Friday, May 14, 2021

Tablets and Scanners

Background

Modern tablets (Android, iOS, Windows) have the screen size and processing power to enable real-time data entry into Mosaic Vivarium in the animal room. While the device camera permits barcode scanning, high-volume operations like census-taking are still faster with a dedicated scanner. This article describes some example hardware for a tablet plus scanner setup.

Tablet

If you are doing data entry on the tablet, a modern processor and sufficient screen size should guide your choices. Choose comparable to the following:


Consider a rugged case to protect your investment.

Scanner

Scanners can be connected as keyboard devices to tablets. If you have Zebra LI4278 devices, you can use these instructions to connect to your tablet of choice:


Another convenient linear scanner:


Pro Tip:  The Virtual Keyboard

When a scanner is attached, the tablet interprets it as a keyboard. The default behavior is to hide the tablet's virtual keyboard. On Android, you can turn the virtual keyboard back on. Visit:

Settings : System/Language : Physical Keyboard : Use on-screen keyboard (turn that setting on)

Thursday, July 23, 2020

Cage Card Printing

(Updated 2023-Feb-03)

We have had success with the following printer options:

DYMO LabelWriter Series

  • LabelWriter 5XL
  • LabelWriter 550 Series
  • LabelWriter 4XL
  • LabelWriter 450 Series
The 30256 Label (2.3" x 4") is a commonly used label size.


NOTE:  DYMO has recently made significant changes in the way their new 550 series printers work. They will no longer be able to use compatible labels from other brands. You will have to purchase DYMO brand labels that support their "Automatic Label Recognition" software and printer hardware.

A work-around from reddit (use at your discretion):  On the core of the official Dymo labels is an RFID/NFC tag. Just remove the tag from the cardboard core and tape it to the side of the machine. You can find a good spot when the flashing light on the front stops flashing.






Brother Label Printer Series

  • QL-700 Series
  • QL-800 Series
  • QL-1100 Series
The DK-1202 Label (2.4" x 4") is a commonly used label size.



iDPRT Label Printers   

  • SP-310
  • SP-420

This is our new favorite printer!  

It prints labels that use a 0.5/1.0/1.5 inch core size - compatible with common Zebra, Brother, and other 3rd party labels.

When installing the printer software (https://www.idprt.com/downloads/), we recommend the "Seagull Type" printer driver if available for your computer and printer model.  Seagull is a highly reputable company (https://www.seagullscientific.com/)

IT SUPPORTS A 3" x 5" LABEL!

OfficeSmartLabels - 3" x 5" Direct Thermal Labels - Compatible with Zebra & Rollo Desktop Label Printers and More – 1” Core, Permanent Adhesive & Perforated [300/Roll, 1200 Labels in 4 Rolls (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00V5H8CCA)

Zebra Label Printers

  • GX420D
  • ... many other models
One interesting alternative is Zebra GX420D. With this printer, consider also purchasing:
  • Optional Wireless Internet Network Ready (WiFi)
  • Adjustable Paper Size Rails


The Zebra thermal printer will print labels, including those with a robust card stock backing. These may be used without peeling the label off and inserted directly into a standard cage card holder. Example stock: RL953DT - 3" x 5" Thermal Roll Labels - 1" Core / 4" Outer Diameter. Be warned, however: setup of the Zebra is not plug-and-play like the DYMO; some technical savvy is required!

Wednesday, October 2, 2019

Connecting older LS 4278 scanners to an iPad


The LS4278 model was discontinued in 2012:

It has been superseded by the LI4278 model:

If you have not ordered equipment yet, choose the LI4278.

If you order an LS4278 the device might not come with a printed manual (only one for the cradle). Unfortunately you need various command barcodes printed in the manual to get the device set up, and it is unable to scan a barcode from a computer monitor. You will need to print out various sections of the downloaded PDF manual in order to get things working.

The LS4278 fails to pair via bluetooth with the iPad initially. Apparently iOS requires (or at least supports) some special bluetooth profiles for keyboard support. Zebra provides some instructions for bluetooth pairing with iPad for the newer LI4278 device, but it must be running one of the newer firmware versions:

The instructions for iPad would NOT work with the older LS4278 model. However, I updated the firmware using their 123Scan configuration utility. Sadly the update tool hung after it installed the new firmware when attempting to reboot the scanner. The firmware update seems to be successful though.

This solved nothing. The scanner still does not recognize some of the special iPad pairing instruction barcodes. I think the special bluetooth pairing instructions may be a bit misleading though; I was eventually able to pair it using standard bluetooth HID keyboard device profile. It seems they only allow some sort of "virtual keyboard toggle" using a quick double-click of the scanner trigger, but this was not obvious from the linked article.

At any rate, after configuring the scanner to pair via bluetooth, the iPad would find the scanner, show a spinner after trying to pair, and then provide an unhelpful "pairing device unsuccessful" message. I could see a quick flash of some window that was too quick to read before this. I recorded a screen capture video of the process and paused it at the appropriate point to find that it was asking for the client device to enter a randomly generated PIN code. I later discovered that there is a way to switch the scanner device from static pin code to "Variable PIN Code" mode. However, the instructions are SO unclear on how to make this work.

