i.d. mate Summit Power Users

The following is a list of items for users who want to get the most out of their i.d. mate Summit. This information is a supplement to that in the Summit User's Guide:

HELPFUL LINKS

Full Color Users Guide - PDF

Text-Only Users Guide

Summit Audio Users Guide

Database Information

1. Updating the Product Database

This procedure requires that you have an SD card reader connected to your PC, which should be available in Windows XP under My Computer, and in Windows Vista and Windows 7 under Computer, as a Removable Disk. Please make yourself familiar with how to find and interact with this resource before attempting the following steps.

As a precautionary measure, make a backup copy of all the data on your SD card to your computer.
Place the database upgrade CD in your computer's CD or DVD Rom drive if it is not already there. On the CD, the barcodes.dat file is the new database. Copy the BARCODES.DAT file from the CD and paste it to your SD card in the removable disk drive. This will replace the old BARCODES.DAT with the new one. Your computer should ask you to confirm file replace, "Would you like to replace the existing file" and it will describe the files in question. Confirm with the Yes option. Once copying is complete, safely remove the SD card from the reader and insert it into your i.d. mate.
Your i.d. mate should now be ready to go. Enjoy!

2. Inventory Mode

Inventory Mode Instructions

To Add an Item and Quantity:

Scan the item's bar code.
Use the Next and Previous (triangle) buttons to choose the quantity.
Press the Record (round) button to save the quantity.
Listen for two chimes to verify the quantity has been saved.

To Edit the Quantity for an Item Already Entered:

Scan the item's bar code.
Press the Next and Previous buttons to modify the quantity.
Press the Record button to save the change.
Listen for two chimes indicating the change has been saved.

You cannot erase a record from Inventory Mode. Items without descriptions in the En-Vision America database on your SD Card will be given a description of "Item not Found" in the Inventory.txt file (see below). Descriptions can be added directly to the Inventory.txt file at a later time if desired.

To change a quantity rapidly, press and hold the Next or Previous button. The Summit will change the count by 1 for the first ten, then will change by 10 for the next ten, then will change by 100 for the next ten, then by 1,000 for the next 10, then by 10,000 for the next 10.

Browse Inventory Instructions

Use the Next and Previous buttons to browse through inventory items. The recorded quantity will be spoken before the item description. To change a quantity rapidly, press and hold the Next or Previous button. The Summit will change the count by 1 for the first ten, then will change by 10 for the next ten, then will change by 100 for the next ten, then by 1000 for the next 10, then by 10000 for the next 10.

To Edit the Quantity for an Item in Browse Inventory Mode:

Use the Next and Previous buttons to find the item you wish to edit the quantity for.
Press the Record button once.
Use the Next and Previous buttons to modify the quantity.
Press the Record button once more to save the change.
Listen for two chimes indicating the change has been saved.

To Delete an Item from Inventory:

Use the Next and Previous buttons to find the item you wish to delete.
Press the Erase (square) button twice.

Working with the Inventory.txt File

Caution: It is best not to work directly with the original Inventory.txt file on your SD Card unless absolutely necessary. Even a seemingly innocuous change to the file's syntax or structure may disrupt the ability of the Summit to properly access and manipulate it. It is best to work with a copy of the file on your computer. You may wish to edit the name of this copy to include the date (and possibly time) of the save.

It may be best to work with the Inventory.txt file's data by importing it with either a database program, such as Microsoft Access or OpenOffice Base, or a spreadsheet program, such as Microsoft Excel or OpenOffice Calc. When doing so:

The data is semi-colon delimited with no text qualifiers.
The first column is the bar code number and should be formatted as "text" not "general". Neglecting this will eliminate any leading zeros and may turn it into scientific notation.

One of the big differences between the Inventory.txt file and a BARCODES.DAT file that has been run through the Bar Encode Lite program is that the BARCODES.DAT file MUST be in numerical sorted order, otherwise, it will not work. Inventory Mode does not require this as the items are saved and worked with in the order they are scanned.

Also in Inventory Mode, there are only three fields: the bar code number, the item description, and a five digit number for the quantity (i.e., if you only have one item, it must be entered as 00001). However, the description can include a price as part of the description if you type it yourself in the Inventory.txt file.

It is vitally important not to use commas if you will be importing into a spreadsheet like Excel.

For example:
041196805499; Progresso Soup $1.45; 00002;
094000183566; A-von Moisturizer 24 $4.45; 00002;
036000282009; Kleenex $1.24; 00005;

3. Creating Your Own Database

This procedure requires that Summit users have an SD card reader, and Omni users have a compact flash card reader. The reader should be available in Windows XP under My Computer, and in Windows Vista and Windows 7 under Computer, as a Removable Disk. Please make yourself familiar with how to find and interact with this resource before attempting the following steps.

The following describes the process for creating a custom data file for the i.d. mate Summit and Omni. These instructions assume that you have a working knowledge of either Microsoft Access or Excel. Omni users may have only one *.DAT file exist on their card at a given time, and it must be named BARCODES.DAT. Summit may accommodate more than one. See final instructions below for more details.

