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Extech Data Systems Celebrates 10 Years
Design and Manufacture Battery Operated Portable Printers
Extech Data Systems, the Portable Printing Division of Extech Instruments, started Engineering
development of a new line of portable instrumentation in 1988, just ten years ago. The first
products from this development, a portable battery operated printer and a portable modem were
introduced in 1989. Designed specifically for the Psion Organiser, this initial foray into the world
of mobile computing proved highly successful. The advent of a low cost, battery operated
portable printer allowed innovative individuals and organizations to develop system solutions for
a variety of interesting applications, including:
§ Duty Gear who developed ‘Ticket Writer,’ a self-contained portable computer system,
programmable that generates parking tickets directly from Extech’s integral printer.
§ Precision Systems who introduced PESTWARE a “revolutionary, cost saving
productivity tool designed to reduce paperwork, handwritten work orders and invoices” for
the Pest Control industry. Using an Extech Comms printer, the system prints work orders and
invoices on the job site.
§ Harvest Computer Consulting who designed Farm Handy™ specifically for agricultural
payrolls using compensation based on a piece rate. The system allows for immediate printing
of receipts for employees.
§ Joint Technologies Ltd. who introduced CoinTRAX© Model 50, a portable coin counting
system that provides fast, accurate accounting of coin and token income from various
machines, companies and locations. CoinTRAX© also provides count verification of tagged
bags, totes, coin rolls and over-the-counter receipts.
Introduction of the mini-serial printer increased the potential for our printers, allowing
integration with virtually any RS232 serial device, including portable computers, pen computers,
vending machines and weighing scales.
§ Streetguard™ Inc. who developed Streetguard VVRS, a hand-held pen computer based
parking ticket writing system that allows writing of the ticket directly on the pen computer
screen and then printing out to the Extech Mini Serial Printer.
In 1991, we introduced a built-in magnetic card reader (MCR) option — available to read either
tracks 1 and 2 or tracks 2 and 3. Both tracks are read and decoded simultaneously. Decoded data
was transferred to the host computer, via the serial port, for verification and consolidation into
receipt form. The completed data is then sent back to the printer for receipt printing. Nowadays,
data transfer is possible through the serial port, bi-directional parallel port or the IrDA port. A
unique two-way communication protocol allows for the decoded data from the magnetic card to
be transmitted to the host computer. Again, a number of interesting applications have been
developed, including:
§ Micros’ Hospitality: visit the Fleet Center in Boston for a Celtics or Bruins game and
enjoy the rapid food system made possible by Micros’ pioneering ordering system. Linking a
hand held pen computer system, local radio network system and an Extech printer with built-
