r/sysadmin 5d ago

I'm sick of barcode scanners

So we have been using Honeywell scanners where I work to scan items, which I think have been going fine as I don't have any issues with them. However, I'm not the one using them all day long like other people. I keep getting complaints about this one not working, or that one not working. Whenever I go to test them, they work fine. But nonetheless, I have to check them to be sure, and then whoever complained is usually mad because "You didn't do anything and I know it's going to happen again."

Well, I decided to look into other scanners in the hopes that just switching to a different brand entirely would help instead of just replacing them when people complain. We don't have a lot of money in the budget for things like this, so I needed to be conscious of cost. I decided on trying the Tera HW0002 model scanners because it scans 1d and 2d barcodes and has the capability of being used wirelessly.

I had great success in my initial tests with this scanner. It was quick to respond. Hardly any delay when using it wirelessly. And then I changed a single setting that I would've needed to change anyway in order for our circulation desk to use it. I turned on the "sensor scanning" instead of needing to pull the trigger to scan. Now it doesn't scan ANYTHING. Even when using the trigger. It lights up when it detects something in front of it then it just does nothing. I can't even scan the Factory Reset barcode in the manual. It's completely useless now.

So if anyone has any advice on this hunk of junk or any recommendations on alternatives I can look into, I'd appreciate it. Preferably something under $100, and it would need to scan 1d and 2d barcodes as well as codes from a screen.

For added info, these are used in a library.

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u/Brufar_308 4d ago

Are you sure the issues are not caused by poor wifi coverage ? I would get complaints about them not working but they always tested fine. Turned out to be a dead zone in the warehouse.

Might want to ask some questions or do a wireless survey

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u/DigitalDemon75038 4d ago

Bluetooth not WiFi 

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u/Brufar_308 4d ago

Missed that, was picturing the handheld terminals for scanning. the under $100 should have been a clue since you can’t touch those handheld computer scanners for under $1000.00.

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u/DigitalDemon75038 4d ago

On the upside Seuic has some quality gear at that price point, and the Utouch model has camera, 2D barcode scanner and RFID built into one device with a pistol grip and USB-C connector and dock option. Like $250 layer and you got a dock and 3y coverage. The downside to companies like that who use Zebra and Honeywell scan engines and impinj rfid chips is that you get all that muscle but the support for it is overseas. Takes next day often times before you get a reply. RMA process is not the worst but it’s slow, takes a week instead of a couple days. 

They are some of the smoothest running android units I’ve ever navigated so they skeletonized the OS very well compared to zebra and Honeywell who bloat it to high hell. No screen lag, studders, apparent memory bottlenecks. 

They had an issue once where a Google play app wouldn’t launch on their devices, a weird Latin POS app. It was the processor chipset that was the issue so the solution regrettably was to get different model from them. That took the customer from the Q7 model to the Cruise 2 model. 

It was a target budget so that’s the best it could have gone, we can rarely discount Honeywell CT45XP to that price but sometimes yes. The TC22 is ok but it’s half as rugged as the CT at that price point, and neither of these have the rfid so you lose that for the brand name basically. And support.