FAQ

Frequently asked questions regarding Attendance Recorders:
1. What is an attendance card?
2. How many types of employee cards are available with us?
3. How to use employee card to record attendance?
4. Where does the attendance get recorded?
5. What happens if an employee drops his card into STAR again immediately after the first time?
6. Can we restrict a particular employee from registering his/her attendance on STAR?
7. What is the maximum code size that STAR can recognize and display?
8. Can an employee punch a new hole or block a hole to get a new code on the same card?
9. How does one determine the IN/OUT status of an employee?
10. What happens when the memory of STAR cannot store any further records?
11. How much time does each employee require to record his/her entry into STAR?
12. How do we establish a relation between STAR storage and our employee strength?
13. Can STAR operate without Mains Power Supply?
14. What is an Employee Card?
15. How is the employee card used to record attendance?
16. Where does the attendance get recorded?
17. Can we restrict a particular employee from registering his/her attendance on STAR?
18. What is the maximum code size that STAR can recognize and display?
19. What happens in case an error occurs while reading the card?
20. Can an employee punch a new hole or block a hole to get a new code on the same card?
21. How do we establish a relation between STAR storage and our employee strength?
22. Can STAR operate without Mains Power Supply?
23. What will happen to time & data stored into the memory if the power fails or the unit is switched off?
24. Should the Data Retention Battery go weak, will the front panel Indicator light up to warn the concerned authority to call for service or take immediate action. Is a PC required for STAR?
25. Which Computer should be used to capture and process employee data from STAR?
26. What is the distance at which STAR can be placed from a computer?
27. How much time does it take to process the data and generate reports?
28. Is it so easy-to-use that with just the click of button on the computer, all the reports can be processed and printed?
29. What are the different types of Reports available using supplied Standard Management Information Software?
30. How do you take care of Power Fluctuations in Remote/ Rural areas?
31. Does STAR require air-conditioned and Dust-Free atmosphere?
32. What makes STAR, a popular system?
33. What type of precautions should generally be taken to keep the system running?
34. Does STAR require any special maintenance?
35. Where else can STAR be used?
36. How much Warranty is offered on each STAR equipment and accessories?
37. What about the Annual Maintenance Contract after the expiry of Warranty?
38. Why does STAR use infra-red decoding system instead of Magnetic Stripes or Bar Coding?
39. Should the PC always be switched ON when STAR is functioning?

1. What is an attendance card?
Each employee shall be given a PVC Screen-printed card or a laminated identity cum attendance card, to be kept with him or on the racks in the Time Keeping Department. These cards are called employee cards. Each employee card is printed on both the sides. The front side of the card shall show the name of the company, address and logo. The rear side of the card shall show the name of the employee, his/her dept., the employee code, the date of joining, his/her signature. Each employee shall fill these details; the same may be filled by the Time Office and handed over to him, wherein an employee shall sign in the signature column. The cards serve the dual purpose of an identity card as well as an employee attendance card.

2. How many types of employee cards are available?
We offer a choice of four types of employee cards. They are:

3. How to use employee card to record attendance ?
An employee shall obtain the card if it is kept in the rack or may keep it ready as he /she approaches the STAR. Employees shall simply drop the card into the Card Reader Slot of STAR when their turn comes. Unlike many similar systems, STAR does not require any particular direction or an Arrow Mark for dropping the card. Since each card is uniquely coded, STAR reads the code and displays it on the front digital panel on the first row. In the second row, the time at which the card is sensed is continuously displayed. At the end of this operation, a short audible beep can be heard. The card should be picked up from the collection pocket and the employee may proceed.

4. Where does the attendance get recorded?
Once the code has been displayed, the employee code, date, month, hours and minutes are stored into the memory of STAR. App. 7500 such entries can be stored in the memory of STAR at any point of time. No information is recorded or written on any employee cards. However, if a printer is attached to STAR on the printer port, it would print all the above details as soon as the card is sensed. This serves as a hardcopy of employee attendance. No employee names shall get printed. STAR supports any Centronics Type Printers like Godrej, L & T, Epson and many others. It also supports 18 column/ 24 column microprinters supplied by us.

5. What happens if an employee drops his card into STAR again immediately after the first time?
This time STAR shall not display the employee code but shall display DPCT (Duplicate) on the digital panel thereby indicating a duplicate record. STAR will not store an entry in its memory if any card is sensed twice within a period of 10 min. from its first entry. This can be re-programmed to suit your requirements. This unique feature prevents an employee from deliberately filling the STAR memory with same codes again and again, and wasting the time of other employees in the queue.

6. Can we restrict a particular employee from registering his/her attendance on STAR?
Yes. STAR has a feature by which this is possible. With the help of our supplied software, you may transfer the restricted employee codes to STAR so that when the employee code is found in that restricted zone of memory, STAR would display REPORT on the digital panel and shall not record this entry.

