Free Semi Rugged PDA Accessories

19 10 2011

 

Free Commercial class Vehicle Charger for BM170 and ES400

Free Commercial class Vehicle Charger for BM170 and ES400

We’re still waiting on benchmark tesst for our current small rugged PDA group test so in the meantime I wanted to just plug an offer we have here giving away a free commercial class vehicle charger on some of our semi rugged PDA’s.  Sorry for the lousy photo, I can’t seem to find our product camera at all this morning so it’s iPhone to the rescue!!

At the moment we’re bundling a free commercial class vehicle charger with both the Semi-Rugged Pidion BM170 and Motorola ES400 devices, saving your over £30.  The charger is our own brand so you know it’s a safe and a quality product, it’s a 2A charger capable of being used in 12V or 24V situations and with auto cut-off and all the electronics needed to keep your Semi Rugged Handheld charged but not over charged!

Our charger also uses a straight, non-coiled rugged cable so they’re easy to use anywhere in the car and have a really nice 3.5mm thick rugged outer casing.  We can adapt these chargers to be used with a growing list of devices so come and talk to us here if you have a vehicle charge other than the ES400 and BM170 as we can certainly help. We currently support the whole Pidion Rugged PDA range, M3M devices, and anything requiring a Mini or Micro USB charger.

You have to read the blog to qualify so just make sure you ask about them and give us the title of this blog to  ensure you get your’s free, for past customers we’re also offering them for a real bargain, otherwise they range from £12 each depending on the connectors used.

www.ruggedandmobile.com


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Categories : New products and First Looks

Motorola ES400 – How to Power Down and Reset

14 09 2011

So to continue this series of of blogs about resets and persistence we’re just going to take a look at the rugged PDA resets you can do with one of the most common Semi rugged PDA’s on the market right here.  If you want to see a lot more FAQ’s like this or even request one form us then just come and ask us here.  The Motorola ES400 is a great little semi rugged PDA and there are a few ways to reset the device, all with increasing severity.  We list them all here:

 

Powering Down Motorola ES400Hibernate (Unattended Mode)

To put the device to sleep, simply press the power button.  This puts the device into a very low state unattended mode that is very close to being totally off in terms of power usage.

 

 

 

Powering Down Motorola ES400Power Down

To turn off the ES400, simply press and hold the power button until you see the screen to the left.  Press the “Power Off” button on the screen when and the ES400 will be totally powered down as if the battery had been taken out.

 

 

  

Motorola ES400 Soft ResetSoft Reset

Press the power button and the  1 and 9 keys on the keypad and hold them all down at the same time.  The device will soft reset itself which deals with any glitches or application running issues you might have.  A soft rest doe snot not delete or reset any of the device’s settings or installed applications, think of it as rebooting your laptop.

You’ll know if the device is soft rebooting because the Motorola Boot screen will have “OS-Reboot!” in tiny words near the bottom of the screen.

 

Hard Reset

Motorola call this a Clean Boot and this is how you get your Rugged PDA back to factory, default settings.  Motorola have 2 ways of hard rebooting their devices:

 

Clean Boot with Application Wipe

1. Unzip the contents of the clean and wipe ZIP file, found here: https://docs.symbol.com/downloads/405Bw65xxDBA000001.zip, to the root folder of an SD card
2. Place the SD card in the device to be upgraded
3. Place the device to be upgrade an A/C power
4. Navigate to the SD Card and invoke the program STARTUPDLDR.EXE

OR

1. Unzip the contents of clean and wipe ZIP file to the ES400 \temp folder
2. Place the device to be upgrade an A/C power
3. Navigate to the \temp folder and invoke the program STARTUPDLDR.EXE

The update will take about 1 minute to complete.  Please do not remove the device from A/C power during this time.

Clean boot without application wipe

You use the exact same method as above but using a different set of files, found here: https://docs.symbol.com/downloads/405Bw65xxxCB000001.zip

If your Device is locked

lastly I wanted to add to this post what happens if the device is PIN locked or won’t go into Windows Mobile for some reason.  We get device sback form loan all the time here with all kinds of software on them that lock us out of the device.  This means you can’t get to the StartUPLDR file to initiate a clean.  Cheers to Thomas in the comments below for pointing this out to me!

