Wednesday, December 13, 2006

FB3000 vs 920i vs Combics Pro

Who comes out on top in my opinion is the Sartorius Combics Pro. Why? well though I love the 920i and the FB3000 for what they are, the Sartorius Combics Pro is the best mix of both systems. Here's the deal, the 920i is a great batching system with a great track record. I have put those scales through all kinds of torture. It does lack however in its out of the box communications and lack of a file system to facilitate simple data transfer. All data must be run through a serial port, even the ethernet card is converting to serial. Although I still sell many of them , it is becoming dated. The FB3000 is a great unit, but due to a lack of external commands, if you plan on writing programs, you end up communicating to the scale via a streamed serial string and rewriting the whole scale app anyway . It is a Windows XP machine however which gives you great flexibility and all kinds of connectivity, once your app is complete. This streaming serial communications method however dampens its chances of becoming a good batching system. Now enter the Combics Pro. This unit has both. It is a truly programmable scale with a full file system and a true ethernet connection. Get this , I can browse to the scale and control it and view the screen as if I was in front of it. Very nice and well thought out. Anyway thank you for stopping by and checking out our blog. If you ever need any scale system or bar code system support check us out. Till next time -John Russo