Power Tracker VIII User Manual
Contents
1. Change Emulation to TTY This is about the simplest possible emulation Click on the ASCII SETUP button The ASCII Setup box should appear Check the box titled Echo typed characters locally This allows the commands you type to the reader to be displayed on the screen Set Line delay to 1 millisecond Make sure the box labeled Wrap lines that exceed terminal width is NOT checked Click the ASCII Setup OK button Click the AVID properties OK button Click on File Select Save This saves all the changes you ve made to the default setup to the HyperTerm connection file named AVID HT Before you exit make sure everything s working To see if the serial link is good press the spacebar a couple of times HyperTerm sends the space character to the reader and it should respond with Looking on the first press and No ID Found on the second After you exit there should be an icon labeled AVID HT in the HyperTerm window Click on it and you should go right into HyperTerm with everything set up for communicating with the Memory Card 13 If it s not readable or nothing happened you should go back into Properties and make sure everything is set as previously described If it won t even display the keys you press then almost certainly the settings weren t saved If the settings are correct then either your connecting cable is wired incorrectly or you re not connected to the serial port you think you are or the reader2. Reader ID and Quit Initializes reader in DataSaver mode clearing any stored entries Initializes reader in Lookup mode clearing any stored entries This puts the reader in the upload mode See Using HyperTerm to Download or Upload the Memory Card Terminates upload mode Followed by up to nine digits of a reader ID number sets the reader ID 17 D Followed by 6 digits ddmmyy where Dd day of month Mm month of year Yy year Sets the date does no checking it s possible to set Feb 31 for example T followed by 6 digits HhnMmSs where Hh Hour of day 0 24 Mme Minute of hour 0 59 Ss Second of minute 0 59 Sets the time Does no validity checking l lowercase L Turns off Learn mode only in Lookup mode Innnnnnnn lowercase L only in Lookup mode Starts learning Study nnnnnnnn where nnnnnnnn is an 8 character Study name The Study name must be exactly eight characters If it is not eight characters Learn mode is disabled Non volatile to Turns off timestamping of serial output of reads ti Turns on timestamping of serial output of reads The t0 and t1 commands only affect the serial output that occurs when reading a tag If the memory card is in Saver mode stored tags will always be timestamped If the memory card is in Lookup mode the memory card is storing the Lookup Tables There is nowhere to store a timestamp This command is non volatile 6 Data formats and data manipulation There are o
3. 8 Stop bits 1 Handshake XON XOFF or None Attach the reader to your PC using the AVID PC Interface AC Power adapter Cable AVID4011 Figure 4 Figure 4 AVID Interface Power Cable AVID401 1 Read the input as text lines line sequential input Whether the line is terminated with a Linefeed or a Carriage Return Linefeed pair is software selectable See the colon and semicolon serial commands Characters displayed on the LCD are also sent to the reader s serial port WARNING USE ONLY THE AVID INTERFACE CABLE WITH THE POWER TRACKER VIII USE ONLY THE AVID AC POWER ADAPTER AVID4004 10 THE USE OF ANY OTHER CABLE OR AC POWER ADAPTER COULD CAUSE PERMANENT DAMAGE TO THE READER 4 2 Software Revision Numbers The PowerTracKer VIII has two software revision numbers One is the revision number of the reader board software The other is the revision number of the Memory Translation card software To display the reader board revision number send the reader the command It should respond with the name of the software ptb c the revision number and some more information that is not within the scope of this manual To display the Memory Translator card revision number send the reader the command t will respond with five lines identical to the header sent when downloading data and documented in that section of the manual The Settings line will have the name of the memory card s software datasavr c and revis
4. AS Savel itae Ret RACER RARE 9 Init As Eook p oo rect ume rte tts 9 Learn Mode ou i een Ine Io Sie tease pl iR ERE 9 nw REESE 10 4 Using the reader with compulters eere 10 4 1 Serial Communications 10 4 2 Software Revision Numbers AA 11 4 3 Ack Nak Status 5 one ip db RR ERRARE RSS 11 4 4 deno EE 11 4 5 Departure Reporting 11 4 6 ID Tags and the Serial port 12 4 7 Turning on Learn mode serially seeene 12 4 8 Serial commands and the manual read button eee eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees 12 4 9 Using HyperTerm with the reader AAA 12 4 9 1 Configuring Hvper em 12 4 9 2 Using HyperTerm to Download or Upload the Memory Card 14 Downloading the Memory Car 14 Uploading the Memory Card 14 Upload TEE 15 Table of Contents Upload Non Erors AAA 15 5 Serlal Command Set cede Lie ted EEEENeNe 16 5 31 Gell ue EE 16 6 Data formats and data manipulation eere 18 6 1 Timestamp Format AA 18 6 2 Header and Trailer Format ccccccccccecssssseceeceeceeeesseceeeeeeeaeeseeeeseees 18 Reader ID nnnnpnpnpnmn 19 2i Initialized 38 EE 19 HE Settings EE 20 1t East cleared EE 20 Current timestamp rennen nnne 20 number Downloacded 11 20 ze P 20 6 3 Data Saver Download Format 21 6 4 Lookup Mode Download Format ne 21 6 5 Data Manipulati
5. isn t powered up Once you have a good HyperTerm connection saved using it becomes much simpler Just double click on the AVID HT icon and HyperTerm will come up configured to communicate with the reader If you drag the icon to the desktop you won t have to find the HyperTerm folder to run it 4 9 2 Using HyperTerm to Download or Upload the Memory Card Downloading the Memory Card This assumes that you are running a correctly configured HyperTerm connection and that you already have some data saved in the reader The saved data can be either Time stamped reads of tags or Lookup Tables Click on Transfer This will open a drop down menu Click on Capture Text This will open a file dialog where HyperTerm is asking you to name the file in which you want to save the text your data Enter that name or browse around until you find the directory you want to use When you click Start HyperTerm will save characters that come in from the serial port to this file Press the key This is the command to send the data from the memory card to the computer It is not specific to HyperTerm Another method is to move over to the reader press SELECT and scroll up or down until the reader shows Download Memory Press SELECT again and when it s done the reader will show the number downloaded When EOF appears on the HyperTerm screen the memory card is done From HyperTerm click again on Transfer Click on Captur
