User's Manual

1
Chapter 8
Troubleshooting
General Considerations
Site Test
The most basic tool for troubleshooting is the Site Test at 50 feet range.
(See Chapter 4 for the details on how to do a Site Test). If the Site Test fails
at close range (50 feet), you have found the problem. The radio on either the
Base Station or the RF Terminal is defective. A Terminal may operate
poorly at a distance of less than 10 feet from the Base due to high
transmitter power. Make sure to Site Test at least at 50 ft. range.
If you have multiple terminals and multiple Base Stations, after site test
failure, you can determine if the failure is with the Terminal or the Base by
substitution. If you have only one Terminal and Base, you have no way of
knowing which has failed; you must call us and get an RMA for both units
to be checked out at the factory in Santa Cruz or in Ireland.
If the Site Test passes, there is nothing wrong with the radios.
Changing the Battery
For RF Terminals, the most frequent cause of problems is a low battery that
has either been ignored or undetected. The real test for the battery is to
remove battery from a working unit and place it into a suspect unit.
Most of the time the battery becomes the problem as a result of:
1. The operator ignores the Low Batteries message and doesn’t finish
up the transaction and immediately charge the battery. If you turn
the unit off and turn it on again, the battery may have had time to
“almost” recover. Unfortunately they will have so little reserve
power that they will likely operate just long enough to produce some
very screwy behavior on the RF Terminal. Intermittent laser beams,
continuous beeping, black bars on the screen, etc. are just a few of
the disastrous symptoms that can be exhibited.
Problems with a new installation:
“Waiting for Base to Acknowledge” is a normal message, generated when
you first try to establish radio contact. If your Terminal continues to
generate this message and it ultimately results in a "Transmission Failed"
message, your radios are not communicating. Be sure they’re on the same
channel and try again. If you have multiple terminals, try another terminal.
If the 2
nd
terminal also fails on the same channel, the base station is bad. If
the 2
nd
terminal passes the Site Test, the first terminal is bad.