newland EM3296 OEM scan engine User Guide

Newland EM3296 OEM scan engine

Introduction

Overview
The EM3296 OEM scan engines, armed with the Newland patented recognition system, bring about a new era of 2D barcode scan engines. The EM3296’s 2D barcode decoder chip ingeniously blends technology and advanced chip design & manufacturing, which significantly simplifies application design and delivers superior performance and solid reliability with low power consumption.
The EM3296 supports all mainstream 1D as well as PDF417, QR Code (QR1, QR2, Micro QR), Data Matrix, GS1-DataBarTM(RSS) (Limited/ Stacked/ Expanded versions), and Chinese Sensible Code.

Illumination
The EM3296 has two red LEDs for supplementary lighting, making it possible to scan barcodes even in complete darkness. The illumination can be programmed On or Off.
The EM3296 uses red LEDs for illumination, so the engine shows better reading performance on barcodes printed in non-red colors. For applications involving red barcodes, it is advised to turn off the engine’s illumination and use non- red supplementary lighting (such as green) instead. The user can conduct some tests to determine the proper wavelengths to be used.

Aimer
The EM3296 has a viewfinder that produces a solid round-shaped aiming pattern to help the user to easily position the target barcode within the engine’s field of view to increase scan efficiency. The aiming pattern can be turned On or Off. It is advisable to turn it on when scanning barcodes.

Installation

General Requirements
ESD protection has been taken into account when designing the EM3296 and the engine is shipped in ESD safe packaging. Always exercise care when handling the engine outside its package. Be sure grounding wrist straps and properly grounded work areas are used.

Dust and Dirt
The EM3296 must be sufficiently enclosed to prevent dust particles from gathering on the imager, lens and circuit board. Dust and other external contaminants will eventually degrade the engine’s performance.

Ambient Environment
The following environmental requirements should be met to ensure good performance of the EM3296:

Thermal Considerations
Electronic components in the EM3296 will generate heat during the course of their operation. Operating the EM3296 in continuous mode for an extended period may cause temperatures to rise on CIS and decoder chip. Overheating can degrade image quality and affect scanning performance. Given that, the following precautions should be taken into consideration when integrating the EM3296.

Installation Orientation
The EM3296 has two threaded mounting holes for machine screws in its bottom. The following figure illustrates a front view of the EM3296 after correct installation.

Optics

Window Placement
The window should be positioned properly to let the illumination and aiming beams pass through as much as possible and no reflections back into the engine (reflections can degrade the reading performance).
The window should be mounted close to the front of the engine (parallel). The maximum distance is measured from the front of the engine housing to the farthest surface of the window. In order to reach better reading performance, the distance from the front of the engine housing to the nearest surface of the window should not exceed a (a =0.5mm) and the thickness of window should not exceed 2mm.
If the window is required to be in a tilted position, the distance requirements above should be met and tilt angle should ensure no reflections back into the lens.

Window Material and Color
CIS’s responsiveness (mainly to wavelengths of red light）should be taken into consideration when choosing window material and color, in order to achieve the possible highest spectral transmission, lowest haze level and homogeneous refractive index. It is suggested to use PMMA or optical glass with spectral transmittance over 90% and haze less than 1%. Whether to use an anti- reflection coating or not depends on the material and application needs.

Scratch Resistance and Coating
Scratch on the window can greatly reduce engine performance. It is suggested to use abrasion resistant window material or coating.

Window Size
The window must not block the field of view and should be sized to accommodate the illumination envelope shown below.

Horizontal:
Vertical:

Ambient Light
The EM3296 shows better performance with ambient light and it is well able to handle the flicker in fluorescent lights using 50-60Hz AC power. However, high-frequency pulsed light can result in performance degradation.

Eye Safety
The EM3296 has no lasers. It uses LEDs to produce illumination and aiming beams. The LEDs are bright, but testing has been done to demonstrate that the engine is safe for its intended application under normal usage conditions. However, the user should avoid looking into the beam.

Mounting

The illustrations below show the mechanical mounting dimensions for the EM3296. The structural design should leave some space between components.

Front View (unit: mm)
Side View (unit: mm)
Bottom View (unit: mm)

Electrical Specifications

Power Supply
Do not power up the EM3296 until it is properly connected. Be sure the power is cut off before connecting a cable to or disconnecting a cable from the host interface connector. Hot-plugging could damage the engine.
Unstable power supply or sharp voltage drops or unreasonably short interval between power-ons may lead to unstable performance of the engine. Do not resupply the power immediately after cutting it off. The minimum interval must exceed 2 seconds.

Ripple Noise
Image sensor and decoder chip are directly fed by the input power of EM3296. To ensure the image quality, a power supply with low ripple noise is needed.
Acceptable ripple range (peak-to-peak) : ≤50mV (≤30mV recommended).