6. ll probably have to write some function to do the fractional part of the calculation separately Text Editors Since it s ASCII almost any text editor can be used on the file In Windows systems WordPad is probably preferable to Microsoft Word You can use search and replace to rename Studies Make sure they stay eight characters long Spreadsheets Microsoft Excel and most other spreadsheets have provisions for importing text files In Excel when you open the text file Excel brings up a wizard which walks you through the process Both the Data Saver download and Lookup download formats should be treated as delimited formats In Data Saver mode the delimiter is the sign at the beginning of the timestamp In Lookup mode the delimiter is the comma separating the Study number from the tag number It is possible in Excel to add the hyphen as a delimiter splitting the Study Name from the Study Number so that it appears in its own column However if the Study Number is somehow separated from the Study Name during the manipulation of the data there isn t any way to get them associated again 22 Some spreadsheets have facilities for manipulating dates built in However to use these facilities usually requires getting the timestamp into the spreadsheet s internal date time format In Microsoft Excel this involves Using text functions to separate the parts of the timestamp down to the required resolution reassembling the tim
7. on the screen as it goes When the command shows up the upload is complete A line starting with terminates the upload When uploading if no match is found for the Study name a new study of that name will be created if there is a Study with no entries in the reader A line starting with is considered to be a comment and is ignored thus a valid upload file is generated from a file dump This allows you to add comments in the text file in which the study or studies are stored Comment lines in the uploaded file are not stored in the reader The Comment lines generated by a download are just the current state of the reader Note that outside the start upload and the terminate upload command the reader s receiving a char will turn on the three minute warning beep of the reader Upload Errors If there are already 32 studies with entries and an entry with a different Study Name is entered the entry will be ignored and an error message will be returned over the serial port If a Study and number duplicate an existing Study and number the entry will be ignored and an error message will be returned over the serial port This is true even if the entry uses the same tag number i e attempting to load the same Study twice will cause many errors If a tag is already in use by a Study in the reader the entry will be ignored and an error message will be returned over the serial port If the tag text format is not recognize
8. tag number and sound two high pitched beeps The LED flashes for one second or until you release the READ Switch After releasing the READ Switch the LCD will continue to display the found ID tag number If the reader did not read an ID tag it will sound a low pitched tone and the LCD will display No ID Found As soon as an ID tag is found and the number displayed on the LCD the reader stops looking for ID tags The READ Switch must be pressed each time an ID tag is to be read 1 3 LCD Display The LCD is located on the top center of the reader It displays reader functions and ID tag numbers 1 4 MENU Keypad The Menu Keypad is located on the top of the reader around the LCD The keypad consists of three parts the LEFT lt RIGHT 2 and SELECT keys Pressing any of the keys will bring up the menu The RIGHT arrow is used to advance to the NEXT menu item The LEFT arrow is used to recall the PREVIOUS menu item The SELECT key is used to select the function displayed on the LCD 1 5 BATTERY Compartment The BATTERY Compartment is located on the back of the reader When you do not intend to use the reader for an extended period remove the battery and store the reader and battery in a dry location protected from sunlight high heat and humidity iid Figure 2 Battery Compartment To open rotate the battery cap counterclockwise To close rotate the battery cap clockwise and tighten snuggly The positi
9. 32580 5 Downloaded EOF Data Saver mode data line organization is simple It s just the tag number followed by the sign and the timestamp Note that tag numbers can be different lengths You cannot upload timestamped data this is a one way format it only comes out of the reader 6 4 Lookup Mode Download Format When in Lookup mode the format of the output from the reader looks like this Reader ID 1 02122615423624 Initialized as Lookup f Settings q Kt1I0lTstStudy datasavr c 1 XX Last cleared 02122615430625 Current timestamp 02122615451303 TstStudy 0000001 AVID 123 456 789 TstStudy 0000002 131629153A TstStudy 0000003 131629154A TstStudy 0000004 131629155A TstStudy 0000005 131629156A 5 Downloaded EOF You ll notice the Lookup mode data line format is more complex than the Data Saver mode It is Eight characters of Study name A hyphen Seven digits of Study Number A comma Up to 16 digits of tag number though there may be fewer Treat it as a comma delimited file If the Study name and Study number get separated during manipulation of the data and there s more than one study there may be no way to associate them again 21 However knowing the Study name number structure is useful if you are trying to build a Study file to upload and the tags are where it would be inconvenient to read them in Learn mode Study Names can have spaces in them but they may not begin with a
