Apex III
Product Overview

01-04

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Unlike other hand held portable data terminals in this price range, the Apex III is an open system architecture that allows the user to reconfigure the Apex III in the field. There is no need to send the Apex III back to the factory for expensive, time-consuming upgrades. The user can add new functionality as needed in the field with a wide variety of off-the-shelf low-cost P.C. Cards as the customer's applications grow.

Let's look at some of the Apex III's features and benefits...

• AMD SC-400 32 bit Microcontroller @ 33Mhz - makes large table size look-ups extremely fast
• 4 MB DRAM Memory
• Two Type II PC Card Slots - provides the platform for endless configurations
• Large, Easy to Read, Backlit, High Contrast 10 line x 30 character graphics-capable display - - no more squinting!
• Full 56 key Alpha-Numeric Keypad - no shift required for alpha functions making data input quicker and more accurate
• High capacity 1400 mAh rechargeable NiMH battery - provides a full shift of intense scanning performance
• Can withstand multiple 4' Drops to Concrete - rugged and reliable mechanical design
• Custom End-Caps - Low Cost Customization - No need to pass up jobs that require custom connectivity
• Super Cap backup to retain memory with battery removed.
• IR Data Transfer between PDT and Cradle makes data / program transfer a breeze
• 1 Year Parts & Labor Warranty

Apex Program Generator

A key factor in the utility of any terminal is the set of tools available for developing application programs, another area in which the Apex III excels. Applications on the Apex III can be created from scratch with any conventional DOS Executable programming languages such as C++ or BASIC. The Apex III also offers an "application generator" that even non-programmers can quickly master. Applications can now be created, simulated and debugged locally on the P.C. before they are actually downloaded to the Apex III.

The Apex III has a highly innovative design, which not only gives it a beautiful futuristic appearance but also, more importantly, provides major ergonomic benefits to the user.

The Apex III's sculptured body fits securely in the grip for single-handed operation. The well-balanced Apex III allows the user to quickly and effortlessly orient the 45� offset laser scanner to the barcode label.

The Apex III is well positioned as the next generation of portable data collection terminal. The Apex III is meant to complement, not replace, the Apex II. With features and capabilities equal to many high-end hand held terminals, the Apex III makes a quantum leap beyond earlier Portable Data Collectors and can target a much larger set of applications - in fact virtually the entire arena of data-collection applications.

The Apex III also comes equipped with the Symbol Technology, SE-1200 HP Family of high performance laser scan engines for maximum scanning performance. The SE-1200HP family includes Standard Range, Long Range, Advanced Long Range, Very High Density and Wide Angle Laser Scanning engines. This state-of-the-art laser scanning technology provides the Apex III with a brighter 650 nm Laser Diode for improved scan line visibility.

The Apex III can be field-configured to handle many applications. The Type III PC Card Slot provides the customer the ability to easily change configuration of the Apex III in the field. Adding a memory card, or reconfiguring a Batch device for wireless operation is as easy as removing four screws that hold the end cap in place. The user then has immediate access to both PC Cards slots.

This combination of multifunctional performance, affordability, ease of programming, and world-class design, makes the Apex III truly unique in the market place and will create a compelling value selling proposition to our target segments.

Apex III: Features and Benefits

The Apex III comes equipped with a Powerful 486 Class 32 bit processor running at 33 Mhz.

A product with this class of processor assures your customer two things:

1. The customer will get the most "snappy" performance available in this price range. Demonstrating Apex III performance by running processor intensive applications such as large look-up tables or sorting large database files on the Apex III will astound your customer with Apex III's blazing-fast processing speed.
2. The customer will not easily outgrow their portable data terminal as their application grows and becomes more sophisticated.

Memory

The Apex III comes with 8 MB of FLASH memory. With FLASH memory if the battery is removed for a period of time, data stored in flash will not be lost. Also, because it does not consume power for static data storage, flash memory in the Apex III extends battery life compared to other types of memory.

The life of the flash chips used in the Apex III is more than 12.8 million erase/write cycles.

Ruggedness and Durability

Because the Apex III is intended for portable applications, it will be exposed to a potentially high incidence of mechanical shock from drops and collisions. For this reason, the "drop spec" on this product is 4 feet, meaning that the Apex III will survive multiple drops from a 4' height to a concrete floor. The customer can be confident that the Apex III will be a very rugged and durable product.

