Direct thermal printer is rugged and lightweight

Extech Data Systems has introduced the Apex 3 direct thermal receipt printer, designed to meet the mobile worker's need for a lightweight, rugged and easy-to-use printer.

Extech has changed the standard communication options available for the printer.

Short-range Bluetooth, designed for WPAN, is standard on the Apex 3.

For long-range wireless connectivity, the Apex 3 has optional long-range Bluetooth or 802.11b/g WPA-PSK/WPA2-PSK, LEAP, WEP64/128, TKIP, and AES/CCMP.

IrDA and a three-track magnetic card reader are also available options.

The Apex 3 contains an ARM 7, 32-bit microcontroller from ST Microelectronics.

The flash-based, integrated CPU contains firmware, resident fonts, rotated fonts, downloadable fonts, graphics, logos, and barcodes.

Utilising a high-capacity Li-Ion, 7.4V, 2200 mAh battery that charges internally to the printer or with an external two-bay battery charger, the Apex 3 incorporates 4MB Flash and 2MB SRAM memory that is under direct user control.

New fonts are included and a number of downloadable fonts are available, particularly for Middle East and European requirements.

Special Asian font versions are also available.

Lightweight but rugged enough for heavy duty field use due to its protective over-moulding, the Apex 3 is easy to wear with a belt loop system or shoulder strap.

The printer features an easy-to-use operator interface, and automatic thermal print contrast control to produce high-speed, high-resolution printouts.

Changing paper rolls is easy and convenient, while built-in detectors monitor paper-out.

A new feature is the inclusion of Extech's Form Fiesta utility.

An easy-to-install, Windows-based page-printing utility that allows users to create forms such as boarding passes and parking tickets, Form Fiesta provides an array of design functions to prepare visually pleasing and informative forms that include text, barcodes and tables.

Print utilities are available for most mobile operating systems, including Windows CE, PocketPC, .NET, WM5, Windows Vista and Palm.

In-field programming is simple, allowing the user to upgrade firmware, download fonts and logos using the Extech Bootloader.

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