Experiment with CoolTags and Axzon AZN5201 tags on a Zebra Android reader — QDatDroid 2.1.4 is production-ready

Production-ready, and open to anyone who wants to try it

As of today, QDatDroid 2.1.4 is released as fully tested for production environments. The same build that runs item-level RFID and cold-chain workflows in the field is now the one you can pick up to experiment — and the barrier to that experiment is deliberately low. If you have a portable Zebra RFID reader running Android and a sensor tag in hand, you can be reading live temperature off a passive RAIN tag in minutes.

This post is the field guide: what you need, what the two tag families do, and the shortest path from download to a stamped, streamed read.

What you need

The two tag families, and why they're interesting

CoolTag — the log lives on the tag

CoolTag is QDat.io's autonomous, peel-and-stick RAIN UHF temperature logger. Applied to an asset, it becomes that asset's own black box:

Axzon AZN5201 — an autonomous temperature datalogger

The Axzon AZN5201 temperature datalogger (Cooltag) features the OPUS sensor IC enabling autonomous temperature reads leveraging its printed battery. QDatDroid configures the chip and surfaces its readings as soon as the tag is in the beam — which is why tag IDs that start with `5201` are exactly the Axzon sensor tags you'll see populate as you sweep.

From download to a stamped read

1. Install. Sideload the QDatDroid 2.1.4 APK from QDat.io/qdatdroid onto your Zebra reader.

2. Sign in — or don't. Connect to your QDat.io account, or tap once to spin up an instant demo: a scoped tenant, no credentials needed, so you can try the whole loop before you have an account.

3. Find the tag. Use Visual Tag Locate — one smoothed proximity curve flows blue → amber → green as you close in, with a peak marker that never drops so you always see your strongest read. Auto-isolate locks onto the loudest tag hands-free once it holds the lead.

4. Read the sensor. Pull temperature off the CoolTag or AZN5201. Every scan is stamped with precise GPS coordinates and millisecond-accurate time — the When / What / Where of that read.

5. Watch it stream. Each read is streamed live to QDat.io as it is captured, so the dashboard fills in as you sweep. When you query that data later — over the REST interface or through the MCP server — it's the same source of truth you just generated in the field.

Why "production-ready" matters here

An experiment you run on a flaky build tells you nothing about what a deployment will feel like. Because 2.1.4 is the production release, the temperature reads, the GPS-and-time stamping, the offline behavior, and the live MQTT streaming you see while experimenting are the same code paths that will carry a real cold-chain or asset workflow. The tag is the source of truth; the Zebra reader is the interrogator; QDatDroid is what makes them legible — and what you try this week is what you'd ship.

Try it

For a private, on-premise deployment inside your own perimeter, book a demo.