7. What is the maximum code size that STAR can recognize and display?
STAR can recognize and display 999999 employee codes. Certain organizations have such a large strength of employees that this large limit of codes will be appreciated. Some similar systems can display and store 8 or more digits of employee code, where the storage capacity in terms of number of records drastically goes down. We however recommend that the customer keep a cross reference table in our Program to convert 6 digit codes to more than 6 digit codes. Under normal circumstances, the error in reading a card should not occur. It may occur if the card is dirty or has been tampered with, by either adding / blocking one or more holes. In such cases STAR shall display Err on the front panel rather than the employee code and a long audible beep can be heard along with a lighting up of the ERROR indicator. In such cases, no entry shall be stored. An employee may re-insert the card or ask for assistance from the time office.

8. Can an employee punch a new hole or block a hole to get a new code on the same card?
Never! Each employee card has a unique employee code together with a security pattern and holes in-built into the code. It would be extremely difficult for an employee to determine these patterns. Also the distance at which the holes are punched requires a great deal of accuracy. Taking into consideration all these factors, it would be virtually impossible to generate a second code on the same card, or even duplicate a card.

9. How does one determine the IN/OUT status of an employee?
STAR does not give any access to an employee to record it's IN/OUT status. This is to avoid any mischief or error which may result into waste of time at time keeper's level. The IN/OUT status is determined while processing data on the Computer with the help of the inbuilt user-friendly menu driven programs.

10. What happens when the memory of STAR cannot store any further records?
As soon as the memory capacity of STAR approaches the total capacity, the BUFF. FULL is indicated on the front panel. This informs the concerned authority about the status and to direct the capture of all the data onto a PC with the help of standard supplied software. Once the data has been successfully captured, the memory in STAR becomes free to store new records. This allows STAR to be used forever. In case the entire memory of STAR is full and a new card is inserted, STAR shall not accept the record and overwrite the memory but shall display BUFF FULL on the front digital panel, thereby protecting the data already stored from being lost.

11. How much time does each employee require to record his / her entry into STAR?
Typically each employee should take about 2.5secs. During its initial period of testing the installation after a week or so, it should take about 2 sec. per employee or about 20-25 records per minute. These figures may vary, depending on first-time users in a queue, sensing of damaged cards for employee(s) to display Errors etc.

12. How do we establish a relation between STAR storage and our employee strength?
STAR has a storage capacity of app. 7500 records at a time. Which means that if an organization has a total employee strength of 100 employees who are supposed to punch their cards 4 times a day (In, Lunch Start, Lunch End, Out), then the number of entries that shall be stored per day shall be maximum 400. Hence one STAR can store all records for about 15 days without capturing them on a PC. Once the data has been captured successfully, the STAR can again receive new data for another period of the same duration.

13. Can STAR operate without Mains Power Supply?
Yes, It is provided with an in-built U.P.S. (Uninterrupted Power Supply). We supply a custom-built U.P.S. for STAR to keep STAR fully operational even when the Mains Power fails. The U.P.S. takes over from the mains instantaneously when the power fails without any human intervention and can keep the STAR functioning for 96 hours until its battery gets fully discharged. The U.P.S. is provided with a maintenance free lead acid battery of 6V, 4Ah.

14. What is an Employee Card?
Each employee shall be given a PVC Screen-printed card or a laminated identity cum attendance card, either to be kept with him or on the racks in the Time Keeping Department. These cards are called employee cards. Each employee card is printed on both the sides. The front side of the card shall show the name of the company, address and logo. The rear side of the card shall show the name of the employee, his/her dept., the employee code, the date of joining, his/her signature. Each employee shall fill these details; the same may be filled by the Time Office and handed over to him, wherein an employee shall sign in the signature column. The cards serves the dual purpose of an identity card as well as an employee attendance card.

15. How to use employee card to record attendance?
An employee shall retrieve the card if it is kept in the rack or may keep it ready as he /she approaches the STAR. Employees shall simply drop the card into the Card Reader Slot of STAR when their turn comes. Unlike many similar systems, STAR does not require any particular direction or an Arrow Mark for dropping the card. Since each card is uniquely coded, STAR reads the code and displays it on the front digital panel on the first row. In the second row, the time at which the card is sensed is continuously displayed. At the end of this operation, a short audible beep can be heard. The card should be picked up from the collection pocket and the employee may proceed.

16. Where does the attendance get recorded?
Once the code has been displayed, the employee code, date, month, hours and minutes are stored into the memory of STAR. App. 7500 such entries may be stored in the memory of STAR at any point of time. No information is recorded or written on any employee cards. However, if a printer were attached to STAR on the printer port, it would print all the above details simultaneously when a card is sensed. This serves as a hardcopy of the attendance. No employee names shall get printed. STAR supports any Centronics Type Printers like Godrej, L & T, Epson and many others. It also supports 18 column/ 24 column microprinters supplied by us.