DC Characteristics

Operating Voltage Ta=23℃

Parameter| Description| Minimum| Typical| Maximum| Unit
---|---|---|---|---|---
VDD| Voltage Drain Drain| 3.0| 3.3| 3.6| V
VIH| High Level Input Voltage| VDD-0.5| –| –| V
VIL| Low Level Input Voltage| –| –| 0.5| V
VOH| High Level Output Voltage| VDD-0.3| –| –| V
VOL| Low Level Output Voltage| –| –| 0.3| V

Operating Current Ta=23℃，VDD=3.3V

141mA (typical)

198mA (max.)

| 10mA| <10uA

Timing Sequence

The following diagram indicates the typical timing for the Power-up sequence of the engine.

Notes:

1.  In the diagram above, it takes about 400ms for the engine to power up: A – time needed to choose the boot mode; B – time needed to boot the kernel; C – time needed to initialize decoder chip.
2.  In the diagram above, D shows the reset time. If no additional operation is performed to manipulate the Reset signal, the power-up time can be measured from the point when VDD reaches 3.3V.
3.  Before powering off the engine, ensure that data transmission via its communication interface(s) is complete to prevent transmission errors.
4.  Before powering on the engine, ensure that all the signals remain low to prevent current from flowing backwards to affect the performance of the engine.

Interfaces

Host Interface Connector
The following table lists the pin functions of the 12-pin host interface connector on the EM3296.

beeper.
10| LED| O| LED output. External LED driver circuit is needed to drive LED.
11| Reset| I| Reset signal input: Driving this pin low for 100us-500us resets the

engine.

12| nTrig| I| Trigger signal input: Driving this pin low for at least 10ms causes the

engine to start a scan and decode session.

Dimensions of the Host Interface Connector (unit: mm)
The EM3296 uses a 12-pin FPC ZIF socket (bottom contact, model: 10051922-1210EHLF) manufactured by FCI. The socket can be connected to a host device with a FFC cable.

FFC Cable (unit: mm)
A 12-pin FFC cable can be used to connect the EM3296 to a host device. The cable design must be consistent with the specifications shown below. Use reinforcement material for the connectors on the cable and reduce cable impedance for reliable connection and stable performance.

Communication Interfaces
The EM3296 can communicate with the host device via its TTL-232 interface. This interface is applicable to most system architectures. For those requiring RS-232, a TTL-232 to RS-232 conversion circuit is needed.
The EM3296’s TTL-232 interface supports baud rates from 1200bps to 115200bps; it does not support hardware flow control. Its default settings are 9600bps, 8 data bits, no parity check and 1 stop bit.
Besides, the EM3296 can also communicate with the host device via its USB interface.

1.  USB HID-KBW: Based on USB connection, the engine’s transmission is simulated as USB keyboard input. It works on a Plug and Play basis and no driver is required.
2.  USB COM Port Emulation: The USB interface on the host device is emulated as a serial port with the same data transmission and configuration as a real serial port. A driver is required.
3.  USB HID-POS: It is based on HID with no need for custom driver and is way more efficient in communication than keyboard emulation and traditional RS-232 interface.

Control Interfaces

Reset
Driving the Reset pin (PIN 11) on the host interface connector low for 100us- 500us can reset the EM3296. However, do not reset the engine at unreasonably short intervals. The minimum interval between resets must exceed 2 seconds.

Trigger
Driving the nTrig pin (PIN 12) on the host interface connector low for over 10ms causes the EM3296 to start a scan and decode session. If barcode is decoded, the EM3296 waits for the voltage at the nTrig pin to turn high (or the trigger to be released) after sending the data to the Host. If the trigger is released during a scan attempt, the EM3296 immediately stops decoding.
Next decode session does not happen until the EM3296 receives active trigger signal (driving the nTrig pin low) again.
As a decode session involves image capture, barcode decoding and other steps, it is suggested that the minimum interval between triggers should exceed 50ms.
The following trigger circuit is provided for reference.

Beeper
The EM3296 provides a pin (Buzz, PIN 9) on the host interface connector that provides a PWM output to an external driver circuit for generating audible feedback to the user to indicate statuses like power up or good read. The PWM output is not strong enough to drive a beeper, thus a beeper driver circuit is needed.
The following beeper driver circuit is provided for reference.

Good Read LED
The EM3296 provides a pin (LED, PIN 10) on the host interface connector that can be used by an external driver circuit to drive an LED to indicate a Good Read status. When a good read occurs, the LED pin produces a high level output and then the signal is back to a low level. This Good Read LED output is not strong enough to drive an LED, so an LED driver circuit is needed.
The following Good Read LED driver circuit is provided for reference .

Development Tools

EVK
The EVK is provided to help users to test and evaluate the EM3296, which contains beeper & beeper driver circuit, LED & LED driver circuit, and trigger & reset buttons, TTL-232 to RS-232 converter & TTL-232 to USB converter, RS-232 & USB interfaces, etc. The EM3296 can be connected to the EVK via a 12-pin FFC cable type 1 (contacts on the same side). Either USB connection or RS-232 connection can be used when connecting the EVK to a host device.

References

• Intrinsic Development : Professional Software Services
• Newland EMEA | Mobile Computers, Handheld Barcode Scanners & more |
• Partners | Scanning Made Simple | Newland
• Newland AIDC | Barcode Scanner,Mobile Terminal,OEM Scan Engine

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