Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)This is a good solid barcode reader. The big news is Bluetooth connectivity, and this thing transmits a very long distance.
There's a very important thing about this reader - this product is the Scanner and Battery ONLY. The box does not include a charger or Bluetooth receiver. Yes, you read that correctly, absolutely NO charger in this box. Right now I'm kind of scratching my head over where I'll find a charger for less than a hundred dollars (the Wasp website lists them, and they are super expensive).
December 9, 2010 Update: If you wish to buy this unit through Amazon (the pricing here is really good compared to other sites) - you will have to add one of two charging bases. They are virtually impossible to find using normal Amazon searches. This is the somewhat expensive solution: Informatics WASP WWS 800 CHARGER WITH RADIO ( 633808920043 ). Here is the solution for a charging stand only: Informatics WASP WWS 800 CHARGER NO RADIO ( 633808920036 ). By the time it is all said and done, this little Buzzer Wasp unit will cost well north of four hundred dollars. The secret handshake to find these on Amazon - you have to use the Wasp part numbers, and to get those you have to go to the Wasp website.
As it says in the product description, this is an excellent scanner for warehouses and mostly dry environments. The scanner is covered in a soft rubbery material and feels like it would take a lot of abuse. On the other hand, it won't survive a big drop on concrete. It also won't make it through high pressure washing or using in a really wet area. There are Wasp models that are IP68 (six feet to concrete drop and waterproof) rated, but they are wired. The clear plastic cover over the laser area is recessed. However, if it ever takes a direct hit, the plastic looks pretty fragile.
The scanning range is decent, around six to twelve inches. The scanner puts out a pretty wide fuzzy red laser zone for reading. I was able to read some very narrow dense barcodes even though the red zone was very fuzzy. Out of the box the positive scan buzzer is really loud and annoying.
I was able to hook this up to a Dell laptop with built in Bluetooth. It was very simple to pair. After that initial pairing, the unit connected very quickly and effortlessly to my computer even after turning off the scanner or the laptop.
There is no on/off switch on the scanner. The only way to really turn it off completely is to remove the battery in the bottom of the unit. Sadly, for a unit this rugged, the battery is a finicky little thing to remove - you have to slide a cheap little plastic flat back to release the battery. The base has exposed metal contacts for charging and a small hole for an A/C adapter (again, neither base station or A/C adapter were included with the scanner.
Putting the scanner in pairing mode is, well very strange. You have to print out a PDF from the included CD. There are several barcodes you have to read to put the scanner into keyboard mode (or something similar to that) and then pairing mode. After hitting the last barcode you then turn on Bluetooth discovery on your computer. You have to select this strange little PDA icon for the keyboard. Then, in my case, the scanner connected very quickly and magically became keyboard entry. Open up WordPad or any other program, scan any old barcode and the characters automatically appear. It seems like amazing magic.
Bluetooth range is really impressive. I was able to use this through a metal door, then a steel floor, with the computer over thirty feet away. The scanner never lost connection and scanned perfectly each time.
If your barcode application is simple, the scanner works right out of the box easily. If you require barcode scanning programming, there is a reference manual to set every parameter imaginable on this thing. The book is not very user friendly; it's more like a programming language and complicated to figure out at first. I got in a lot of trouble programming this thing to read strange barcodes; fortunately there is an all default scan to reset the thing.
Overall, this is a light weight, rugged scanner that has really good battery life and decent scanning range. The great big bonus here, Bluetooth works super well. If your computer already has Bluetooth, I see no reason to even think about the outrageously expensive adapters available from this company.
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