Lightning RFID Prototype

Hold the yellow button or Space to pull the trigger

Network Beeps Locate distance

Demo controls

Network connected Reader beeps

Want just the phone? On a real phone it fills the screen; add it to your home screen for an app-like launch.

Distance to the closest item on the Find list 32 ft

Platform

Role

Simulated permissions: Technician cannot use Global Check In, resolve transfers or overpacks, or report unusable tags. Actual permissions come from Lightning.

Turn the network off on Review: the reads stay put and Commit waits for the connection (offline submission is out of scope). Drop the scanner mid-scan to compare iOS and Android interruption messages (PRD §8.11).

What the industry ships today

Rental Tracker's RTPro is the system many AV rental houses run today, so that is the bar for v1. Flex and Rentman are the closest competitors with RFID in a mobile app. Current RMS has no RFID but has the global check-in pattern our PRD copies. Cells marked "not documented" mean I could not find it in public docs, not that the feature is missing.

	RTPro (Rental Tracker)	Flex (Flex5 Mobile)	Rentman	Current RMS	Lightning RFID (proposed)
Who uses it	Film/TV and AV houses	AV, lighting, staging, touring	AV and event production (EU-heavy)	AV, event, party	AV, party/tent, sub-rental houses
Handheld readers	Zebra RFD8500, RFD40, MC3190Z; iOS app	Flex Scan Pro (Android all-in-one), Zebra TC22, RFD40 over Bluetooth	Zebra TC22/TC27 + RFD4030, tested; Zebra only	No RFID; barcode and QR via Companion app	Zebra RFD40 Deluxe and RFD8500 through one driver layer
Fixed portals / gateways	Fixed portal solution offered	Rental portals for testing; about $5k entry, $17k+ dock door. "Not yet fully supported"	Not documented	No	Impinj R700; scans count as the tablet user's until logout
Review before commit	Not documented	Review screen; valid units pre-selected, deselect strays	Remove unwanted items, then "book"	n/a	Green / red / missing buckets, strays excluded by default
Batch size limit	Not documented	100 tags per scan batch in the mobile app	Not documented	n/a	No fixed cap; dedupe on device, sized in the Rentex pilot
Find an item (Geiger)	"Locate missing inventory"	Pick one tag from a batch already read. Cannot type or paste a tag ID	Not documented	No	Search by part, name, barcode or EPC, then 0–100 proximity
Global check in	Mass check in	"Manifest return" and free scan in/out	Not documented	Across all active jobs; mark lost or damaged	RFID sorts returns to their jobs automatically
Physical inventory	Yes, plus sound-stage order verification	Not documented	Not documented	Barcode stock checks	Commit scans to a Lightning count
QC by RFID	Not documented	Inquiry scan updates damage status one unit at a time	Not documented	n/a	Answer the product's QC Group once, then apply it to many assets in one scan
Tag commissioning	Not documented	Pre-encoded rugged tags; link in app	Link tag to serial in the Serial Numbers tab	n/a	Vendor barcode/RFID import on Lightning desktop (IMPORT-00); not in the app
Location map	Not documented	Not documented	Not documented	No	No map in the MVP. Every read updates the asset's last-seen warehouse and time
Reader power control	Not documented	Flex Scan Pro adjustable 1–33 dB	Sensitivity button, top right of the scan screen	n/a	One slider per scanner, in the scanner settings

Design rules taken from the research

The trigger is the primary control

Every RFID screen works without looking at the phone: pull to read, release to stop, with sound for new tags. On-screen buttons are the backup, sized for gloves (56px and up).

Zebra RFD40 tri-function trigger; Rentman "pull the trigger and hover around the case"

Count unique tags, show raw reads separately

A reader sees the same tag many times per second. The big number is unique EPCs; raw reads stay visible in small type, which gives us the duplicate-read metric in PRD §4 for free.

RFD40 reads 1,300+ tags/sec; PRD SCAN-02 automatic dedupe

Stray reads are the normal case

Higher power means more neighbors from the next shelf. Strays land in the red bucket, excluded by default, with the reason shown. Power is one slider per scanner, one tap away on the header chip.