What you need to do in this case you do is get the device into it’s boot mode.  You do this by performing a sof reset, but when you see the boot load screen you must quickly press the power button and camer button together.  It takes a few times sometimes to get the timing right.  This will then force the device to look for the SD card and it will clean it down to an out of box state.

www.ruggedandmobile.com


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Categories : How To, Top Tips

Motorola WM6.5 Issues Updated

10 08 2011
Motorola MC65 and ES400 both use WM6.5.3

Motorola MC65 and ES400 both use WM6.5.3

The Motorola MC65 and ES400 are about 9-12 months into their life now so they should be pretty stable but they still represent the majority of the issues we have to deal with here at Rugged and Mobile.  However Motorola have been busy trying to get better builds for these devices that do attempt to resolve many of the issues we and others have been experiencing and i wanted to make sure that users out there knew what to do if they were having issues.

We build a lot of solutions here that require a delicate understanding of the device and we often go quite deep into SDK’s, often stretching all the Rugged PDA’s we sell to their limits in order to help customers make the most out of their mobile solution and Motorola Rugged PDA’s are no exception.  On one hand we always understand that we’re likely to see many issues that many other resellers don’t but on the other we feel that a rugged handheld designed for line of business applications should be better.

A bit of advice here.  If you own an MC65 or ES400 make sure you go and check out the http://support.motorola.com website and download the latest builds so that your device is bang up to date.  We’ve tested the latest builds on both devices and in all fairness they have corrected many of the issues we have been experiencing with our customers.

www.ruggedandmobile.com


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Benefits of Rugged PDA’s – Semi-rugged PDA’s

1 08 2011
Benefits Rugged PDA Classes

Benefits Rugged PDA Classes

We’re looking at the benefits of different sized Rugged PDA’s this week and today with a series of articles designed to show you the reasons there are a whole bunch of different classes of rugged handhelds.

We kick off with the bottom of the chain, semi rugged PDA’s today and take a look at the reasons your business would choose a semi-rugged PDA fto run its line of business application.  Semi rugged PDA’s are fast becoming the most popular class of rugged PDA that we sell here and there are some good reasons for this.  However beware the pitfalls as these devices can be the worst mistake you made if used in the wrong scenario.

Main benefits of Semi-rugged PDA’s

Cost

Although we feel that cost of devices is only a fraction of your overal cost, it can and does often boil down to how large your budget is and you’re not going to find anything of quality in the rugged market for less than £500 (some less than £400) unless you opt for a semi-rugged device.  You still benefit from better roadmaps, Windows Mobile or WEH OS’s and all the rugged service elements of their larger family of devices but at a far lesser cost. 

Spec

Motorola ES400 - Cased and Cradled

Motorola ES400 - Cased and Cradled

If you just need a PDA with or without a phone with no barcode scanner but with a well featured basic set of smartphone functionality like camera, CPU, RAM etc then this is the way to go.

Size / Weight

Semi rugged PDA’s are almost smartphone in size and weight so they’re not going to be a big brick to your users and they will offer a light more smartphone experienc efor them.  If the scenario is not very rugged and you need a smartphone capable device that can also run your line of business solutions then a semi-rugged handheld is the way to go.

Pidion's BM170 - Called the "rugged iPhone" for a reason

Pidion's BM170 - Called the "rugged iPhone" for a reason

Ruggedness

Or lack of it in this case!  All semi-rugged PDA’s (and don’t let motorola’s meaningless IP43 rating for its ES400 you) are not rugged.  They have a drop spec so they still have a toughness to them but they are far from dust and water proof.  If you need an all weather, dust prooft device then semi-rugged is not the way to go, if you don’t need this though, why pay for it and have the extra bulk?

Accessories

Because of their cost, they are becoming more popular and so the 3rd party accessories grows for these devices.  We typically carry 4 or 5 styles of cases, vehicla chargers and holders, screen protectors and all manner of different accessories all designed to keep you running.

Conclusion

If you don’t have a rugged need in terms of the sheer environment you are working in but you still want to reduce risks to your solution with service, device road maps and everything else that rugged PDA’s bring then a semi-rugged device just might be the answer for you.