10. 9012 This style is all numeric with a zero as the first digit if the tag application bit is Animal and a one if the tag application bit is Non Animal 999123456789012 This style is all numeric and has no way to differentiate between animal and non animal application tags 3E7 1234567890 or 3E7 1234567890 This style is hexadecimal and separates the 3 digit manufacturer country code from the ID number with a period if the tag application bit is Animal and with an asterisk if the tag application bit is Non Animal Press SELECT and the display will show you a sample tag the way the reader is currently displaying ISO animal tags Press the arrow keys to change the way it displays When it s displaying the way you want press the SELECT key Timestamp Mode This option lets you choose whether a timestamp is appended to the ID number sent out the serial port when it s read Press SELECT and the display will show either Output Timestamp or No Timestamp Press the arrow keys to change what it s displaying When it s displaying what you want to do press the SELECT key Set Time This allows you to set the time on the clock that generates the timestamp Press SELECT and the display will show SET HOUR HH mm where HH and mm represent the hours and minutes of the current time The arrow keys increment and decrement the hour value Use the arrow keys to set the hours then press SELECT The display will show SET MIN HH mm whe
11. POWER TRACKER VII V MANUAL 2003 AVID MuLTI MODE READER WirH MEMORY Manufactured under one or more of the following patents 4 262 632 4 333 072 5 214 409 5 235 326 5 257 011 5 266 926 5 465 556 5 484 403 5 499 017 5 559 507 5 963 132 6 172 609 6 249 212 6 307 468 6 441 741 6 472 975 D321069 D318658 ID0002685 186383 672752 0587801 226522 665797 281401 2286948 294766 673350 699484 0748491 03914 738725 741588 208353 Other U S and International patents pending FCC ID IOL 128 AV1004 The device complies with Part 15 of the FCC Rules Operation is subject to the following two conditions 1 This device may not cause harmful interference 2 This device must accept any interference received including interference that may cause undesired operation WARNING This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits for Class A digital device pursuant to Part 15 of the FCC Rules These limits are designed to provide reasonable protection against harmful interference when the equipment is operated in a commercial environment This equipment generates uses and can radiate radio frequency energy and if not installed and used in accordance with the instruction manual may cause interference in which case the user will be required to correct the interference at his own expense The user is cautioned that changes and modifications made to the equipment without approval of the manufacturer could void the user s authority to ope
12. ature Nonvolatile Turns off Ack Nak Status feature Nonvolatile Turns on Departure Reporting feature Nonvolatile Turns off Departure Reporting feature Nonvolatile upper case I ISO numbers display as 0999123456789012 lowercase I ISO numbers display as 999 123456789012 upper case I zero ISO numbers display as 999 123456789012 upper case I one ISO numbers display as 0999123456789012 upper case I two ISO numbers display as 3E7 1234ABCDEF upper case I three ISO numbers display as 999123456789012 The I command affects how ISO tags display both on the LCD and the serial output The display format selected at the time the tag is output is the format that will be used Example If you re in Continuous read mode with a tag in the field and change the output format you will get another display and output as though it were a new tag If Departure Reporting is enabled you will get a departure of the tag in the old format and a read of the tag in the new format Sends the reader s header information out the serial port This lets you see the reader s current configuration See Data formats for an explanation of the information Sends the reader s header information and the current stored tags out the serial port five hyphens Clears all current stored tags Does not change the reader s initialization mode Allows all menu items to be accessed from reader keypad Limits menu items on reader keypad to Show Memory
13. connection in HyperTerm For our walk through we ll call it 12 AVID and use the default icon of a big red telephone with a smaller yellow telephone Entering that information will bring up another dialog box named Phone Number We don t need a telephone number so go down and click on the pick list of Connect Using There are four choices for using COM ports 1 through 4 Pick the one your system is using and then click the OK button I m using COM2 so get a box named COM2 properties It has a single tab marked Port Settings For Bits per second choose 9600 For Data bits choose 8 For Parity choose None For Stop Bits choose 1 For Flow Control choose XON XOFF Click on the Advanced button Make sure the Use FIFO buffers requires 16550 compatible UART is NOT checked You can change it back after things are working and see if they stay working but it isn t usually necessary at 9600 baud Click the OK button on Advanced Port Settings Click the OK button on Port Settings You should now be running in HyperTerm Click on File Select Properties A box labeled AVID properties should show up with two tabs in it One is labeled Phone Numbers and the other is labeled Settings The Phone Numbers tab should show Direct Connect to whatever Com port you re using You shouldn t need to change it Click on the Settings tab Select Function arrow and ctrl keys act as Terminal keys
14. d the entry will be ignored and an error message will be returned over the serial port Upload Non Errors The software for the memory card currently understands FDX A FECAVA FDX B ISO AVID and TROVAN The PowerTracKer VIII can read FDX A FECAVA FDX B and AVID tags It is possible to upload a Lookup Table that contains a tag number of a type that the reader cannot read This will not cause an error but since it can t read that kind of tag the number will never show up either This is another good reason for using Learn Mode to capture the Lookup Table when possible 15 A Useful Trick If you put the start upload command at the beginning of the Lookup Table file and leave the terminate upload command at the end when you edit it then you can upload that Lookup Table file just by sending it to the reader 5 Serial Command Set Serial communication is 9600 baud No parity 8 data bits 1 stop bit The software supports XON XOFF protocol Commands are case sensitive that is an uppercase C is a different command than a lowercase c In general uppercase commands turn features on and lowercase commands turn them off Nonvolatile in the description of a command means that the reader remembers this value even after being turned off 5 1 Commands R Read Starts looking for tags S Stop Stops looking for tags CorM Begin continuous read mode Starts looking for tags and continues looking after one is found The se
