New laptop won't connect to reader, need advice!

[Rivalry Timing]

Hi, what changes to settings do you guys make after getting a new laptop?

Black Friday rolled around so I bought a new Dell laptop.

Last year I bought a similar Dell model on black Friday and got my Impinj R420 reader to connect/communicate, somehow.

But I can't get the new Dell laptop I just got to connect to my reader, but I don't know what I did to my old laptop to get it to connect.

I tried turning off wifi and connecting, restarted laptop. no luck.

I disabled antivirus as well as I could (actually I just uninstalled the included McAffee antivirus). Restarted laptop. Still no luck.

What am I forgetting? Any other ideas?

Thanks ahead of time!

Jimmy

[Edward Schrank]

You most likely need to set your laptop to the subnet the reader is operating on. Here is a video from Impinj: https://support.impinj.com/hc/en-us/articles/202756578-Connecting-to-Speedway-Revolution-Reader-VIDEO-

You could also go your other laptop and see what subnet it is operating on and set this same setting in the new laptop. Video pretty much covers it. 

Hope that helps. 

[Rivalry Timing]

Hi Edward and Brian,

Thanks for remoting in and showing me how to ping an Impinj reader with the command center, Brian.

Thanks Edward for the link and the video! The first steps of the video were most helpful to me! And that was to download and install "Bounjour Print Services" first and then try to ping the reader using format speedwayr-xx-xx-xx.local to see if the computer will then communicate with the reader. Lo and behold, downloading and installing Bonjour Print Services did the trick! No need to set up subnet static IP addresses apparently as you suggested. I could ping the reader and next I added the reader back into Agee Race Timing software and boom, it connects finally. 

I like to test things with ART as I go along and make one change at a time. In that way, I can know what might have worked.

Of note, I watched an AtlasRFIDstore video about connecting Impinj Speedway readers to PC's and they say to do the exact opposite regarding IP addresses. And that is to NOT set up static IP or subnet, but rather keep the default of "Obtain an IP address automatically" for at least the Internet Protocal version 4 (IPv4) properties under Ethernet in the Network and Sharing section of the Control Panel :)

And during all this I actually later downloaded the Impinj Multireader software, and found out how to change the power settings, which I never knew how to do before. That will come in super handy as now I can turn the power way down to drop the read range and have a panel antenna next to me face down on the couch to my left and a pile of tags/bibs on my right and program tags as I watch sports! Being able to quickly adjust the power down will come in handy for things like tag check stations at packet pick up events, or results kiosks.

Happy camper,

Jimmy

[JK Race Timing Systems]

Hi
I wouldn't be so sure about the assumption on the power settings. It is quite possible that once you connect to ART that settings in that software will adjust power to how it sees fit.
It is worth checking that with Brian.
Best regards
John

[Rivalry Timing]

Ah I see. Yea, I don't know about ART then at races for tag check station and kiosk for making a shorter read range with a panel antenna. I'll try it out and check with Brian. But at least with Impinj Multireader software we can program tags, and there is an incremental number sequence feature too. So looks like I can still watch football and program tags easily with a panel antenna face down (well at least i should be able to since power can be adjusted manually) :)

Jimmy

[Brian Agee]

I just took a quick look at the code to see what I'm doing. It's been a while since I've dug through the Impinj SDK documentation, but it looks like I'm clearing whatever settings are in the reader, I query for the Factory Settings, make a few small changes, and then apply those settings. Specifically here is the code:

m_RfidReader.ClearSettings()

Dim Settings As Settings = m_RfidReader.QueryFactorySettings()

Settings.Report.Mode = ReportMode.Individual

Settings.Report.IncludeAntennaPortNumber = True

Settings.SearchMode = SearchMode.DualTarget

m_RfidReader.ApplySettings(Settings)

I do because if someone connected a new (used) reader that had strange settings applied this will get the reader working like it should for timing races. Also, I'm a little worried that if I allowed everyone to set whatever settings they wanted in the reader then I'll end up burning up a ton of time helping people figure out why something isn't working well and then later discover they changed some random setting in the reader.

So I would rather add options in ART that allow changing the 'safe' settings in the reader than simply using whatever random settings the reader already had in place.