One of the decisions we see IT professionals face time and again is whether to deploy corded hand-held bar-code scanners or their wireless counterparts. Take, for example, Honeywell’s Voyager 1200g and 1202g single-line laser scanners. Both employ the industry’s best-selling technology for excellent scanning performance, both provide long service life with IP42 sealing and 1.5-meter drop ratings, and both feature an intuitive, ergonomic design.
Some advantages of the wireless design are obvious:
- The user is free to roam without restraint within the range of the transmitter/receiver.
- The range of motion is increased (to 33 feet in the case of the Voyager 1202g versus the 9.8 foot coiled interface cable of the 1200g)
- The durability of the handset-base system is enhanced to the extent that there is no cord that might be damaged by entanglement in machinery
- Etc.
But other considerations may not be as straightforward and obvious.
For the same reason that photographers tether lens caps to their camera lenses, the wired tether of the Voyager 1200g may offer significant advantage in some applications, especially where the scanner will be used in in-stand presentation mode a majority of the time.
It’s rare that a wired hand-held scanner is misplaced; the interface cable provides an obvious trail to its location (of course, in the case of the 1202g, location of the handset is as easy as pressing a button on its base thanks to its paging feature). Wired systems are simplest to install and configure, and there are no handset batteries to recharge or replace.
Of course the bottom line on most such investment decisions is as simple as comparing the cost of the added feature (nominal in the case of the wireless feature of the 1202g) to the dollar value of the enhancement to productivity. Fortunately, the Voyager 1200-series of hand-held scanners provides an affordable solution to single-line scanning applications, whether your analysis dictates its wired or wireless format.