We are beta testing a custom built scanning app on about 10 TC55's. On all the units, there has been sporadic reports of users losing their scanning lasers. Some get it more often than others, with a bad day being 3 times that the laser isn't present. And for the people that do get the issue, some days they don't have any problems at all. Most of the time a reboot solves the issue, but occasionally several reboots maybe required for the laser to come back. The issue has been hard to narrow down and reproduce. Here is some information on our setup:
Hardware: TC55
Android: 4.4.3
EMDK: 5.0.3.0
Build Number: 02-65-00-KG-00-MV
Zebra patch version: CFE-TC55-K-xx-2.65-G-00-02vB
For our software, we are using the ITScriptNet product form z-space.com. The software vendor has tried a few fixes, but it hasn't made a difference. They suggested that we upgrade our original EMDK version from 3.1.38 to 5.0.3.0, which we did, but it hasn't made a difference. I'm curious if anyone might have some suggestions for us to try.
Ron Cavil
Occasionally losing laser on TC55// Expert user has replied. |
3 Replies
In our case, it seems that all the losing the laser issues have involved the ITScriptNet software itself. For each control, the control can be configured to receive input via the keyboard, scanner, or both. So in our case, the cursor would be in focus of a control that was setup to receive input via the scanner, but the laser wouldn't appear. So far, all of these cases have been resolved with updates to the ITScriptNet software itself, which is built using Xamarin. So far, we haven't identified any laser loss outside the ITScriptNet software.
We have the exact same problem over here. We are able to reproduce it fairly good. We currently use 20 devices (TC55). All devices running Kitkat have this problem. Here are some of our conclusions:
The software runs without problems on Jellybean. After upgrade to Kitkat, or on new devices with Kitkat preinstalled the problem is there.
Version of EMDK does not matter. We tried all versions from 3.1 to 6.3.
The problem is triggered when the app is put in the background, for example when touching the home button. At that moment even datawedge does not function any more. When the app is back in the foreground, there is no red beam when you try to scan. The problem happens in about 50% of the cases when this is tried.
If the device is connected to a computer via usb, the problem does not occur. Even if you disconnect the usb, the problem stays away. When the device is shut down completely, and restarted, the problem can be reproduced.
Not being able to reproduce this with usb connected makes it difficult to troubleshoot as it is not possible to do real time debugging. It appears to me that this is not a problem in the app because there are enough cases that it works fine, for instance in Jellybean.
Have more people seen this problem? Even more important: is there a solutions. Users are complaining, and they are right.
Anton Rops
Initially I was going to suggest that there may be another application loaded and had the scanner locked from being used. But then you mentioned that you need a few reboots to clear things out. Check to see what apps may be loaded at startup. Otherwise it sounds like a possible hardware problem (unless you say it happens on multiple devices).
Also the latest version of EMDK For Android is 6.0 - be sure to run the device update APK that comes with the installation in order to update the EMDK service on the device.