Diagnosis of your device hardware

Diagnose the hardware components of your VitalControl device, especially your RFID scanner.

1: Checking the hardware components of your VitalControl device
2: RFID scan: range test and diagnosis of transponders

1 - Checking the hardware components of your VitalControl device

Check the hardware components of your VitalControl device, especially if you suspect a hardware defect.

If there is a malfunction on your device, you should first perform a hardware check to clarify whether any of the hardware components is defective.

Check the hardware of your device

Open the menu item Device in the main screen of your VitalControl device.
Invoke the submenu Service, select the menu item Check device drivers and confirm with OK.

The device now lists all hardware components of the device, together with their status. Ideally, all components listed should show a green dot on the far right; this signals a functioning component. If a red dot is shown for a component, this indicates that the corresponding component is defective. In this case, the device must be returned to the manufacturer for service.

VitalControl: Menu path Check of hardware components

NOTE

If the status of all components is shown as as intact (green dots) and there is still a malfunction of the device, it may be a software defect. In this case, contact your local dealer or the manufacturer’s service hotline.

2 - RFID scan: range test and diagnosis of transponders

Check the range of your RFID scanner or show the reading protocol and the numbers stored on unknown transponders.

Using the menu ‘Range test’ you can determine whether VitalControl device can read transponders you have at hand. Besides checking compatibility, you can also conveniently determine the transmission protocol used by these transponders and display the number stored on the transponder.

Perform range test

Open the menu item Device in the main screen of your VitalControl device.
Invoke the submenu Service, select the menu item Range test and confirm with OK. An animated scan screen is displayed now.
Slowly approach your transponder to the reading head of the VitalControl device. To achieve a good reading result, the transponder must be aligned horizontally to the reading head of the VitalControl device.
As soon as the RFID scanner detects the transponder, a vibration alarm is triggered and the background color of the transponder image displayed on the screen changes to green:
Move the transponder back and forth several times at the border of the reading field. This way, you can determine the reading range of the RFID scanner in combination with the transponders you are using.

Transponder check

Performing the range test described above, you can obtain information on transponders from different origin, too:

Official transponder ear tags

If you use transponder ear tags for your animals, on which the officially assigned 15-digit ear tag number of the animal is encoded, the following information is displayed on the screen once the transponder was read:
- 15-digit ID official assigned to your animal from your national animal identification service.
- Country in which the business is located
- Country in which the business is located (German farms only)
- Transmission protocol used (FDX or HDX)

Transponders from third-party vendors

If you use transponders from third-party suppliers, such as Urban, for the electronic identification of your animals, the following information will be displayed on the screen once the transponder was read:
- ID encoded on transponder, number of digits varies depending on the manufacturer
- Manufacturer of the transponder (if stored on the transponder)
- Transmission protocol used (FDX or HDX)