Here is the full procedure that worked for me for pairing one of these devices to iOS:
  1. Reboot your iOS device (may not be necessary, but I had some trouble from the host device side as well).
  2. Install latest firmware on Zebra scanner. As of this writing, I have LS4278 device running firmware "Release 019 - 2015.10.20 (NBRACAAM-NBCACAAR)". Presumably this is the last version that will be released for this device given the date.
  3. You must have the printed manual to perform the following. The manual is over 300 pages long. If you do not have it, download the PDF from here and print chapter 4 "Radio Communications" and Appendix E "Alphanumeric Bar Codes".
  4. Reset the scanner to factory defaults (there is a code for this somewhere in the manual, or through 123Scan configuration app).
  5. From chapter 4, scan in order:
    1. Host Type: Bluetooth Keyboard Emulation (HID Slave)
    2. Discoverable Mode: General Discoverable Mode
    3. Keyboard Type: North American Standard (may not be necessary)
    4. PIN Code: Variable PIN Code
  6. On iPad, go into Settings -> Bluetooth. The scanner device should appear. Attempt to pair. iPad will display a PIN code to enter on the scanner.
  7. Using printed barcodes from Appendix E, enter the requested PIN code, followed by the "End Of Message" barcode.
    1. NOTE: The manual includes an Appendix D "Numeric Bar Codes" with barcodes for 0-9 and "Cancel" DO NOT attempt to use these barcodes. They don't work, and as soon as the first one is scanned, the pairing process ends as "unsuccessful" in the iPad.
  8. Pairing should be successful after this.
Just when you thought we were in the clear....

Turns out that when you have a bluetooth HID keyboard device attached to the iPad, it will no longer display the on screen keyboard (at all). There is no workaround for this:

The special iPad instructions for the newer LI4278 scanner device allow you to bring up the on screen keyboard using a quick double-click of the scanner trigger. Since this won't work with the LS4278, I used a female USB type-A to lightning bolt adapter to connect a physical keyboard to the ipad. Now both scanner and physical keyboard work.

Finally, the scanner may be too fast for some iPads.  This may manifest in dropped characters while scanning into a Mosaic web page.  Consult your manual and find the command barcodes for setting "HID Keyboard Keystroke Delay" The options are "No Delay 0ms (default)", "Medium Delay 20ms", and "Long Delay 40ms".  We have found that the 40ms delay fixes issues.

[This information provided courtesy Mathias Smith who spent quite a bit of time and effort working through these issues!]

Monday, May 15, 2017

Chrome 58 Affects Direct DYMO Printing

2017-Jun-21 Update:
DYMO has published a fix:

http://developers.dymo.com/2017/05/30/new-dls-8-released-this-fixes-security-certificate-issue-for-windows/

Use the "Windows Download link" to get the relevant version of the DYMO software.  NOTE: the standard download location does not yet have this version.

Previous Post:
The latest version of Chrome has exposed a weakness in DYMO's direct printing.  For the details, read here:

http://developers.dymo.com/2017/05/04/google-chrome-not-secure-warning-fix-is-on-the-way/

A work-around is to use the following setting:

chrome://flags/#allow-insecure-localhost


Update:  we discovered an unfortunate side-effect of using this setting is that valid https sites might show certificate errors.

Wednesday, July 1, 2015

“Skype Click to Call” Negatively Impacts Performance

We have discovered that the Skype Click to Call Extension in Firefox greatly reduces Mosaic worksheet performance.  To avoid this, we recommend that you disable the Extension.

Though we have not tested it, Internet Explorer and Chrome may see slow downs as well.

We believe that the reason lies with this Extension scanning the entire page looking for phone numbers.  Since Mosaic worksheets have a large amount of data, this may explain the slow-downs.

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Wednesday, June 17, 2015

New MIME type required for On-premises Mosaic

Sites hosting Mosaic Vivarium on-premises will need to register a new MIME type with IIS:

File name extension .woff2

MIME type application/font-woff2

NOTE:  you should retain the existing .woff extension with MIME type application/x-font-otf

SNAGHTML2e7f7f22

 

image

Monday, June 8, 2015

Changes to Animal Health Cases

Coming changes will affect who may access Animal Health Cases on the associated Worksheet.  Read below because there are things you must prepare to maintain proper access.

Normal users who will view health cases will need the “View Health Case” privilege.

Administrators who should see all health cases regardless of ownership will need the “Health Case Administrator” privilege.

image

ACTION:  We added these privileges before implementing the changes so that you can add the privileges to the desired Roles.  You should do this now if you have not done so already.

For users without “Health Case Administrator” but with “View Health Case” access to individual rows will be governed by the person and group fields on the case:  if you are the person on one of the person fields, or you belong to one of the groups on the group fields, then you may see the case.  For details see this new help topic:

image

We have ADDED “Veterinarian Group” to the worksheet:

image

IMPORTANT NOTE:  the “Assigned To Group” is the same field that appears on the Task Worksheet.  Previously, this field appeared as “Veterinarian Group” on the Health Cases Worksheet, but it was really the Assigned To Group.  This was confusing.  Furthermore, some sites require separate Veterinarian/Veterinarian Group columns on the health case so that monitoring may be Assigned To technician/caretaker personnel (using Assigned To/Group) while oversight may be assigned separately to Veterinarian staff (using Vet/Vet Group fields).

NOW:  the Assigned To Group is the same on the Health Cases worksheet as on the Task Worksheet.  The Veterinarian/Veterinarian Group fields apply only to Health Cases and appear only on that worksheet and NOT on the general Task Worksheet.

ACTION:  you will probably want to enter your Veterinarian Group values on the Health Cases Worksheet before the final changes to permissions take effect.