15. e memory in the background Eventually it will display Downloaded where is the number of records downloaded Don t forget to do whatever is necessary on your computer program to close the received file and store it If you try to start downloading while the Power Tracker is already downloading the display will show TX Busy until you release the SELECT key Downloading does not destroy the stored data If the attempt is fouled up somehow just wait until the download is complete then try again Init as Saver This has two functions One is to initialize the Power Tracker in Data Saver mode where tags read are stored with a timestamp The other is to clear memory of existing records Because it can cause you to lose data it should be used very carefully Press SELECT to begin Because initializing can cause you to lose data the Power Tracker asks you to confirm that initializing is what you intended to do The display will show Confirm Init Pressing the SELECT key at this point will cause the display to show Not Confirmed until the key is released when the display will show the menu item Nothing will have happened to any saved data To confirm the initialization press BOTH arrow keys at the same time It doesn t matter if one is pressed before the other but they must BOTH be held down at the same time to initialize the Power Tracker The Power Tracker will initialize the memory losing any stored data The di
16. e Text and a menu with Stop will appear Click on Stop All the text that appeared on the screen should now be saved to a text file named whatever you named it You should edit it to remove the at the beginning if you started the download by sending the Uploading the Memory Card Lookup Tables can be uploaded to the Memory Card Time stamped read information cannot be uploaded It is probably easiest to use Learn Mode to get the tag data for an entire Study download the file of learned tags edit the Study Name and number as desirable then upload it again You can generate Lookup Table information by hand if you re very careful The format downloaded by the reader is suitable for uploading except that if the text capture routine saved the sent to start the data dump the should be deleted from the file Otherwise attempting to upload the file will start another download 14 Assuming a properly edited file and that you re running a correctly configured HyperTerm connection Send the upload command to the reader by pressing that key The called the caret is located over the 6 on most keyboards Click on Transfer This will open a drop down menu Click on Send Text File Note that this is a different selection than Send File This opens a file dialog Find the file you want to send or type the path and file name in the File name box Click on Open HyperTerm will send the file to the reader displaying it
17. e the arrow keys to move through the list of names until the study you want to add to is displayed Press SELECT and you ll be back in the menu Now when you read a tag that has not previously been assigned to any study it will be added to the end of the study you selected The newly assigned study number will be displayed and output To stop adding tags to a study press SELECT at the Learn Mode menu item then use the arrow keys until the display shows Learn Mode Off Press SELECT Quit The Quit command will change the display to Ready and the next time you press a key to enter the menu mode you ll start at the top of the menu item list The Power Tracker will always read tags when you press the read button and will generally respond to commands from the serial port unless Study data is being uploaded to the reader It will not restart downloading if a download is already in progress 4 Using the reader with computers 4 1 Serial Communications Any communications program that allows you to upload a raw ASCII or text file to the reader can be used Programs known to work include ProComm in DOS Term in Windows 3 x HyperTerm in Windows 95 or 98 Some adjustment of the settings may be required for optimum performance If it is possible with the software that you re using set the inter character pacing to zero and the line pacing to one millisecond Set the serial interface as Baud rate 9600 Parity None Data bits
18. ed text to a file and of sending a text file over the serial port and this is all that is required HyperTerm comes free with most Windows installations so a large number of users already have it There are however many different versions of HyperTerm that have shipped with various versions of Windows and some of them may operate a little differently than described here These instructions were written using HyperTerm Private Edition 5 0 This program is available for free download from http www hilgraeve com 4 9 1 Configuring HyperTerm HyperTerm has a feature that lets you associate an icon with a particular setup of the terminal program HyperTerm calls these various setups connections You ll need to know to which serial port your reader is attached On many desktop computers COM 1 the first serial port is used for the mouse and COWM2 is available On many laptops the mouse is on dedicated hardware and COM1 is available Click on the START button in the lower left corner Go up to the Programs icon A list box should appear Go up to Accessories in the list box Another list box should appear There should be a folder icon with the name HyperTerm Click on that and a window should open on the desktop Double click on the HyperTerm exe icon in the window The HyperTerm splash panel should show up and then a dialog box named Connection Description It is asking for a name and an icon for this particular setup called a
19. er of digits in the Reader ID number Since the Reader ID number only goes to nine digits there will always be at least one space Example Reader ID 1 01010112010100 In this example there are nine spaces before the Reader ID of 1 which was stored in the computer on Jan 1 2001 at 12 01 01 PM exactly it shows zero hundredths Initialized as Initialized as should be followed by a space and either Data Saver or Lookup The Initialized as line can be used by custom software to parse the data appropriately 19 Settings The easiest way to think about the Settings line is that it is a line of commands that if sent to the memory card would result in its current configuration The memory card firmware and version number follows that information For more details on configuration commands see the serial command set There should be a space after Settings followed by Qorq for Quiet mode or not in quiet mode Or semicolon or colon for LE only or CR LF line end or for3 minute warning beep or no warning beep Kork for reader Keys enabled or reader keys disabled t1 or t0 for timestamping of output enabled or not enabled 10 11 I2 or I3 depending on ISO FDX B tag output format l lower case L followed by either the 8 character Study Name the reader is learning if in Learn mode or eight spaces if not in Learn mode The remainder of the line is the memory card firmware and revisio