There are a number of features in the mechanical design which contribute to this durability. The Apex III end-cap has a rubber seal that is compressed to form a moisture barrier around the end-cap when the four screws that hold it in place are tightened.

The primary gasket around the mid-line is made from a low-durometer (rubbery) plastic material designed to absorb shock impact. This gasket extends completely around the body of the PDT to form a protective seal which also reduces the incidence moisture leaking in around the two halves of the PDT body. There is also a shock-absorbing material around the display mount.

Real-time Clock

The Apex III includes a real-time clock chip, which provides a time output to application software (.e.g., for time-stamping records). The clock is protected against loss of power by a Supercap. The clock supports date formats with 4-digits of year, and is year-2000 compliant.

Battery

The Apex III contains a removable high capacity, 1400 mAh, NiMH rechargeable battery pack, which supplies power for the PDT.

The battery pack is UL� approved.

The battery automatically starts recharging whenever the PDT is placed into the Apex Dock or the battery is removed and placed into the Battery Charge well in the Apex Dock. Time required to fully charge the battery is fully dependant upon its discharge state at the time re-charging is started. If the battery pack is fully discharged, it will completely re-charge in two hours.

With such a high-capacity battery, the Apex III will seldom run out of charge during normal usage before being returned to the Dock for re-charging. Also, the battery pack is removable allowing a quick change out with a fully charged battery from the Dock at any time. The correct method to change out batteries is to first save any data that may be in memory. The user should then depress the red power button at the bottom of the keypad. This puts the Apex III is the 'suspend mode". The battery pack can then be easily removed and a fully charged battery can be installed in its place. After the fully charged battery pack in installed into the Apex III the user should depress the red power button and notice that the Apex III will resume normal program operation where it was when the power button was first depressed.

Note... Removing the battery pack without first suspending power as just described will result in the Apex III rebooting after the battery is replaced. Avoid this process.

Battery charging can be performed in two ways:

1. A single battery can be charged in the auxiliary charging well in the Dock
2. A single battery can be charged while installed into the Apex III.

A feature unique to the Apex III is the ability to fast-charge (2 hr.) a battery pack in the aux. Charging Well and in the Apex III at the same time. In both cases, it should take approximately two hours to fully charge a fully depleted battery. If the battery is not fully discharged, the amount of charge time will decrease proportionally. The NiMH pack is capable of being recharged approximately 500 cycles. After this number of charges, the battery will begin to loose capacity. Symptom of worn-out batteries will be a very faster than normal charge cycle as well as a faster than normal discharge cycle.

Battery Gas Gage

The Apex III monitors remaining battery capacity with a "Gas Gage". The user can quickly see how much battery charge is remaining in percentage terms by depressing the "ALT" key and pressing the "B" key at the same time.

The Apex III RS-232 cable has been designed to allow connection from the Apex Dock to the Host RS-232 Port. Power for charging the batteries and operating the Dock comes from a separate A.C. to D.C. converter that plug into the A.C. wall outlet.

Ergonomic Design

The Apex III has a highly innovative 18.4 oz. design, which gives it a beautiful lightweight, futuristic appearance. The designers of the Apex III placed the center of gravity directly over the grip area for a balance "feel". This naturally balanced orientation is also evident in the 45� offset of the laser scan engine. The operator can see the LCD display while scanning a bar code.

For safe operation we have provided a snap-lock wrist lanyard that attaches to the Apex III end-cap and then comfortably goes around the user's wrist.

The Apex III keypad is a 56 key full alpha-numeric keypad. This feature helps eliminate key stroke errors and makes keypad data entry faster than a shifted keypad. The Apex III also has 4 unshifted function keys. These keys combined with "ALT" and "CNTRL" provide for a total of 12 function keys.

Several other features of the Apex III's ergonomic design are also important:

Viewing Angles

The display area is slightly tilted toward the operator. As a result, the user easily sees both the keypad and display even with the wrist held fixed in a neutral position. This feature can also reduce glare and reflected light in high ambient light environments.

Apex III Dock

The Apex III Dock provides three functions:

1. To charge the NiMH Battery Packs
2. To provide a safe and secure storage device for the Apex III.
3. To serve as the communications port for data and / or programs to and from the host connection.

The Apex III Dock can be either desktop mounted or Wall mounted to an optional metal extrusion. The Dock also has its own User's Manual.

