RFID quick guide

LS Pos .Net 5.4.0

Quick Guide

Author : Hrólfur Gestsson

Date : 18.11.2008

Armuli 7, 108 Reykjavík, Iceland

Tel: +354 550 9000· Fax: +354 550 9010

Contents

1 Introduction 1

1.1 Purpose of this document 1

1.2 Functional Overview 1

2 Item registered 2

3 Configuration 2

3.1 Configuring the RFID scanner 2

3.2 Configuring LSPos.Net 2

4 Functional process 4

LSRetail ehf.

Armuli 7, 108 Reykjavík, Iceland

1  Introduction

1.1  Purpose of this document

The purpose of this document is to give a quick overview of the setup and usage of RFID scanners in LSPos.Net.

1.2  Functional Overview

RFID tags are special tags that transmit signal to a receiver when passed through electromagnetic zone.

RFID scanners are in many ways like any other peripheral that connects to the pos, but with one significant difference though. The process to read from such scanner is a “customer driven” process. It means that it is the customer that decides when the items are being scanned but not the operator. Because the Pos is not always ready to receive scanned items, this requires some intermediate step to accumulate the scanned items until the Pos is ready. As soon as the pos is ready, the scanned RFIDs are inserted into the transaction.

A picture of a typical store is shown below. A bicycle is moved close to the RFID scanner (EasyRead Pad) and is being scanned. As soon as the bicycle is sold, the customer can move it through the security gate (SMART Gate).

The RFID tag is a 24 character long string that identifies every single piece of item of a particular product. This enables the store owner to guaranty that no item leaves the store without being paid for.

2  Item registered

Items arrive to the store and it is part of standard Axapta to read the RFID tags into the Axapta database.

3  Configuration

3.1  Configuring the RFID scanner

The RFID scanner needs to have its own IP address which is visible to the current network. Use the tool RFWedgeCFG.exe to change the scanner’s IP address in the “RFID Reader Configuration” section..

3.2  Configuring LSPos.Net

The following 3rd party files need to be placed in the same directory as the pos.exe:

·  RFIDGate.dll

·  AlienRFID1.dll

·  AlienSS1.dll

Additionally the setup program file AlienRFID1Setup.msi must be run.

In Axapta the RFID Scanner device is activated like any other device in the system, in Setup | Pos | Hardware Profile | RFID. Set Scanner to Active if connected. Device name and description is optional.

The RFIDGate.dll needs to be able to connect to the pos database. It uses the database connection set by the “Kiosk Server Configuration” section in the RFWedgeCfg program. Since the dll is using a port number to find the correct instance of the sql server, that particular IP port number must be active. Using the SQL server configuration manager make sure that the following settings are as depicted:

Make sure that the TCP Port specified is the same as the one specified in the “Kiosk Server Configuration”. To test whether a valid connection can be made use the SQL server management studio to try to log on as the specified user:

If that is not successful, make sure that the SQL user exists and has the necessary privileges.

4  Functional process

The process is as follows:

  1. RFIDs are transmitted from the RFID scanner.
  2. If RFIDs are found in the InventSerial table, the RFIDs are saved temporarily to the PosisRFIDTable.
  3. After insertion, the pos reads every RFID in the table and marks it with the transaction ID and a date stamp so it will not read the same RFID again, during the same transaction.
  4. It is checked whether a particular RFID exists in the system, and if so, the matching Item ID is added to the transaction.
  5. Step 1-4 can be repeated during a single transaction.
  6. When the transaction is completed or cancelled the temporary RFID table is cleared and a new transaction begins.

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