Flex review screen; Rentman sensitivity warning; Flex 3–15 ft read range

Three outcomes, not two

The PRD asks for green and red counts. Operators also need the third: what was expected and not read. Each missing line links straight into Locate.

Bin-count patterns (expected / found / missing / unexpected)

Commit never blocks

Commit hands the batch to Lightning and returns the operator to work. Each batch carries an ID and shows Submitted, Processing, Committed or Failed in Batches. There is no offline queue: with no network, Commit waits and the reads stay on screen.

PRD SCAN-06, ERR-02; offline submission out of scope

Every read updates last seen

A read already means "this item is in this building." Any detection, committed or not, stray or not, updates the asset's last-seen warehouse and time. Locate shows it so the operator goes to the right building before following the gauge.

PRD HIST-05, FIND-05; zones and maps out of scope

Find hunts units, not names

When a pull sheet is short one receiver, any receiver will do. Load the specific candidates, nearest first, and let the reader follow the strongest.

Zebra RFID SDK Multi-Tag Locate

No ceilings competitors have

No fixed per-batch tag cap and EPC search in Locate are two cheap wins over Flex's documented limits. Parity with Rentex's current system is the floor.

Flex RFID FAQ: 100-tag batch limit, no typed tag ID in locate

Hardware notes that change the build

RFD40 comes in variants

The Standard sled (RFD4030) has no Bluetooth. It attaches to Zebra Android computers through an eConnex adapter. Pairing with an iPhone needs the Premium or Premium Plus model, which add Bluetooth. PRD v0.10 names the "RFD40 Deluxe"; confirm with Rentex that this is a Bluetooth model (Premium or Premium Plus), since AUTH-01 promises iOS.

The R700 lives on the network

The Impinj R700 is a 4-port fixed reader (up to 32 antennas with the Antenna Hub). It does not pair with a phone; the tablet connects to it over the network, its settings stay with the gateway (DEV-09), and every read counts as the signed-in tablet user's until logout (AUTH-08).

Locate is a reader feature

Zebra's 123RFID app shows locate as a 0–100% "relative distance" from RSSI. The Zebra SDK exposes this directly, so the Geiger screen is mostly UI work on top of the SDK, plus our asset search.

Questions after PRD v0.10

v0.10 closes the product-scope questions. What is left are build and design details for Engineering and the Rentex pilot, plus the record of what got answered.

Does Multi-Tag Locate work on iOS?FIND-04 needs the highest signal across the whole Find list. A Zebra developer forum thread reports the RFD40 returning no proximity events for multi-tag locate on iOS. Spike this before the pilot.
Who can change reader power?DEV-09 says handheld settings follow the user and gateway settings stay on the gateway, but not who may change them. Power is the main cause of stray reads. Lock it for technicians and let supervisors change it?
Session expiry and interruption messages (§8.11).The prototype proposes a sign-in-again sheet over the current page, and different iOS and Android messages when the scanner drops. Try both from the demo controls.
Two scanners, one check out.Physical inventory is settled (PI-00: each person's scans are a separate batch on the same count). The PRD does not say whether two people can check out the same plan at once.
Cases and containers.Does reading a case tag imply its contents? Current RMS separates temporary and permanent containers. Not in the PRD, and it would change the review screen.
Answered: hardware.Zebra RFD40 Deluxe and RFD8500 handhelds and the Impinj R700 gateway, on Android and iOS (DEV-01–03, AUTH-01).
Answered: tags and encoding.Rentex loads vendor barcode/RFID mappings on Lightning desktop (IMPORT-00–02). No mobile tag assignment.
Answered: failed items at check out.OUT-04: overpack, transfer from another warehouse, or return from another job first. The prototype shows all three.
Answered: offline.No offline submission or retry queue (SCAN-06). iOS keeps reads through a short drop; Android is not guaranteed. The prototype holds Commit until the network is back.
Answered: warehouse map.Out of scope. Last seen is a warehouse and a time (FIND-05, §8.9), with no zones, aisles or bins.

Demo controls

What the industry ships today

Design rules taken from the research

Hardware notes that change the build

Questions after PRD v0.10

Sources