Host Interfaces

The Apex III interfaces directly to hosts via the Apex III Dock RS-232 port, or direct to the host via the RS-232 end-cap. The same RS-232 Cable can be user for either means of connectivity. Compsee provides a free communications utility (similar to WinLink for the Apex II) to facilitate program and/or data transfer to and from the Host.

Programs like Hyper Terminal and Procomm may be used for basic xon/xoff serial communications in instances where data integrity is not important; these programs offer less secure, more risky, unguaranteed communications but are options to be considered when implementing an Apex III project.

Additional host interfaces will be made available as market opportunities dictate.

IR Data Transfer

The Apex III's primary means of data communication to and from the host connection is via Serial Inferred transfer. When there is a need to transfer data to or from the Apex III, the user can place the Apex III into the Apex Dock and issue the appropriate commands on the host and Apex III to facilitate data transfer at data rates up to 115,200 KBPS (6X faster than Apex II). Using the Serial Inferred Transfer eliminates the need for a wired communications transfer between the Apex III and the host. Data can also be transferred to and from the host using the RS-232 end-cap. The Apex III uses the same RS-232 cable for the Apex Dock and RS-232 End-Cap as the Apex II (P.N. 0227001)

Target Markets, Applications, And Product Positioning

One key target market is Warehousing. Within warehousing, the primary target segments are small-format warehouses (especially manufacturing), and distribution centers Manufacturing warehousing operations are prime targets for the following reasons:

In-house M.R.P. / E.R.P. and W.M.S. applications frequently support hand-held device connections via terminal emulation. Compsee has a vast amount of experience with this type of applications network connectivity. This category of application is also very easy to cost-justify a RF infrastructure, so they will likely open to the idea of migrating to RF data Collections.

Few of these manufacturing organizations have large MIS resources for writing application software, and so must depend on limited in-house resources or on their VAR. Warehousing opportunities are prime targets because of one application: the annual or semi-annual physical inventory, which requires a large number of devices for a very short period of time. For some, purchasing the Apex III for Receiving and Stock Room and Kitting applications will be seen as the overall lowest-cost way of obtaining such a large population of devices capable of doing inventory.

Secondary targeted segments include larger-format such as drug, big-ticket (e.g., electronic and appliance), and other non-food retailers who have not committed to RF infrastructures.

These target applications are other bar-code-based in-store applications, which require RF portable data terminals. Indeed, as discussed in the introductory product overview, the Apex III is multifunctional, and its ability to perform virtually all scanning applications within a warehousing environment, is the cornerstone of the product's marketing positioning and the core of the selling proposition.

The following is a brief description of the key targeted warehousing applications for the Apex III and the product features and capabilities which are important to each:

Receiving 

Scanning items at Receiving. Key product features for POS are its ability to connect to any E.R.P./ M.R.P./ W.M.S. system via terminal emulation. In addition, for warehousing operators who perform cycle counts to key in the quantity during cycle counts. The large Alpha-Numeric keypad and display enables quantity to be keyed easily thereby improving productivity.

Physical inventory

Usually an annual or semiannual event in which every item in the store is scanned. The primary reason for this process is inventory valuation for financial accounting. Key product features for this application are the keypad, display, and RF Connectivity. In Batch Configurations, the Apex III's large memory capability using PC FLASH Cards provides the ability to perform table lookups in order to validate scanned SKUs, exceptionally long battery life, and an ergonomic design which minimizes user fatigue and drops.

Cycle counts

An ongoing process in which subsets of the store's inventory are scanned on a cyclical basis (e.g., one department per day, three days per week). The primary reason for this process is validation of on-hand inventory ("perpetual inventory") for merchandising and promotion planning, and for ordering. Key product features for this application are the same as for physical inventory, namely the keypad and display (for keying in quantities, locations, unscannable bar codes, etc.), the ability to perform table lookups in order to validate scanned SKUs, and exceptionally long battery life.

Stock transfers and receiving

Scanning items coming into the warehouse or being shipped from the warehouse to another location. The key product feature for this application is simply mobility.

Electronic order generation

Scanning of items to be ordered from distribution center. Again, the key product feature for this application is simply mobility.

Price verification / Price Change

Scanning items to verify price via display, and possibly manually making correction to price tag if necessary (primarily in apparel). The key capability enabling this application is the ability of the Batch Apex III to perform lookups into a table that is downloaded into its memory. In RF configurations the Apex III can access this information and perform updates as required in real time. Another important feature for this application will be the ability of the Apex III to interface either wired or wirelessly to a label printer.