How to Improve Measurement Reporting with a Bluetooth Barcode Scanner

Whether you work in manufacturing, construction, or other industries, reliably identifying specific parts or groups of parts is essential for staying organized, generating accurate reports, and maintaining audit readiness. By connecting a Bluetooth barcode scanner to a compatible PosiTector instrument, inspectors can instantly associate each reading with the correct part—streamlining workflows, eliminating manual entry errors, and ensuring traceable documentation.

Traditionally, linking a part or job number to measurement data requires manual entry, either during inspection or when generating a report. These methods are time-consuming and error-prone. Providing a simple mechanism for adding identifying data directly to readings increases measurement efficiency and significantly improves reporting accuracy.

Why Use a Barcode Scanner with PosiTector Instruments?

Many operations already tag parts with a stock keeping unit (SKU), QR code, or another unique identifier. PosiTector Advanced gage bodies can connect to a wide range of Bluetooth barcode scanners, allowing barcode information to be added directly to readings taken with the gage.

Benefits:

• Faster inspections, fewer transcription errors
• Automatic grouping by part, job, customer, or lot
• Easy export to reporting software and spreadsheets

Fit Barcodes into Your Existing Workflow

Barcodes are easy to generate and customize with meaningful identifiers, for example:

• SKU or part number
• Job or work order number
• Customer reference number
• Lot or heat number

By scanning a barcode using a Bluetooth enabled barcode scanner, this identifying information can be communicated directly to a connected PosiTector Advanced Gage body, and linked to individual readings. An inspector can quickly and easily move between parts, simply scanning the next code when switching to a new part or batch.

To automatically annotate readings:

1. Connect a Bluetooth barcode scanner to the PosiTector Advanced Gage Body (see instructions below)
2. On the gage, open Memory and select Reading Annotations.
3. Scan a barcode to associate it with the current and subsequent readings
4. When measuring another part, scan a new barcode to update the annotation for future measurements

When readings are downloaded to PosiSoft Desktop software or through PosiTector USB the associated identifier will be included as a note with each reading.

How to Connect to a Bluetooth Scanner

The PosiTector Advanced gage body supports both Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and Bluetooth Classic, allowing compatibility with a wide range of barcode scanners. Different steps can be followed depending on the Bluetooth protocol being used by the barcode scanner.

Connecting to a Barcode Scanner Using BLE

Connecting to a Barcode Scanner Using Bluetooth Classic

After pairing, open or create a batch and begin scanning barcodes to annotate measurements.

Generating Reports

PosiSoft Desktop is a powerful, free reporting software, that allows the user to download readings from PosiTector, PosiTest and Testex digital instruments. Measurement data from multiple instruments can easily be imported to default report templates or to fully customized forms.

By using a Bluetooth barcode scanner, readings are automatically annotated—eliminating the need to manually separate and label measurements. Alternatively, readings can be exported from PosiSoft Desktop or accessed directly from a gage connected via USB as either a .csv or .txt file. This data can be imported into a spreadsheet or other custom reporting or solution. Like reports in PosiSoft Desktop, each reading will include the unique annotations that were added, as part of the imported data set.

The award winning PosiTector gage body allows more communication methods than any other coating thickness gage, allowing you to take measurements and generate reports in the way that works best for your process. Explore the full range of interchangeable PosiTector probes at defelsko.com, and contact our Technical Support team for help configuring your gage.

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