7-4
To record a message, press any key and hold it down. When you release the
key, immediately start speaking into the microphone. To practice, let’s
record something in message #03. Get ready to say ITEM (in English or
your language) into the microphone of the RF Terminal. When ready, press
the ENTER key and the instant you release it, speak ITEM into the
microphone. Remember to speak clearly – you have plenty of time to say
ITEM in ½ second. When the message time is over, you will hear two
beeps. The display is back to the RECORD/PLAYBACK prompt:
RECORD/PLAYBACK?
KEY [R/P]?
Now you’re ready to listen to your first recording. Press the P key and key
in 03 for the message number. Do not be discouraged if you didn’t record
the entire message. Our first attempt produced “EM” in a very frantic tone
of voice. Practice speaking clearly and calmly (think of the poor guy who
has to hear it 10,000 times next week) as soon as the key is released. You
will get the hang of it with just a little practice.
That is the way all messages – prompts and errors - are recorded. If you are
not sure which message numbers are blank, you can listen to messages until
you find a blank for recording.
The host computer relies on the fact that the voice messages are stored in
the RF Terminal itself and not generated by the host. The host computer
will trigger the broadcast of a voice message by sending a prompt to the RF
Terminal that tells it which message number to play. If the host thinks that
message #05 is STOP when it’s really GO, it can cause confusion for the
operator. That is why it is important to keep track of what messages are
recorded where.
Assigning Error Messages Error Messages are recorded the same way other messages are - by going
into RECORD/PLAYBACK, selecting a message number and recording a
voice message. The RF Terminal comes from the factory with some voice
prompts and error messages pre-recorded. You can change any of these
messages but keep in mind that the error conditions are hardware-related
and that the voice error messages they are linked to are fixed. For example,
the “Low Batteries” message is located at message #31. Whenever the RF
Terminal detects very low batteries, it will play message #31, regardless of
what is recorded there. You could record “Happy Birthday” and the RF
Terminal would broadcast it any time it detected the low battery condition.
To avoid confusion, try to keep the error messages somewhat related to the
error condition they represent.