17. Can we restrict a particular employee from registering his/her attendance on STAR?
Yes. STAR has a feature by which this is possible. With the help of our supplied software, you may transfer the restricted employee codes to STAR so that when the employee code is found in that restricted zone of memory, STAR would display REPORT on the digital panel and shall not record this entry.

18. What is the maximum code size that STAR can recognize and display?
STAR can recognize and display 999999 employee codes for organizations with a larger strength of employees. Some similar systems can display and store 8 or more digits of employee code, where the storage capacity in terms of number of records drastically goes down. We however suggest the customer to keep a cross reference table in our Program to convert 6 digit codes to more than 6 digit codes.

19. What happens in case an error occurs while reading the card?
Under normal circumstances, the error in reading a card should not occur. It may occur if the card is dirty or has been tampered with, by either adding / blocking one or more holes. In such cases STAR shall display Err on the front panel rather than the employee code and a long audible beep can be heard along with ERROR indicator lit. In such cases no entry shall be stored. An employee may re-insert the card or ask for assistance from the time office.

20. Can an employee punch a new hole or block a hole to get a new code on the same card?
Never! Each employee card has a unique employee code together with a security pattern and holes in-built into the code. It would be extremely difficult for an employee to determine these patterns. Also the distance at which the holes are punched requires a great deal of accuracy. Taking into consideration all these factors, it would be virtually impossible to generate a second code on the same card, or even duplicate a card.

21. How do we establish a relation between STAR storage and our employee strength?
STAR has a storage capacity of app. 7500 records at a time. Which means that if an organization has a total employee strength of 100 employees who are supposed to punch their cards 4 times a day (In, Lunch Start, Lunch End, Out), then the number of entries that shall be stored per day will be a maximum of 400. Hence one STAR can store all records for about 15 days without capturing them on a PC. Once the data has been captured successfully, the STAR can again receive new data for another period of the same duration.

22. Can STAR operate without Mains Power Supply?
Yes, It is provided with an in-built U.P.S. (Uninterrupted Power Supply). We supply a custom-built U.P.S. for STAR to keep STAR fully operational even when the Mains Power fails. The U.P.S. takes over from the mains instantaneously when the power fails without any human intervention and can keep the STAR functioning for 96 hours until its battery gets fully discharged. The U.P.S. is provided with a maintenance free lead acid battery of 6V, 4Ah.

23. What will happen to time & data that are stored into the memory ifthe power fails or the unit is switched off?
STAR has an inbuilt data retention battery to preserve the time and data when the unit is switched off or Mains supply fails. This means that if you switch off STAR and switch it on again it will display the current time and date and not the time at which the unit was powered off. The average life of this Ni-Cd battery is 5 years.

24. Should the Data Retention Battery go weak, the front panel Indicator shall light up to warn the concerned authority to call for service or take immediate action. Is a PC a must for STAR?
Not quite. The only use of PC is to capture the data to process them to generate various reports. Even in a small organization, STAR can be used to maintain employee attendance without a PC. STAR gives you a unique feature of viewing records on its digital display which can be either printed on a printer if you have attached one, or can be taken down on paper manually and subsequent manual process can be followed. The computer comes into the picture only for a considerable degree of automation.

25.Which Computer should be used to capture and process employee data from STAR?
Any IBM-compatible machine can be used to capture and process the data. The vendors are HCL, Wipro, etc. We do not insist on a particular brand of Computer for this task. However, we do not offer a PC with our system.

26. What is the distance at which STAR can be placed from a computer?
STAR has 2 communication standards inbuilt into its system. These are RS-232 and RS-485. In RS-232 standard of communication STAR communicates directly to any serial port commonly available on a PC without any additional card or modifications to the existing PC. Here the recommended distance between a PC and STAR should be about 15 Mts. / 50 ft. Using RS-232, only one STAR can be attached to a PC at a time. In RS-485 standard of communication, STAR communicates to a special serial port on an add-on card to be attached to a PC. We can supply these cards. Using this, 32 STARs can be attached to a PC simultaneously and the maximum distance between the farthest STAR and PC can be about 2 kms. On special request, we can also upgrade STAR's communication standard to RS-485, which is the same as RS-422, by which max. 32 STARs can be attached to One Comm. Port on a PC. A PC can have 4 such Comm. Ports, which can communicate 32x4 number of STARs on a PC.