20. estamp in Excel s default time date format then using the VALUE function to put that string representation into Excel s internal numerical format Once in Excel s internal numerical format Excel can add and subtract dates and times You lose the sub second resolution of the timestamp when you do this If the cell with the text timestamp in it is B4 then VALUE MID B4 3 2 amp amp MID B4 5 2 amp amp MID B4 1 2 amp amp SMID B4 7 2 amp amp MID B4 9 2 amp amp MID B4 11 2 when put in as the formula for a cell should put the text timestamp into Excel s internal format Note that the DURATION function in Excel is a financial function not a time function Databases Databases like spreadsheets also generally have methods available for importing text files C and C The standard C library has many functions for dealing with files and strings and times and dates Programming in C is outside the scope of this manual A program in C can do pretty much anything that can be done to the data Perl Perl is also a good tool for manipulating the text data and massaging it into shape Again this is outside the scope of this manual You l be learning a programming language However the price is right It is available for free download at http www perl com 7 Warranty and Service The AVID Power TracKer VIII Multi Mode Reader is warranted against defects in material and workmanship under normal u
21. he tag ID number to a study number which it displays and outputs If it cannot find the tag it displays and outputs the tag number in its native format The output from the serial port is selectable as to whether it includes a timestamp at the time the tag is read For example AVID 123 456 789 can be displayed as BARN123 0000001 The reader is capable of storing 2 000 ID tag numbers and their respective translations The format of the study numbers is XXXXXXXX nnnnnnn where XXXXXXXX can be any string of eight characters including spaces and nnnnnnn is a number from 0 65535 zero padded to seven digits Numbers within a study need not be sequential A Study Name may not start with a space character When the reader is learning new tags Learn Mode a tag which is not in one of the studies is added to the end of the study the reader is Learning The tag s newly assigned study number will be displayed In Lookup mode the memory is being used to store the Study information so there is nowhere to store a timestamp However it can append a timestamp to the number that is output from the serial port at the time the tag is read 3 3 Menu Most of the time the reader is used simply as a reader The menu is used to operate the less frequently used features 3 3 1 Keypad Lock The reader also has a feature called Keypad Lock This allows the keypad access to be limited so that a user in the field cannot access all of the menu function
22. ion number as the last two things on the line 4 3 Ack Nak Status If Ack Nak Status is enabled then any recognized serial command returns the status R Reading S Stopped An unrecognized command returns an N Text characters sent while in the write command the W command return the status even if they are not valid commands by themselves See the A and a serial commands for enabling disabling Ack Nak Status 4 4 Prompts Prompts are the strings such as LOOKING and NO ID Found If enabled they will be sent over the serial port after the status is returned The same information is available from the status and whether or not an ID tag has been returned Prompts begin with a space Use the Q and q serial commands to disable enable prompts Use the semicolon and colon commands to select termination by either CR LF DOS or just LF UNIX PSION 4 5 Departure Reporting The serial port outputs the tag only once per encounter in continuous read mode If the reader does not read the tag for one second then the tag is assumed to have departed A tag is also assumed to have departed if a different tag number is read If Departure Reporting is enabled then when the tag has departed either by not being read for a period of time or the reading of a different tag then a Departure message such as Departed 999 0123456789012 will be sent over the serial port Departure messages are not shown on the LCD Note
23. ity to read For the best reading performance a circular motion is recommended 2 3 Interference From RF Sources And Metal Objects The AVID Power TracKer VIII Reader senses variations in electromagnetic fields in order to read ID signals from the ID tags Computer terminals and video Screens produce interference and nearby metal objects can reduce the amplitude of the read field Both of these conditions reduce read range If you are experiencing a decrease in reading distance it may be that the reader is being affected by electromagnetic interference or nearby metal objects Try changing locations 3 Memory and Translation Module The Power TracKer VIII will read AVID FECAVA and ISO FDX B coded ID tags The memory and translation module may be used in either of two modes Data Saver or Lookup 3 1 DataSaver Mode When operating in DataSaver mode the reader simply logs up to 2000 tag ID numbers and the date and time they were read to the reader s internal memory At the time the tag is read it also outputs the tag number to the serial port The output from the serial port at the time the tag is read is selectable as to whether it includes a timestamp The reader cannot translate tags while being used as a data logger 3 2 Lookup Mode When operating in Lookup mode the reader tries to find the tag ID number in one of 32 lookup tables called Studies If the reader finds an entry for the tag in one of the studies it translates t
