I just plugged in a scanner that was laying around, put some bar codes in a packing slip and i'm in love with HH-A already. But there has to be a way to tab or enter to the next field without going to the keyboard??? Any help would be appreciated.
 
~Carie

There's someone out there! Happy day!
 
I too am just exploring the handheld features of Evo and I think they are potentially quite powerful. Possibly the answer to my inventory control dreams.
 
When i first got interested in one month ago, I reached out to forum member John Dlugosh who gave me the benfit of his experience. But it has been a learning adventure and an education. I find the handheld hardware and software to be the stumbling block.
 
I am still actively learning about this handheld stuff. I bought 2 used MC3090's and following JD's suggestion contacted Motorola and got them updated as far as possible. After weeks I finally learned that WINCE 5.0 Core does not do terminal services! So the model I bought was not going to work, but I also concluded that a tiny monochrome display is totally unacceptable. Next I bought 2 new-old-stock color Pocket PC's with barcode scanner (Viewsonic V38R with PPC2003SE, circa 2006) and I am making good progress now. Terminal services was giving me a problem with failing to send the numeric portion of the barcode across to the remote desktop. If I scanned ABC123DEF locally, no problem. But if I scanned it in terminal services, I got ABCDEF, no numerals! After days of researching the issue with Google I found a 3rd party remote desktop software product called r2pc by z2 software. Very cool, fast and feature-rich and no scanning errors at the remote desktop. Works with all varieties of Windows, desktop and PDA, gives full control of everything. Quite amazing. There is still the problem of no real keyboard (touchscreen only) on the PDA's, but that can be lived with (see Resco KeyboardPro). The bigger problem is can the employees operate the handhelds without a degree in computer science. I don't know how to customize them to hide all unneeded  features. More testing needed! I am thinking of setting up a wireless laptop on a cart (no remote desktop) with a plug in scanner to get the barcode inventory control going and to ease the training curve, then implement the handheld solution down the road.
 
More testing reqired!

Hi John,
 
Thanks for the update.  Yes there  are many different models of th 3090 series and didn't even think to ask.  I am using the 48 key version.  Motorola updated the software which made Term services work correctly on my unit with the WinMoCE 5.0 OS.  We also have 802.11.G wireless radios on the units.
 
Let me know if I can help further.
 
John
 
PS I am not vouching for this company or product but thought the concept might be valuable as far as a Mobile computing station.  Pretty expensive but...http://www.anthro.com/computer-furniture.aspx?desk=power-supply-cart-ll
 
 
 

Hey Carie,
 
I took a look at the manual for my low cost plug in barcode reader and discovered that there is a whole lot of parameters that can be set by shooting the codes printed in the manual. Maybe your has similar ability. Do you have the manual?

Quote from Carie on 02/22/10 at 16:29:51:

 
 
 Thank you so much for this thread! I'm in the same boat everyone else here is - we have been working for about a year now (little progress here & there) to start bar-coding and properly tracking our inventory. B/C we manufacture aerospace components, we have additional rules and tracking regs that generally complicate things..
 
 SO - back a year ago we started bar-coding all our labels with a little Zebra LP 2844  and we put the respective labels on our bins. Over the last year, as inventory has naturally turned over, we have completely infused everything with proper labels with the Type 39 codes. That was step one, the first and only easy step. = P
 
Next, I've been trying to get my hands on a scanner (not HH) and first get that running with our laptops. My idea goes like this: [Laptop + USB Scanner + Little cart on wheels ===> Ghetto Handheld!!!] Ta-da! If we could at least start with that, then we can look at a proper hand-held and all the fun required to get them running.  
 
 Thanks for your posts Carie - keep em coming, because if you can't do it, I can't either!!! = )

Oh yeah, I also bought a bluetooth numeric keypad from Logitech N305 ($40 Amazon) with 3 programmable keys (I made them ESC, TAB and UP) so the user doesn't have to peck at the number row on the laptop keyboard. I think this will make for quick and easy input.

Quote from John Deitz on 03/05/10 at 21:00:46:

 
 
 See, I love gadgets too - but one thing I've learned is that we can do all the dingleberries and gadgets we want, but right now the process is where we are lagging - can't barcode a bad process and expect it to fix everything for ya. =P  Hopefully I can start making some real progress here - wish me luck -

We printed them on standard mailing label stock in the laser printer (Avery 5160). Couldn't be easier.