My first experiences with the Symbol PPC

[jez]

Hi guys,

thought I'd write a little bit about my first experiences with the Symbol
PPC 8046 (barcode + WiFi). Got it for testing purposes for a two week
period.

Started yesterday.. took me about a day to install it properly so that I
could debug/deploy over a WiFi connection (as opposoed to serial
connection). It took me almost a full day - I had to download some name
resolving program, and had to install it through my IRDA port as I couldn't
be bothered plugging the serial craddle in the back of my computer (that
would mean that I'd have to be on the floor for 15 secs!). At the end of the
day managed to deploy apps via WiFi as well as get my Outlook automatically
synchronized with my PDA. So when there's a new email coming in I get a nice
message (about 10 seconds delay) on my PDA and can open/reply to that email.
Nice to be able to check email anywhere within the building.

Today I worked on the barcode scanner and WiFi connection. The barcode
scanner was actually not too difficult to use. I went through one of the
samples provided in the Symbol SDK. I made a couple of changes cos I
obviously didn't want the user to be able to scan stuff from any screen..
And then it scanned I even changed the PPC sound, that comes up after a
barcode is scanned, with my own voice.. although I quickly changed that back
cos it was getting annoying To get the Barcode scanner working properly I
spent about 6 hours. Then I spent about 40 minutes to get a MessageBox to
show up if the wireless signal is below 20 percent.

That's as far as I got today. I just thought I'd share that with you all..
So yeh, I think the Symbol installation wasn't too difficult.

Oh, I think I forgot to mention my "crash-test"... When the general manager
came I showed him the Symbol PPC and then said we should see if it _really_
is IP54 certified So I just dropped it on the floor in front of him the
PPC survived the test

I'm sure some kind of problem will come up at some point with the Symbol PPC
so I'll keep you guys posted..

jez

 

[Joe Hanna]

Hi Jez,

Would you mind posting your code for watching the strength of the wireless
signal?

Thanks,
Joe

 

[Chris Craft]

Symbol has an SDK for there products like HP has an SDK for their iPaq
products.
http://devzone.symbol.com/login.cfm?return=/content.cfm?item_id=59EB6151-05FF-46B4-AF73F44E6145C121
http://www.ipaqdeveloper.com/ids/login.asp
Both of these companies have written custom controls that will report signal
strength.
Symbol has one for .NET Compact Framework and HP has a native dll that can
be P-invoked.
ViewSonic also has a Wireless Signal Strength Indicator custom control.
http://www.viewsonic.com/vsolutions/microsoft_dev/
There is very strong competion in the Pocket PC OEM market, so I imagine the
controls are locked down
to avoid being used by their competiors. Or they could only work with the
exact hardware in their device.

You'll probably want to write a native code dll to get the information and
pinvoke it, if you want it to work for most devices.

Paul G. Tobey has kindly shared the following which is where you will need
to start.

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=...gth&meta=group%3Dmicrosoft.public.windowsce.*

Alex Feinman has posted the GetAdaptersInfo() API you will need.

You will have to P/Invoke the GetAdaptersInfo() API call in iphlpapi.dll.
http://www.alexfeinman.com/download.asp?doc=AdapterInfo.zip

Also I'm sure I'm not the only one considering just going ahead and making
the control. I think it is a greatly needed component.
I'd be surprised if some don't show up shortly.

I belive location services are a big part of the next version of the compact
framework so I expect this kind of data to be readily available by then.

Thanks,
Chris Craft
http://www.cjcraft.com/

 

[Joe Hanna]

Thank you kindly

Joe

Symbol has an SDK for there products like HP has an SDK for their iPaq
products.
http://devzone.symbol.com/login.cfm?return=/content.cfm?item_id=59EB6151-05FF-46B4-AF73F44E6145C121
http://www.ipaqdeveloper.com/ids/login.asp
Both of these companies have written custom controls that will report signal
strength.
Symbol has one for .NET Compact Framework and HP has a native dll that can
be P-invoked.
ViewSonic also has a Wireless Signal Strength Indicator custom control.
http://www.viewsonic.com/vsolutions/microsoft_dev/
There is very strong competion in the Pocket PC OEM market, so I imagine the
controls are locked down
to avoid being used by their competiors. Or they could only work with the
exact hardware in their device.

You'll probably want to write a native code dll to get the information and
pinvoke it, if you want it to work for most devices.

Paul G. Tobey has kindly shared the following which is where you will need
to start.

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=...gth&meta=group%3Dmicrosoft.public.windowsce.*

Alex Feinman has posted the GetAdaptersInfo() API you will need.

You will have to P/Invoke the GetAdaptersInfo() API call in iphlpapi.dll.
http://www.alexfeinman.com/download.asp?doc=AdapterInfo.zip

Also I'm sure I'm not the only one considering just going ahead and making
the control. I think it is a greatly needed component.
I'd be surprised if some don't show up shortly.

I belive location services are a big part of the next version of the compact
framework so I expect this kind of data to be readily available by then.

Thanks,
Chris Craft
http://www.cjcraft.com/



after

 

[jez]

There's actually no need to do a PInvoke.. It's all managed code!

All you have to do is create a Radio object :
private Symbol.WirelessLAN.Radio ppcRadio = null;

then to get the percentage you just do the following :
this.ppcRadio.Signal.Percent

voila, as easy as that!