27. How much time does it take to process the data and generate reports?
For an organization of 100 employees, it takes about 10 - 15 minutes on a 386 machine to complete the task of generating and printing Daily Reports and MIS reports. This time is inclusive of capturing Daily Data from a STAR to PC, which is about 2-3 min. For 500 employees, on the same system, it should take about 20-30 min. for the entire above-mentioned task. The total time would depend mainly on the System speed, Printer speed, Operator Skills, number of abnormal instances in a day's records etc.

28. Does it mean that with the click of a button on a computer, all the reports shall be processed and printed?
Not at all! No computer and the program can think and take decisions like a human being. Hence the maximum level of automation that can be attained using STAR or any similar systems is around 90% only. For instance, a human decision should be fed to the computer for an employee who has not punched his/her card while going out at the end of the day before the program calculates the work-hours, overtime etc. for that employee. Similarly, when an employee applies for leave for a particular period, those entries should be fed into the computer once, before taking out Daily Reports for those dates. These are a few instances to show you that human intervention is a must or else the program can blindly perform some funny and wrong computations and interpretations/conclusions.

29. What type of Reports are available using supplied Standard Management Information Software?
These are classified as:

30. How do you take care of Power Fluctuations in Remote/ Rural areas?
The power supply is a Switch Mode Power Supply commonly used in Computers to take care of wide voltage fluctuations from 170 - 260 V. AC.

31. Does STAR require Air-Conditioned and Dust-Free atmosphere?
Not at all! Although the system is microprocessor based system, the design has been tested to work perfectly up to a temperature of 45-50 C. A dust free atmosphere also is not necessary as there are no moving parts which may hamper the performance of STAR. Specially designed enclosure which meets IP-54 standard can be supplied by us to prevent any dust accumulating in STAR.

32. What makes STAR, a popular system?
Since STAR offers a unique feature of dropping the card in any direction, the employee shall not have any trouble of trying to locate the direction of insertion of the card and then dropping it. Another unique feature of STAR is the sensing electronic system. This system requires the card simply to be dropped in any direction for sensing. With this the overall time required to complete the task of recording attendance will reduce considerably. Since this system does not involve any mechanics for sensing the card, it reduces the probability of breakdowns and subsequent maintenance of the system.

33. What type of precautions should generally be taken to keep the system running?
Nothing much in particular except a periodical cleaning of STAR from outside, cleaning the infra-red sensors with the supplied velvet strips, and blowing air by ordinary vacuum cleaner should serve the purpose

34. Does STAR require any special maintenance?
No. Because there is a maintenance free battery in U.P.S. and dry data retention battery, no particular maintenance is required.

35. Where else can STAR be used?
Controlling and blowing Siren; Controlling and restricting unauthorized entries by connecting electrical locks; Monitoring the machine start time and end time; Inventory Management; Job and Batch Costing etc.

36. How much Warranty is offered on each STAR and accessories?
STAR comes with a One-Year Warranty from date of Installation or 15 months from date of dispatch, whichever is earlier. Other accessories like Microprinter, Comm. Card (RS-485), Siren controller etc. comes with 90 days warranty.

37. What about Annual Maintenance Contract after the expiry of Warranty?
At the end of Warranty period a Customer can enter into A.M.C. on reasonable terms.

38. Why does STAR use an infra-red decoding system rather than Magnetic Stripes or Bar Coding?
Although Magnetic and bar-Code Systems are claimed to be the latest and State-of-the-art technology, our experience of designing STAR shows that infra-red decoding system is as good is not better than the rest of the systems.

This is based on the following grounds:
1. Cost Effective Solution:
Low initial investment on cards.:
The Cards used for STAR will cost you much less than the Magnetic or Bar Coded cards. Low replacement cost if the cards are lost / mishandled. Recurring cost of new cards for new employees will be less.

2. Ease of Operations
The bar-coded or Magnetic cards have to be inserted only in one direction which wastes too much of time as the employees have to search for the direction from which to insert the card and if inserted wrongly they have to try again thereby doubling the efforts. Our cards can be inserted in any direction / any side.

3. You can make your own cards
You don't have to depend on the suppliers for giving you the cards. We provide you with a Jig and Software for making your own cards.

4. Low Maintenance Costs
Since the complete Card-Reading assembly is designed by us using the locally available components, the replacement/maintenance cost will be quite low. Whereas the Bar-Coded or Magnetic Card reading units have to be imported and hence can either be very expensive or even unavailable when required (The original suppliers may have stopped manufacturing them, or due to technological advancements the part may have become obsolete).
STAR can even be maintained by you in emergency, as all the components in STAR are locally available.

39. Should a PC always be switched ON when STAR is functioning?
No! STAR has its own memory to record employee code, time, date and month for app. 7500 records. The PC is needed to capture data from STAR. Hence only during the transfer of data from STAR to a PC and subsequently to process them to generate reports, should the PC be ON.