Setting up an Android based tablet for QR scanning

When using QR scanning, most customers will choose to use an Android based device as they are cheaper than, for example, an iPad.

This guide covers our recommended setup for an Android tablet to use for QR scanning - there is no particular type of tablet we recommend. As long as the tablet has Wi-Fi, front facing camera and is of a "reasonable" spec then it should be fine.

1. Add the device to the required Wi-Fi network
2. During the initial setup of the tablet you will be asked to add the device to a  Google account - you can setup a new account (will require an email address and phone number) or you can use an existing account. In our experience, you will not be able to add more than 4/5 devices to a single account - this seems to be a limitation imposed by Google.
3. Once loaded, apply all updates to the tablet
4. Open your preferred browser and ensure this also is updated
5. Enable developer options
   • To do this you need to go to Settings, System, About then Software info, Build number.
   • On this build number menu item, tap it 7 to 10 times. You might get a pop up so you know it is done but when you go back to Settings you should now see DEVELOPER OPTIONS
6. In Developer options, find the option for Stay Awake
   • Make sure this is turned on (this stops the device turning off/going into sleep as long as it is connected to the power)
7. Then open your browser and go to https://login.hrwize.com/qr/
8. Add a bookmark to the browser and to Android home screen. This means that if the device is logged out or powered off, a user can simply click the HRWize icon on their home screen to go to the login page.
9. Now login to the browser using the relevant login for that device
10. When you login you will be given an option to remember the login for this device – select yes
    • This means your users will not need to know the login and any time the device logs out they can simply click Login again and they will be authenticated

The one downside of using a generic tablet is that the device does more than just connect to our QR reader - the user could, for example, open other apps or they could access other websites.

There is no way in Android itself to prevent this - we have tried a number of device management programs which claim to do this with very limited success. In most cases they either "do not work" or presented additional issues such as locking the camera from working.

One of our customers instead has opted to buy all the same model of devices and they asked a carpenter to build a frame for the device - the frame leaves the whole screen accessible and the camera visible but, crucially, stops the user from clicking the home or other button on the device and means they cannot then access other websites.