24. ly it does not mean the battery is fully charged The battery will need to be charged an additional 12 to 14 hours Caution Do not use around water Do not allow the charger to get wet Keep the charger on a clean dry area and insure that dirt dust and foreign objects are kept out of the hole and off the charging contacts Do not try charging any other battery except the AVID supplied Ni MH battery Figure 3 NiMH Battery Charger 1 8 PC Interface AC Power Adapter Cable The connector is a DB 9 and provides for an external power connection as well as a PC connection to the reader It can only be used with an AVID AC Power Adapter AVID4004 To use a DB 25 connector use a commercially available DB 9 to DB 25 adapter The AVID Interface Power cable is 6 feet in length You may add additional cable to the PC side by using the following connection chart Signal DB 9 Pin AC adapt TXD1 RXD1 GND DSR GND PW OO OO Oh Table 1 RS 232 Serial Cable Pin Assignment 1 9 Specifications Operating Frequency Baud Rate Hardware handshaking Software handshaking Serial format Battery Battery Life FCC Information AC Power Adapter Display Operating Temperature Storage Temperature 128 KHz 9600 bits per second None XON XOFF No parity bit 8 data bits 1 stop bit AVID Ni MH rechargeable batteries only Approximately 3 000 read operations per recharge assuming 2 seconds per read operatio
25. n FCC ID IOL 128 AV1004 Input 100 240VAC 50 60Hz Output 9 VDC 600ma 16 character LCD 0 to 50 C 32 to 122 F 20 to 65 C 4 to 149 F 2 Standalone Operation of the Reader 2 1 Software Revision Numbers The Power TracKer VIII has two software revision numbers One is for the reader board software The other is for the Memory Translation card software To display the revision number of the reader turn the reader off hold down the READ button and turn the reader back on The reader should warble and display the reader board software name and revision number on the LCD To display the revision number of the Memory Translator module press all three of the Menu Keys RIGHT arrow LEFT arrow and SELECT key at the same time The LCD will display the software name and revision number 2 2 How To Read an ID Tag To read an ID tag with the AVID Power TracKer VIII position the reader directly on the subject with the READ Switch depressed Search for the ID tag using slow circular motions approximately 2 inch circles while following the scan patterns shown in Scan Pattern 1 and 2 Scan slowly Keep the reader touching the subject during the entire procedure When the reader locates an ID tag it will display the number on the LCD sound the beeper and flash the green LED Scan Pattern 1 Scan Pattern 2 Figure 5 Scanning Technique The orientation of the reader antenna to the ID tag affects the range and abil
26. n number Last cleared The Last cleared line gives you the timestamp when the reader was last cleared This can be from either clearing or initializing the reader No Data Saver mode data should be any older than this if the reader s timestamp hasn t been changed Current timestamp The Current timestamp line has the timestamp at the time the data was downloaded No Data Saver mode data should be any newer than this if the reader s timestamp hasn t been changed Number Downloaded The Downloaded line gives the number of tag records that it downloaded This does not count any of the lines in either the Header or Trailer This is just the number of tag records The downloaded line allows you to verify that you received all the data the reader sent but that s just a convenience for the user writing custom software IEOF The EOF line is there so that downloaded Lookup mode records can be uploaded without much editing on the part of the user though it too could be used by custom software 20 6 3 Data Saver Download Format When in Data Saver mode the format of the output from the reader looks like this Reader ID 9999999999 02122615423624 Initialized as Data Saver Settings q f Ktl1l01 datasavr c 1 XX Last cleared 02122611323648 Current timestamp 02122611340199 131629152A 02122611332309 AVID 123 456 789802122611332371 131629152A802122611332434 131629152A802122611332505 131629152A 021226113
27. nload Over time you will accumulate data files on your computer Eventually you will come across a file that made sense to you at the time but for which you have now forgotten the purpose By including the reader information at the time of the download there s some small chance you can figure out what the data is and whether it s important These lines are not required for upload When sending Lookup data to the reader the reader ignores lines that begin with the sign You can put comment lines in your Lookup data files simply by starting the line with a We recommend this even if you take out this default header Comments that are in the file can t be renamed away The trailer lines are not necessary for the download either A terminal emulator as is typically used for downloading just treats everything as text it s saving to disk and doesn t require any of the header or trailer information Reader ID Reader ID is just a number stored in the memory card f there are multiple readers on a project it can be useful to know which reader took the data The Reader ID is timestamped every time the Reader ID is written As default the Reader ID is set to the reader s serial number before it leaves the factory The Reader ID should be followed by up to a nine digit number justified right in a ten character space followed by a timestamp That is the number of spaces to the right of the Reader ID string will be 10 the numb
28. nly a few different types of data that come from the reader They are combined in each mode to create the download formats I m going to describe the building blocks separately and work up to the download formats 6 1 Timestamp Format Timestamps are used several places on downloads and can be sent after each tag read in real time as well Timestamps start with an sign The timestamp is organized as two digits each of year month day hour minute second hundredths of a second Or for short YYMMDDHHmmsshh Sorting on the timestamp will put the records in time order Some software will not handle 14 digit integers without expressing it in exponential format Sorting on the ASCII representation will also put it in time order It takes longer than a hundredth of a second to read a tag and there is some overhead in formatting it for display so the timestamp is not accurate to that precision However tags with later timestamps will always have been read after tags with earlier timestamps 6 2 Header and Trailer Format The downloads for Data Saver and Lookup mode both start with 5 header lines that look like this 18 Reader ID 9999999999 02122615423624 Initialized as Data Saver Settings q f Kt1101 datasavr c 1 XX Last cleared 02122611323648 Current timestamp 802122611340199 They end with two Trailer lines that look like this 5 Downloaded EOF A frequently asked question is why the header lines are in the dow
