BellHawk Online
Powerful, pay as you go, easy to use barcode tracking
Barcode Label Printing Appliance
The BellHawk Barcode Label Printing Appliance (BLPA) enables efficient printing of barcode labels within a remote plant or facility from the Cloud based version of BellHawk Online, as well as from BellHawk installed on a Windows Server at a client's own remote data center.
When a label printing request is received over the Internet by the BellHawk server from a web-browser running in a device, such as a mobile computer, in the remote plant, the BellHawk TAG software, running on the server, chooses the appropriate label and printer, retrieves the data to be inserted into the label from its database and then places the request into the barcode label printing queue.
The label print software in the BLPA monitors this queue for new entries, over the Internet, using BellHawk's web-services (SOAP/XML messaging) interface.When label print sees a new print request for a printer that is connected to its BLPA, it retrieves the request from the print queue and uses this data to call BarTender Automation, which is also loaded into the BLPA. BarTender then prints the label on the designated printer which is attached to the BLPA.
The big advantage of the BLPA is that it can use an Internet "Guest" account to communicate with the BellHawk server. This Guest account can be the same wireless link as is used by the mobile data collection devices used to communicate with the BellHawk Online server. All the BLPA requires is a regular external Internet connection to work and does not require any special IT configuration work.
The BLPA can communicate with multiple networked barcode printers connected to its LAN port by a network router/switch plus one or more printers connected to its USB port through a USB hub. These printers are on their own dedicated network and so avoid any issues with network security introduced by use of printers over a shared LAN.
BLPA comes with a complete version of the Seagull Scientific BarTender® label creation software. If a monitor, keyboard, and mouse is plugged into the BLPA then the BLPA can be used to create new label layouts and edit existing ones using BarTender's WYSIWYG label layout tool.
The BellHawk architecture supports the use of BLPA units in multiple geographically separated facilities, each with their own set of attached printers.
The BLPA is a fan-less sealed unit that is designed for use in an industrial environment. "Under the Hood" the BLPA consists of a multi-core processor running the Windows 10 IIOT Embedded Workstation operating system. All that is required is a "guest" connection from the unit to the Internet, just like the PCs and mobile computers used for data collection, and reliable power, such as from an uninterruptable power supply.
This unit is shipped to clients pre-configured, so that the level of involvement required from a client's IT staff is minimized. Once installed, changes to configuration, such as adding printers, can be managed remotely by Codeway or BellHawk Systems support staff.