The AEI Tag Programming Software was designed to run under Windows, interface to an AP4110 and the new AP4118 Tag Programmer (not included), print to a DYMO LabelWriter 400 Printer (included) and optionally interface to an AI2000 SmartScan Portable AEI Reader (not included). The AEI Tag Programming Software for Windows program was developed to help solve two main issues. The existing tag programming software developed by Amtech and included with each AP4110 Tag Programmer is a DOS program. DOS programs will not run under new Windows operating systems such as Windows XP. The second issue concerns tag quality. Tag quality can be broken down into two main concerns. The first concern is the accuracy of the data encoded in to the tag. The AEI Tag Programming Software has a number of features that help reduce errors in encoding (programming) data into a tag. The program contains a subset of UMLER that allows it to check the data being programmed into the tag against the vehicle’s UMLER data and warns if there are differences. Because the program’s UMLER database must be periodically updated via a CD-ROM, the program may not, however, have the most up-to-date UMLER data. The program prints all programmed data fields on the tag’s label. This allows the end user of the tag to check all of the tag’s data fields prior to placing the tag on a vehicle. The second tag quality issue involves the readability of programmed tags by a wayside RF reader. In the early days of programming of AEI tags, it was assumed that any tag able to be programmed successfully could also be read by a wayside RF reader. In the last few years it has been discovered that this is not necessarily true. It has become apparent that RF checking tags after they are programmed is an important safeguard against unreadable tags being placed on rail vehicles. To facilitate RF checking of programmed tags, the AEI Tag Programming Software can be interfaced to an AI2000 SmartScan Portable AEI Reader. One of the options of the software requires a tag to be read by the portable reader after being programmed and prior to printing of the tag label. If the tag is successfully read, the label indicates that an RF reader successfully read the tag. If this option is not set or the tag is not successfully read, the label will indicate the tag was not RF checked. You can download a demonstration version of this software by clicking on the button below. Manuals in both Acrobat pdf file format and Word doc file format can also be downloaded by clicking on the buttons below. |