11 radio with an application directing a user through a pick list. We will be testing out this feature in the near future as well as the range of the 802.11 radio.

You’ll need Honeywell’s EZ Config utility to set up the scanner, version 4.5.27 or better. This can be downloaded from Honeywell’s tech support FTP site.

The glove and scanner are pretty comfortable, the scanner works well, and the finger trigger feels natural. This is a very nice set up and may redefine hands free picking.

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Avoid Interleaved 2 of 5 Code

I was asked to recommend a scanner by a customer who sent me samples of their bar codes. They were all Interleaved 2 of 5 code, which is a numeric only code whose only saving grace is that you can print a lot of digits in a small space. Here are three symbologies encoding the numbers 1 to 8:

You can see that Interleaved 2 of 5 takes up the least space, but Code 128 is pretty close. Interleaved 2 of 5 has a built in defect in that the stop/stop patterns are not unique and if the scanner enters or leaves the code in a spot that resembles a start or stop, the code can be short scanned.

Code 128 is always printed with a check digit anyway and has a unique start/stop pattern, making it a superior code to I 2 of 5.

My customer’s bar code looked like this:

This is a picture from our microscope. Notice that the narrow bar measures .1 mm, or 3 mils. This is a 300 dpi printer. The wide to narrow ration of this code should be 3 to 1; this is printed at 4 to 1. Lastly, the narrow bar under the red arrow should be one element wide, this one is two.

Their printer is doing a bad job printing this code, but fortunately for them modern scanners are pretty forgiving and this code can be read reliably with a Xenon with high density optics.

 

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How accurate are bar code scanners?

We sold some badge scanners to one of our customers who later said he was getting incorrect data from his scanners. We got a sample badge from them, scanned it, printed it, and attached it to a label rewinder. We then took the badge scanner apart and mounted the scan module near the label and recorded each scan into Excel:

We were able to collect over a million characters in just over a day. The result? Zero errors. We looked elsewhere for the customer’s issue.

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My favorite scanner – Part 2

I’ve written about the center decode feature in the Intermec EA30 scan engine (see part 1 below) but there are a few other features I’d like to bring to your attention.

Presentation Mode:  Sometimes scanners are used with desktop holders to let a user pass a barcode underneath it and scan hands free. Think of a library check out, a convenience store cash register, or a club scanning ID cards.

Laser scanners typically pulse their laser on and off when they are in presentation mode (which drives me nuts) in order to detect the presence of a barcode.  2D Camera based scanners have an advantage of being omnidirectional and they will have some illumination on to detect a code.

The EA30 does presentation mode right. The scanner uses ambient light to detect a bar code, so no distracting lights come out of the scanner when it’s idle.

The EA30 scanner can be set up to scan more than one barcode at a time.  Take a look at EasySet under Symbologies, and you’ll see the Multicode set up:

You can specify the number and type of codes to scan and because of the way the software scans the image, it’s works as quickly as if you were scanning a single code. Other scanners can read multiple barcodes, but you have to move the scanner around to pick up all of the codes. The EA30 works better than this; the software scans the image so you don’t have to move the scanner. Try it out.

The last feature I’ll mention is the ability to scan both UPC-A symbols and UPC symbols with supplemental codes with one configuration:

Reading both UPC and with one set up is difficult because the large portion of the UPC with supplemental code is a valid UPC-A symbol. The scanner must reliably detect the presence of the supplemental and read it. If you want to test this, use these setting from EasySet:

Consecutive validations = 2
Center decode = on
Supplemental = Transmit if found
Add on security = 100
Imager decode mode = 2D
Initial 1D search = Full

You’ll find these settings in the Symbology section, the Imager Settings, and the Operating Section.

 

 

 

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The best way to connect a Bluetooth scanner

Scanners should connect differently than most of the Bluetooth devices you’re used to. Normally you’d go into Setup, Bluetooth, (or some variation of this) then find the device you want to connect and instruct the OS to make a connection to this device. This type of connection is an outgoing connection, i.e. it’s initiated by the computer.

Most operating systems will not maintain a reliable connection this way. You probably know this from personal experience. How many times do you have to reconnect your Bluetooth headset to your phone? This is inconvenient when using a phone; for a scanner user who is being paid to manage inventory this is lost time and money. Do you really want to tell a user to go into Control Panel every time he needs to reconnect?

A better way to connect is to use an outgoing connection. The scanner connects to the Bluetooth MAC address of the computer and spawns a virtual Com port connection. Intermec has been doing this for years with their vehicle mount computers. Here’s a barcode from the side of a CV31 vehicle mount computer:

This is very convenient for the user, scan the barcode and get connected. Even better, this is a much more reliable connection than on outgoing connection. I have an SF61 Bluetooth scanner in house that’s connected to a Dell tablet using an outgoing connection, and it’s been running for more than six months.

If you want to implement this on a non-Intermec laptop or tablet PC you’ll need to install Intermec’s Smart Wedge software. Once it’s installed it will generate a connection bar code on screen:

Scan the barcode and you’ll connect. You’ll hear three ascending beeps when the connection is established.

Under Tools, Options, select “Reduce Smart Wedge in System Tray” and “Start Smart Wedge with Windows” and you will have a reliable and robust connection established between your scanner and PC.

Note that the Smart Wedge software will take the incoming data from the barcode scanner and post it to the current cursor position in the application that has Windows’ focus, so you can use this with almost any software.

In the unlikely event that the scanner loses connection with Smart Wedge, jut scan the connection barcode again to reestablish it. Of course, this only works with Intermec scanners; the SF61, SG20, and SR61B will all work.