Tomorrow we’ll look at the next class up “Small rugged PDA’s” and why you would opt for this class of device over the classic larger rugged PDA’s.

www.ruggedandmobile.com


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Top 5 Semi Rugged PDA Picks

15 03 2011
The Top 5 Semi Rugged PDA's

The Top 5 Semi Rugged PDA's

Yesterday we looked at Small Rugged PDA’s, today we give our top 5 Semi Rugged PDA picks. 

A semi rugged PDA usually forgoes it’s barcode scanner, its IP rating but keeps it’s drop spec so they tend to be as dropapple as lighter rugged PDA’s but in reality you have to take that with a pinch of salt.  The key here is that a Semi Rugged PDA will be a massively more risk free buy than a Smartphone.  it will out tough, out live, out roadmap and out support a Smartphone with it’s eyes closed and as such the Semi Rugged PDA has carved itself a niche in this ever growing Mobile hardware market.

Semi rugged PDA’s have to also be competitive on price with Smartphones and most of our top 5 you can have for almost, if not under smartphone money. Heres our current top 5 sellers:

1. Pidion BM170

The Pidion BM170 is growing in popularity fast and here it’s now out selling the ES400.  The main reasons are that is gives users what they want with a large 3.5″ screen, PDA format, multiple OS’s including WM6.5.1, WM6.5.3 and Android 2.1 and it’s superb XScale driven spec.  GSM/HSDPA versions and non WAN versions mean there’s a model for your needs.  We’re also testing Pidion’s new beta camera barcode scanner and have a video on here showing it holding it’s own against the ES400 so it’s fast becoming the complete article for our customers.

2. Motorola ES400

The Motorola  ES400 replaced the MC35 and for some this didn’t come soon enough.  However when the MC35 was launched everyone had Blackberry’s, the iPhone was launched since making the small, slightly awkward to use qwerty keyboard and small 3.2″ screen a “Marmite” decision for some customers.  It’s small though, well made and the extended battery version is a very competitively priced PDA at £430.  It’s still probably the most “smartphone” like device here in terms of picking it up and using it and it does come with a Datawedge driven camera based barcode scanner.  If you’re looking for a durable smartphone then this could be it, but it’s beaten into 2nd place as a semi rugged PDA for line of business solutions.

3. Pidion BM150R

This has been a stalwart, trusty device for many years and in my opinion it was ahead of it’s time when launched.  Like the BM170, it has a full spec, just a little aged now with a PXA270 heart but the GPS and 128MB ram still make this the choice for those on a budget and WM6.1 is welcomed by those not wanting to port to troublesome WM6.5.3 OS’s.  The BM150R also comes in PDA WAN-less versions right up to a choice of GPRS or HSDPA versions.  In this company it’s very affordable from £250 to £400, tried and tested and it’s still in many solutions world-wise.  Just be aware that we’re talking with Pidion about possible end of life dates for this now.

4. Partnertech OT-100 & OT-200

Hang on a minute, this is fully rugged I hear you say?  Well that may well be but we don’t think it’s quite designed for that kind of market.  The shiny almost iPhone-esq 4.3″ flush screen is really not going to fair that well if used by Engineers but it does have a place in hospitality, has a unique form factor and is semi-rugged priced at £450 and £550. As such is sits well as something where only data is needed (HSDPA for the OT-200, LAN only for OT-100), if you want something shiny, fairly inexpensive and it’s important that it looks a little bit special.  Well specified, if only this had GSM/voice on the OT-200 it would sell in far higher numbers.

5. Trimble Juno

This device whilst great on paper never really took off with us here.  It’s well specced, but it’s flaws were that it only had HSDPA data capability (No voice) on launch , it’s WM6.1 not WM6.5 and whilst Trimble are renown for rugged high quality PDA’s this just isn’t up to it in our view, feeling slightly tinny compared to the rest of the devices here.  The inclusion of voice now on the trimmed down SD only range is welcomed but its also still very expensive at at £800+ which would almost buy you 2 Pidions or Motorola’s in this list, or a fully rugged Intermec CS40.

That’s it for Semi-Rugged PDA’s there are new devices coming out all the time in this category, and we’;re especially eager to mention the new MH132 from Getac which is much anticipated so be sure to come talk to us if you want any more advice.

www.ruggedandmobile.com


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