Connecting the Wasp WWS500 Bluetooth Scanner to a Laptop/Tablet

The following guide is posted with permission courtesy our friends at the City of Hope.

Turn on scanner and scan the following barcode to prepare scanner for pairing. The scanner will remain discoverable to 1 minute.

Click start and type bluetooth. Click “Add a Bluetooth device”.

Add a device window will come up. Highlight WWS500 HID scanner, right click and choose properties.

Check “Drivers for keyboard, mice, etc. (HID) then click OK.

Scanner is now paired with the PC.

Barcode Scanners for Mosaic

Bluetooth Wireless Scanners
These are the way to go. We’ve had best luck with the Zebra/Motorola (Symbol). The Wasps work, but they are not as sensitive for smaller barcodes. We have increased the barcode size on many of our cage card templates to accommodate, and these now work fine for Cage Side Assistant tasks.  For the most efficient census, you should also test distance – you can do a more efficient census when you can stand back from a column of cages and scan them with minimal motion.  (Or ask us about RFID integration.)

It is important to have a visual idea of how these work:

For Zebra/Motorola (Symbol) LS4278, the recommended setup has a cradle that sits next to the laptop and plugs in via USB.  When you place the Bluetooth scanner into the cradle, the scanner pairs seamlessly with the cradle which then talks via USB to the laptop.  The advantage is that you don’t need to fuss with Bluetooth pairing the scanner to the computer.  The scanner also charges while in the cradle.  If you are using a cart+laptop, this is what we recommend.

Here is a convenient link to a recent (2019) option from Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00NKZTOH2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

If you want to try tablet computers for a little more mobility, then you need to pair your Symbol/Motorola Bluetooth scanners directly with the tablet.  See our guide here: http://mosaicvivarium.blogspot.com/2010/07/connecting-symbol-ls-4278-bluetooth.html

The Wasp also has a smaller USB/Bluetooth adapter/dongle which should both work with tablets and reduce the headache of connecting to the computer.  With its lower price and convenient connectivity options, the only reservation with the Wasp is distance sensitivity.

Our recommendation?  If you are tooling up for one or a small number of rooms, we’d recommend the Zebra/Motorola (Symbol) LS4278.  For a larger number of rooms, consider Wasps for most work with a couple of Motorola setups for census tasks.

USB Wired Scanners
Save some money if you can live with having a USB cable.

The old standby: Symbol (Motorola) LS 2208
http://www.barcodesinc.com/symbol/ls2208.htm
http://mosaicvivarium.blogspot.com/2009/08/programming-symbol-ls2208-barcode.html

Lower cost:  http://mosaicvivarium.blogspot.com/2011/12/lower-cost-barcode-scanners.html

Entering Colors in Mosaic Vivarium

Almost any value that you enter via a pull-down list in Mosaic can have a color associated with it.  Visit Administration | Lookup Lists to see all the lists.  Click on a row number for a list to see the current values in the list.  The list values have a Color field that you can control.

Click Edit in the lower worksheet and then add a row or click on the color cell of an existing row.  You will then see our simple color chooser:

Simply click on one of these colors.  However, if you want a precise color, click on Custom… to get the custom entry screen:

To get a “hexidecimal RGB value” you can use one of many online tools for this purpose.  Here is one that we have used:  http://www.2createawebsite.com/build/hex-colors.html#colorgenerator

After you find the perfect color, cut the “Hex” value and paste it back into Mosaic’s “color” box on the Custom Color dialog.

Lower Cost Barcode Scanners

We’ve used the Motorola (Symbol) barcode scanners with great success.  However, one of our customers recently pointed out that there are less expensive alternatives.  For example, check out this model for about $30 bucks:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003OUQ174/ref=oh_o01_s00_i00_details

If you are OK with using the wired USB scanners, this is a good alternative.