29. on seen 22 ESAN o i 1e EE 22 Spreadsh ets uix etate eie dp ce etu e oi 22 DAtTADESES 6 iih AE EEEE i rait nicatetitrait mti 23 ETATO Ee Ee 23 P Ol EE 23 7 Warranty and Service scccseccsseeeseeeeeseeeeseeenseeeseeeeaseeeeseeeaseesseeeeaseeeeseats 23 7 1 Return Material Authorization eeeeeeecsssseeeeeerrrnennnnnn 23 AVID Power TracKer VIII Multi Mode Reader Operating Manual 2003 AVID Identification Systems Inc All rights reserved 1 Description The AVID Power TracKer VIII Multi Mode Reader is a hand held identity tag reader with memory and code mapping It can be used with AVID FECAVA and ISO FDX B coded radio frequency identification tags AVID Power TracKer III omen T Figure 1 PowerTracKer VIII 1 1 POWER Switch The POWER Switch is on the top right side of the reader and turns the unit ON and OFF Press the POWER Switch once and the unit will turn ON The LCD will display AVID FECAVA ISO and the reader will produce a beep Press the POWER Switch again to turn the unit OFF The LCD will go blank WHEN NOT IN USE TURN THE READER OFF The reader sounds a reminder beep every 3 minutes when powered on and not in use 1 2 READ Switch The READ Switch is located on the top left side of the reader and is used to scan for an ID tag Press and hold the READ Switch to seek an ID tag The LCD will display LOOKING On reading an ID tag it will display the ID
30. rate this equipment For information Within USA 800 336 2843 Outside USA 951 371 7505 Fax 951 737 8967 http www avidid com 3185 Hamner Avenue Norco California USA 92860 1 Description inicie siet e dane maaa idonea nain ck sio Ana aia ne n rab inae ra hann DD d Ku 1 1 1 POWER re EE 1 T2 READ SWIICH out nete ite teret Dee eate td 1 UC HEC BREET E EEN 2 1 4 MENU Keypad ice ege irn repere re ege pests 2 1 5 BATTERY Compartment A 2 1 6 READ Anternna netten tete EHE ER 3 1 7 BATTERY Charger is niine inn uec tte Leda decina 3 1 8 PC Interface AC Power Adapter Cable sese 3 UE Bee le EE A 2 Standalone Operation of the Reader eese 5 2 1 How To Read an ID Tag cceeeccceceseeceeesseceneneeseeeeseneeseseesenseaneeeetsoneres 5 2 2 Interference From RF Sources And Metal Objects ssse 6 3 Memory and Translation Module eene 6 941 DataSaver Mode aene ee teer epar getan 6 3 2 LOOKUP Mode area a aeai epe ERR dE 6 E WO 6 3 3 1 Keypad Lock itte tnter rec e nnn 7 3 3 2 Men Items one ete te perdiet ie cente pes 7 SHOW sme 7 Reader D une eee Rte E d EE 7 ISO Number Give ee aine tede idee 7 Timestamp Mode 5 ote anre dee cree Ye 8 INIM EE 8 LR creta ede idea atate p eet 8 Download Memory eese nnne nnenen trennen 8 Init
31. re HH and mm represent the hours and minutes of the current time Use the arrow keys to increment and decrement the minutes value When the minutes are what you want press SELECT Set Date This allows you to set the date on the clock that generates the timestamp Press SELECT and the display will show Set Day DD MM YY where DD represents the day of the month MM represents the month of the year and YY represents the last two digits of the year Use the arrow keys to change the day then press SELECT The display will show Set Mon DD MM YY Use the arrow keys to set the correct month then press SELECT The display will show Set Yr DD MM YY Use the arrow keys to set the correct year then press SELECT Download Memory This function allows you to download the records stored in memory to a computer via the serial port It is also possible to do this and it may even be easier to do this using commands over the serial port Set up your computer with a serial link at 9600 baud no parity 8 data bits 1 stop bit often referred to as 9600 8 N 1 and get it ready to receive data The Power Tracker uses the XON XOFF protocol to avoid losing data Some computers may be fast enough to accept the whole download without losing characters even without a handshaking protocol Press SELECT to start the download The display will change to Downloading until you release the key when it will return to the menu downloading th
32. rial port outputs the tag only once per encounter On readers equipped with LED read indicators the LED will flash as long as a tag is being read and for one second afterward Continuous read mode is not recommended when running on the reader s battery corm Continuous read mode off Does NOT stop reading but reading a tag will make the reader stop looking for tags The x space or S commands also make the reader stop space Toggles between Read and Stop Does not affect Continuous read mode x note that this is lower case Identical to space command B Beep on Nonvolatile b Beep off Useful for speeding up continuous read Nonvolatile Q Quiet turns off prompt generation to serial port Tag ID information is still sent Nonvolatile q Turns on prompt generation to serial port Nonvolatile Memory card command to return the version of the reader firmware If Ack Nak Status reporting is turned on it will also return a Status character after the newline at the end of the ID Prompts and tags are terminated by CR LF Nonvolatile Prompts and tags are terminated by LF only useful on PSION or UNIX Nonvolatile 3 minute warning beep off separate from beep on off Nonvolatile 3 minute warning beep on separate from beep on off Nonvolatile 16 NN zx LO L1 Write up to 16 characters to the LCD More than 16 characters or a control character such as CR will terminate the command Turns on Ack Nak Status fe
33. s With Keypad Lock engaged only the menu items SHOW MEMORY READER ID and QUIT will be available Use the k and K serial commands to enable and disable Keypad Lock 3 3 2 Menu Items The arrow keys can be used to scroll through the following functions Show Memory This shows how many more tags may be stored A newly initialized reader will store 2000 tags Press SELECT and it will display Remaining where is the four digit number of records remaining until you release the button Header ID Each reader can be given a number which appears in the header of information downloaded to a computer This is useful in environments where more than one reader is being used Since the Reader ID can be set via the serial port it is not guaranteed to be unique The number set at the factory is the reader s serial number Press SELECT and the reader ID number will be displayed until you release the button ISO Number Style This allows you to choose how the reader displays and outputs the ISO FDX B number ISO standards 11784 and 11785 do not define a standard display format The PowerTracKer VIII supplies several options You may choose the following formats 999 123456789012 or 999 123456789012 This style separates the 3 digit manufacturer country code from the ID number with a period if the tag application bit is Animal and with an asterisk if the tag application bit is Non Animal 0999123456789012 or 199912345678