Barcodes are subject to these criteria:

Barcodes must be comprised of numbers only - no alpha (letter), punctuation, or symbol characters; no "white space" (e.g., spaces, tabs, line breaks, etc.).
The actual printed barcodes may have leading zeroes, but the barcode values must have any leading zeroes removed before they are sorted. Formatting the column (or field) as a Number with no decimals should accomplish this. This process has a (small) chance of creating duplicates, which will need to be rectified before processing the .txt file with BE_Lite. There can be no duplicate barcodes in a BARCODES.DAT file.
Barcodes may have a maximum length of 20 characters.

Creating the Custom Database

Prepare Data:
- Note: For all options below, there must be at least one description field in addition to the barcode field, and multiple description fields will be navigable when scanning the barcode. See the criteria above for valid barcodes.
- Option 1: Enter data manually - The first field should always be the record's barcode.
- Option 2: Use Inventory Mode - See the instructions for using Inventory Mode to generate an Inventory.txt file on the i.d. mate's flash card. Import this file into your Access or Excel file, leave out or remove the quantity field/column, and modify the descriptions, as necessary.
- Option 3: Acquire manufacturer data - Treatment of barcode data received from a manufacturer may need to be handled on a case-by-case basis. Be sure to import the barcode column into the first field and formatted as Number with no decimals. Import the descriptive information as Text.
Sort data ascending numerically by barcode values. Be sure the barcode column is formatted as "Number" with no decimals. For Excel users, if some values appear to be in scientific notation, double check that the column is actually set to "Number" with no decimals.
Remove any duplicate barcodes.
Replace all commas (,) and semi-colons (;) in descriptions either with spaces or with periods. A period will create a pause in the speech like a comma or semi-colon.
Recommended steps for "cleaning" your descriptions:
- Remove all double quote characters (").
- Replace all double spaces with single spaces. Repeat until no replacements are reported.
Make sure each record ends in a semicolon. Place a semicolon at the very end of each record before the line break/return.
Add your database announcement for the system menu using barcode number "0" (i.e., 0;Database Version My Database 1.0;)
Sample file. Download this Excel file to see an example of a properly prepared master data set in Excel or download this comma delimited file to see an example in Notepad.
Make your file into a semi-colon delimited file and save as text. Download this text file to see an example of the final format in Notepad.
- Option 1: Export from Access. When exporting from Access, choose to export as "text files." On the first screen, choose "delimited". On the second screen, choose "semicolon". Also make sure to indicate {none} where it asks if you want Text Qualifiers.
- Option 2: Convert Excel file to semi-colon delimited file using Notepad:
  - Select File > Save As
  - Change "Save as type" to CSV (comma delimited) *.csv.
  - Save the file using File > Save (or Ctrl + S).
  - If prompted that the selected file type does not support workbooks that contain multiple sheets, click OK. Then if prompted that the file may contain features that are not compatible with CSV (comma delimited) - "Do you want to keep the workbook in this format?" - choose Yes. Select File > Close. When prompted to save changes, choose No.
  - Open the file in Notepad (For Windows, go to Start > All Programs > Accessories > Notepad).
  - Using Edit > Replace, replace all commas (,) with semi-colons (;).
  - Save the file using File > Save (or Ctrl + S) with a .txt extension instead of a .csv extension.
- Option 3: Change Regional Options and use Notepad. If your file is very large, the replacement function above may take too long. Here is another way of doing it: Before saving your .csv file, change your computer's regional settings: Go to Start > Control Panel > Regional and Language Options > Customize (from the numbers tab), then under the List Separator, choose the semi-colon (;). This will make any .csv files semi-colon delimited instead of comma delimited. Return to the Excel file and save as a .csv file format. Leave Excel and open the file using Notepad (right click and choose "Open With", then Notepad). Now save the file as a .txt file.
BE_Lite. Download the BE_Lite_220.zip file. This file is a stand-alone program and does not require installation on your computer to work. It processes your sorted, normalized text database file into one useable by the i.d. mate.
- Run the BE_Lite executable. The executable file must be run from the same directory as the included Enc32.dll file.
- For databases to be used with i.d. mate Omni V3's and Summits, be sure that "Version 3 DB" is checked.
- Click [Process Database…]
- Navigate to the .txt file.
- Click [Open]. A BARCODES.DAT file will be generated in the same folder as the .txt file.
- If any processing errors are reported, click [View Log] for details.
Copy the BARCODES.DAT file to the root directory of the unit's card:
- Summit users may have multiple databases co-exist on their SD card. The "official" En-Vision America BARCODES.DAT file should remain named as it is. Your custom barcodes files should be renamed with a sequencing number with the following pattern: BARCODES01.DAT, BARCODES02.DAT, etc. Enumerated DAT files are queried in numerical order before BARCODES.DAT.
- Omni users may have only one *.DAT file exist on their flash card at a given time, and it must be named BARCODES.DAT.

For further technical assistance, contact En-Vision America at 1-800-890-1180 and ask for help creating a custom barcode database.