Now someone just has to find a less expensive Bluetooth-enabled scanner…

Fix for Firefox 8.0.1 and Mosaic Vivarium Cage Side Assistant (CSA)

Despite the fantastic work of the Mozilla folks, it seems like every time a new Firefox version comes out something breaks.  Firefox 8 is no exception.

Users have reported problems with the Cage Side Assistant under Firefox 8 on both the Mac and the PC.  Two pieces of good news here:

• We did a quick test of Safari 5.1.2 on the Mac:  all of Mosaic Vivarium, including CSA, seems to work.  With Apple’s improvements, Safari now seems like a viable platform for using Mosaic Vivarium.
• We have a work-around for users of Firefox 8.0.1 (Mac and PC).

Here’s how to allow Cage Side Assistant to work properly under Firefox 8.  First, make sure you have the latest Silverlight 5.0.61118.0 installed by visiting this link:

http://www.microsoft.com/getsilverlight/get-started/install/default.aspx

That’s all you should need to do for the Mac.

15-Mar-2013, update from customers:  MacOS 10.6.8 seems to work fine with Silverlight 4 in Firefox, but if you update to MacOS 10.7.2 or higher, you’ll need to follow the instructions above to update Silverlight.

For the PC, put on your work gloves, because we’re going under the hood for this one.

1. Open Firefox 8, type “about:config” into the address bar, and press the button:
   
2. Type “ipc” in the filter box, then double-click on the “dom.ipc.plugins.enabled” entry until its value is “false”:
   
3. Close all Firefox 8 windows and restart Firefox 8.  CSA should now work normally.

What did we just do?  Firefox runs some plugins (like Flash and Silverlight) in a separate process.  The idea is that if the plugin fails, Firefox doesn’t crash.  Great idea if the plugin still works correctly…  If you are technically curious, some related information (pre-Firefox 8) may be found here:

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Plugin-container_and_out-of-process_plugins

Please login to your Mosaic Vivarium account and send us feedback if you are still having problems.

Tablet Computers for Mosaic Vivarium

Tablet computers are becoming useful alternatives to laptops for laboratory animal resources (LAR) data entry directly in the animal room.  We find that tablets and laptops provide the depth of functionality needed by husbandry staff.

To use Mosaic Vivarium, you’ll need a Windows 7 or 8 based tablet (not an Apple or Android based tablet at this time… stay tuned).  The Microsoft Surface Pro 2 or 3 are both good examples.

Get a Bluetooth Motorola (Symbol) LS 4278 scanner to go with this tablet

Simply plug your DYMO Turbo 450 into the USB slot when you’ve queued up a bunch of cage cards to print.

One concern with any consumer device in the LAR environment is durability.  Most of our customers have had good experience with consumer laptops, but we don’t yet have enough experience with the new tablets.  (How often are they dropped?)  In 2011 we tested a ruggedized tablet from MobileDemand.  The T7000 model has an integrated barcode scanner that is fast (laser, not camera based), as well as an optional add-on keyboard.  You can check out the videos at their web site.  The physical size is a 7” display (T7000 model) or 8.4” (T8700 model).

The MobileDemand tablets have a proven track record of durability and scanner-productivity in other industries.  They also have straps/harnesses for walking around with the computer without fear of dropping.  We found the MobileDemand computers quite usable in 2011 but have not researched recent offerings.

Avoiding the Pesky Internet Explorer File Download Blocker

If Internet Explore is blocking your cage card downloads, here are some settings you can check.  These screenshots are from Internet Explorer 9.

1. Locate the Tools menu, or the “Gear” button in the upper left:
   
2. Select Internet options:
   
3. Go to the Advanced tab and
   check “Notify when downloads complete” and
   uncheck “Do not save encrypted pages to disk:
   
   
4. You may also need to go to the Security tab and
   click Trusted Sites and
   click the Sites button and
   add Mosaic to the list:
   
   
5. Make sure your trusted sites enable file downloads.  Hit the Custom Level button and enable “Automatic prompting for file downloads”
   
6. Finally, restart your browser.  You should now be able to download without being blocked.