34. se and service for a period of 1 year from the date of shipment from AVID This warranty will not apply if repairs parts or adjustments are required due to accident neglect damage during transportation or causes other than ordinary use AVID s sole responsibility under this warranty shall be at AVID s option to either repair or replace any product which fails during the warranty period In no event shall AVID be liable for any indirect or consequential damages or loss of profits 7 1 Return Material Authorization A Return Material Authorization RMA number must be issued before a unit is returned to AVID for service Contact AVID for a RMA number or other service questions 951 371 7505 23 24
35. space A computer sees a difference between space Study space space 0000001 and Study space space space 0000001 but a casual reader might find this confusing In addition AVID uses a convention in the serial output of readers that prompts always start with a space and tag numbers don t This allows simple minded software to separate prompt messages from tags Allowing spaces at the beginning of a Study Name would spoil this convention 6 5 Data Manipulation Once the text file is in the computer it can be manipulated like any other ASCII text file and all the different methods of doing that are outside the scope of this manual However we can pass along some hints It s generally easiest to keep the data as text Tag numbers can generally have non numeric characters of some sort in them The timestamp while all decimal digits is long enough that it is sometimes put into exponential notation losing digits Sorting on the ASCII representation of the timestamp will put it in time order Finding time differences between records depends on the software you re using and finding a formula that will work can be tedious Most time functions only operate down to a 1 second resolution They usually work by converting time and date to an offset in seconds from a known time origin manipulating that value as a large integer and then converting back to a date and time format If you need resolution down to less than one second you
36. splay will show Remaining where is the number of records available until all buttons are released Init as Lookup This has two functions One is to initialize the Power Tracker in Lookup mode where tags read are translated into a Study number The other is to clear memory of existing records Because it can cause you to lose data it should be used very carefully Press SELECT to begin Because initializing can cause you to lose data the Power Tracker asks you to confirm that initializing is what you intended to do The display will show Confirm Init Pressing the SELECT key at this point will cause the display to show Not Confirmed until the key is released when the display will show the menu item Nothing will have happened to any saved data To confirm the initialization press BOTH arrow keys at the same time It doesn t matter if one is pressed before the other but they must BOTH be held down at the same time to initialize the Power Tracker The Power Tracker will initialize the memory losing any stored data The display will show Remaining SA where is the number of records available until all buttons are released Learn Mode Learn Mode is only applicable to Lookup Mode It s an easy way to add new ID tags to a Study Press SELECT and the display will show the name of one of the 32 studies that can be stored in the Power Tracker at any given time or Learn Mode Off To add tags to a study us
37. the leading space on the Departure message Departures are treated as prompts Departure messages are not stored in the memory of current DataSaver software Doing so would allow storing only half as many tags Therefore we chose not to use the DataSaver to record the departure time of tags 11 4 6 ID Tags and the Serial port ID Tag information is always sent when read The Quiet mode does NOT disable ID tag output 4 7 Turning on Learn mode serially If you send the reader lower case L followed by exactly eight characters of Study name and a line terminator then the reader will Start learning that Study This lets you put the reader in Learn mode and specify a name at the same time The Study name must be exactly eight characters If it is not eight characters Learn mode is disabled If the Study name does not exactly match an existing Study name then if there is a Study to which no tags are assigned a new Study will be created 4 8 Serial commands and the manual read button The reader accepts commands from the manual read button and from the serial port Pressing the manual READ button will E Disable continuous read mode Start Looking On readers equipped with LED read indicators releasing the manual read button always shuts off the LED 4 9 Using HyperTerm with the reader There is nothing in the reader that requires the use of HyperTerm or of Windows Most terminal programs offer some method of capturing receiv
38. ve end of the battery has a raised button on it Make sure the positive end of the battery goes in first The spring contact on the battery compartment cap should press firmly against the flat end of the battery WARNING MAKE SURE THE BATTERY IS INSERTED IN THE PROPER DIRECTION INCORRECT POLARITY CAN DESTROY THE BATTERY AND READER USE ONLY AVID APPROVED Ni MH RECHARGEABLE BATTERY DISPOSE OF BATTERY WITH EXTREME CARE AND IN ACCORDANCE WITH LOCAL REGULATIONS BATTERY MAY EXPLODE IF DISPOSED OF IN FIRE OR WATER 1 6 Reader Antenna The Reader Antenna is located on the bottom of the reader and is the interface between the reader and the ID tag The Reader Antenna emits a low frequency electromagnetic signal to activate the ID tag 1 7 BATTERY Charger The Power TracKer comes equipped with an AVID Ni MH battery charger The charger will charge the AVID Ni MH battery in 14 to 16 hours It is recommended that each new battery be fully charged before using the reader To charge an AVID Ni MH battery inspect the charger to insure that no foreign materials are in the charging area or on the charging contacts Connect the transformer to the charger and plug it in The green or red light on the charger will blink Place the battery positive anode end first Figure 3 into the top of the charger The light will change to a solid green After approximately 2 hours the green light will blink again This indicates that the charger is operating normal
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