User's Manual

8-1
Chapter 8
Troubleshooting
General Considerations
Site Test
The most basic tool for troubleshooting is the Site Test at 30 feet range. (See
Chapter 4 for the details on how to do a Site Test). If the Site Test fails at close
range (30 feet), you have found the problem. The radio on either the Base
Station or the RF Terminal is defective. If the site test works at 30 ft., but not at
50-100 feet, it could be interference from another radio source such as a 900
MHz phone. Take the Base and Terminal to another location to see if the site
test still fails, (maybe home with you that evening).
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 Batteries
For RF Terminals, the most frequent cause of problems is low batteries that have
either been ignored or undetected. The real test for batteries is to remove
batteries from a working unit and place them in a suspect unit. Don’t assume
that just because the batteries are new they are good. We have purchased “new
“ batteries off the shelf and tested them immediately to discover they are bad.
Most of the time batteries become the problem as a result of two failures:
1) The operator ignores the Low Batteries message and doesn’t finish up
the transaction and immediately change the batteries. If you turn the unit
off and turn it on again, the batteries 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.
2) NiCad or NiMH rechargeable batteries are being used, but the Terminal
thinks that Alkalines are still being used. The Terminal ships with
Alkaline batteries in the Setup. Alkalines and rechargeable batteries have