CAPITAL Express Stocktake With Symbol P460/P360 Scanner
Enterprise & Corporate Edition Only
These are the steps involved in setting up a Symbol P460/P360 memory scanner for use with CAPITAL Stocktake Express:
1. Unpack, plug in and charge up the scanner. (This may take several hours.)
2. Install CAPITAL's Stocktake Express Phaser software on the scanner.
It
is important to select the correct software for the type of work the scanner will perform. Different versions
of CAPITAL's Phaser software are required, depending on the memory capacity of the scanner and the features
you want.
3. Install (and if necessary) edit the CAPITAL Stocktake Express communication scripts to operate correctly with the scanner.
4. Familiarise yourself with the operation of your Symbol Phaser scanner.
5. Familiarise yourself with the operation of the CAPITAL stocktake procedure.
Unpack, Plug In & Charge Up The Scanner
Refer to your Symbol Product Reference Guide for information on how to connect your Symbol P460 or P360 scanner to your computer and how to charge its battery. You may have a "Synapse Cable" which connects the scanner directly to the back of your PC's RS232 port, or you may have a cradle that is connected to the back of your PC. When the scanner is placed in the cradle it will be able to establish communications with the Warehouse Manager automatically.
Install CAPITAL's Phaser Software
Begin by installing the software that comes with your Symbol Phaser scanner. In particular, the MCL software. An icon for the MCL Link Lite program should appear on your desktop. Double-click on this to start the application.
Ensure
that your MCL Link Lite software is installed in the C:\Phaser directory and that the Lite Link program
directory is named C:\Phaser\LinkLite. CAPITAL's Symbol communication scripts assume these file locations.
(If you cannot install your software to this directory, you will need to edit your data input and export
scripts. See below for information on that subject.)
1. Copy the CAPITAL Express software into the directory below the \Designer directory. This is normally C:\Phaser\Designer, but it may be located somewhere else. It is important that you copy the entire project directory including all files within it. You should retain the same directory name when copying the Symbol projects into this directory.
For example, to install the CAPITAL Stocktake Express application for the 1MB Symbol Phaser scanner, copy the directory C:\CAPITAL\EXPRESS\SYMBOL\STake1mb.prj directory and all its contents into C:\Phaser\Designer\. This should leave you with the directory C:\Phaser\Designer\STake1mb.prj\
2. Press the button or from the menu select Tools|Send File.
3. Press the directory button (it has a the picture of a magnifying glass on it) next to the Directory field. Select the \Phaser\Designer directory. Your available Phaser software applications will be listed here. (Including the one you have just copied.) Select the one you wish to use and click on the green tick box.
4. You will now have to ready the scanner to receive the application. Press the trigger on the scanner to wake it from "sleep mode" if the LCD display is blank. Then press followed by (asterisk). The scanner should beep after a few seconds. Then press followed by . You should now be in Phaser Set-up Mode.
5. Press the down arrow key (upside down pyramid) until appears on the menu. Then press .
6. If appears press 3 times. The message "Host comm active. Waiting for input..." should appear. If it does not appear, press the down arrow key until the option appears, and then press 3 times.
7. At this point drop the scanner in its cradle or connect it to your PC via its Synapse cable.
8. Press the green tick button in your MCL software to send the application.
These
steps may vary depending on the model and version of the software installed on your Phaser Symbol scanner.
Refer to your Symbol Product Reference Guide for more current information. In particular, the instructions
on activating "host mode".
The
Phaser scanner will give you a limited amount of time in which to establish communications with your MCL
Link Lite software. If you take too long to send the application or do not properly connect the Phaser
to your PC or seat it incorrectly in its cradle, the application transfer may not be successful. If the
MCL Link Lite software cannot establish communications with your scanner, you will need to reactivate
host mode by repeating steps 4-8 as above.
For
the cradle version of the Phaser Symbol scanner, a beep will sound when the scanner is correctly seated.
If you do not seat the scanner correctly it will be unable to communicate with MCL Link Lite or CAPITAL
Stocktake Express.
8. Once the transfer is successful, press the down arrow key until "Return to app" appears on the LCD display. Then press .
By this stage you have successfully programmed your Symbol Scanner and are ready to start using it in conjunction with CAPITAL stocktakes.
Install CAPITAL's Interfacing Scripts
Copy the files R-STAKEI.MAC and R-STAKEX.MAC from your \CAPITAL\Express\Symbol directory on your CD into your \CAPITAL directory.
You may need to edit the following line inside the script if your MCL Link Lite application is not found in the directory C:\PHASER\LINKLITE
cPdaPath := "C:\PHASER\LinkLite"
Change the path (the entry between the double quotes) as applicable in both scripts, if necessary, using Windows Notepad or Wordpad.
Performing a Stocktake with a Symbol Scanner
Review the topic stocktake for detailed information on how to perform a stocktake.
The procedure for performing a stocktake with CAPITAL Express Stocktake is:
1. Start the INSTALLATION Workshop program and from the main menu select Toolbox|Stocktake.
2. Create a stocktake snapshot by pressing the button or select an existing stocktake from the list of stocktakes if one has already been created.
3. Press the tab button.
4. Press the button. This will send the snapshot data to your scanner.
This
should also start the Symbol scanner's MCL-Link program automatically. It should appear on your Windows
taskbar at this point.
5. When prompted to name the stocktake export file, enter SavedatA as the file name (any file name will do but this file name is as suitable as any other) and select the file type dBase III.
Selecting
the dBase III file type is very important, as other file types will not be accepted.
6. When the data is exported, (it may take a while), you will be prompted to prepare the scanner to accept the data. The message will read: "Please send the file from the scanner to the PC, wait for the transfer to complete, and then click OK."
DO
NOT click on OK YET !
Place the scanner in the cradle or connect it to your Synapse Cable, and select option 2, Send Data, from the scanner menu.
7. The scanner screen will read "Sending Data to Host".
The scanner will begin the transfer of data to your PC and you can watch the data transfer progress by
switching to the MCL-Link program if you wish, but this is optional.
The scanner will report when data loading is completed. On completion of the transfer, the scanner screen will read: "Data sent !" and the scanner will beep once.
You can disconnect the scanner at any time from this point onwards. You can also start scanning your product items using your scanner.
8. Click on the button in CAPITAL to commence importing stocktake counts.
9. Wait for the import process to complete.
10. To clear the data in the scanner's memory select option 4, "Clear data" on the scanner menu.
It
is possible to re-import the data which was previously transferred from the scanner, again into the snapshot.
This has been permitted, as a safety precaution in case there is a problem with your first attempt to
import your data. (Such as an incorrect cable connection.) But care must be taken to make sure that the
counts are not duplicated on the same snapshot, as each time data is successfully imported, it is added
to all previous counts.
Hints & Tips
If while receiving a stocktake (downloading it into your scanner), you receive the message "communication error", check that your scanner is correctly plugged in or seated in its cradle and select on your scanner's menu again.
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