How to Use BA Cylinder QR Codes

This guide explains how to print QR code labels for BA cylinders and how to use those codes to speed up everyday cylinder workflows — creating new cylinder records, moving/assigning cylinders, logging fills, and picking a cylinder during an inspection.

Prerequisites

Brigade admin or organisation admin role to print QR labels
BA module enabled for your organisation
For public (no-login) scanning: BA Equipment public access enabled for your unit — see Enabling Public Scanning below
A device with a camera (phone, tablet, or webcam) for camera-based scanning — manual code entry always works as a fallback

What Are BA Cylinder QR Codes?

Every cylinder can be identified by a QR code that encodes its Asset ID exactly as entered (for example BRKD1265) — nothing else is embedded in the code. Because the code is just the asset number:

Labels can be printed at any time, even before a cylinder exists in StationOne
Scanning a code that doesn’t match any cylinder offers to create one on the spot, pre-filled with that asset number
Physical labels never need reprinting after a cylinder is moved, reassigned, or refilled — only the underlying record changes

Printing QR Labels

Printing Labels for Multiple Cylinders

Log in to StationOne
Select your organisation and unit
Click Breathing Apparatus → Cylinders
Click Print QR Labels at the top of the page
A PDF downloads containing one label per cylinder currently visible in your list (respects any unit filter you have applied)

Printing a Label for a Single Cylinder

Navigate to the cylinder’s detail page
Click Print QR at the top of the page
A PDF downloads containing just that cylinder’s label

What’s on the Label

Each label is a bordered cell containing:

The QR code
The Asset ID printed below it in bold
The Serial Number printed below that in smaller grey text (if one is recorded)

Labels print three per row, with a header showing your organisation/unit name and the date generated. Print onto label sheets or laminate and attach to the cylinder — the same physical label keeps working for the life of the cylinder regardless of where it’s assigned or its current pressure.

Scanning a Cylinder (Internal App)

Opening the Scanner

Navigate to Breathing Apparatus → Cylinders
Click Scan Cylinder at the top of the page
Click Use Camera to open the camera view, or type the code directly into the manual entry field (placeholder: “Or type the code, e.g. BRKD1265”) and click Go

If your device or browser doesn’t support camera access, the Use Camera option is disabled automatically and a message explains that manual entry should be used instead.

What Happens After a Scan

Single match found: The cylinder’s details appear, showing its current location/assignment. If it’s currently at a different unit than yours, this is called out. From here you can:
- Stocktake / Move — change the cylinder’s location or assignment (see below)
- Log Fill — open the fill logging form for this cylinder
- Start BA Inspection — jump straight into an inspection for the cylinder’s BA set (if the set has inspection templates configured; you’ll be prompted to choose a template if there’s more than one)
Multiple matches found: A disambiguation list appears so you can pick the correct cylinder (each entry shows its unit/location)
No match found: A Create New Cylinder form opens with the Asset Number pre-filled from the scanned code — fill in the remaining details (serial number, current pressure, next hydrostatic test due, and where it should be assigned) and save

Stocktake / Move a Scanned Cylinder

After scanning, click Stocktake / Move and choose where the cylinder actually is:

Spare at [your unit] — return it to your unit’s spare inventory
Spare on a vehicle — pick the vehicle from the dropdown
Assign to a BA Set — pick the BA set from the dropdown
In cache — pick the cache location
At fill station — pick the fill station

Click Save. This updates the cylinder’s assignment and status immediately, and records who performed the move.

Brigade members — or anyone with the public brigade link — can use the same scanning workflows from their phone without a StationOne account, via the brigade’s public portal.

Enabling Public Scanning

Log in to StationOne
Select your unit/brigade
Click Brigade Settings (or Unit Settings) → Public Page tab
Enable the BA Equipment toggle (“Allow public access to BA sets, cylinders, and BA inspections”)

Once enabled, a BA Equipment tile appears on the brigade’s public page (only shown when there’s at least one public BA set or cylinder to display).

Using the Public Scanner

Open the brigade’s public link
Tap the BA Equipment tile
Tap Scan Cylinder and either use the camera or type the code manually

The same three outcomes apply as the internal scanner — found, ambiguous, or not found — with the same Stocktake / Move, Log Fill, and Start BA Inspection options. The differences from internal scanning:

There’s no unit/location choice for newly created cylinders — a scan-to-create on the public portal always adds the cylinder as a spare at that brigade
Since there’s no login, every action (create, stocktake, fill) asks for Your Name. This autocompletes against the brigade’s member list and is remembered on the device after first use, so it usually only needs entering once
The BA Equipment page also lists all public BA sets and cylinders directly, each with a Log Fill action, and any public BA inspection templates for that brigade

Scanning During an Inspection

If a template includes a BA Cylinder field (used for BA set and vehicle BA position inspections), you can scan instead of searching for the cylinder manually:

During the inspection, find the Scan Cylinder QR Code field
Click Scan and use the camera, or type the code into the adjacent manual entry field and press Go
On a match, the cylinder is selected automatically and its Current Pressure field is pre-filled from the cylinder’s last known pressure (you can still edit it)
On multiple matches, pick the correct cylinder from the results shown
If the code doesn’t match any cylinder, an inline Add new cylinder form opens so you can create one without leaving the inspection — it defaults to “on set” status if the field is inspecting a BA set, or “spare” otherwise

You can also skip scanning entirely and use the Search for Cylinder field to find a cylinder by asset ID or serial number.

Note: Each BA Cylinder field on the page runs its own independent scanner, so an inspection with multiple BA positions (each in its own subsection) can have several scan fields active without them interfering with each other.

Troubleshooting

Camera Option Is Greyed Out

Cause: Your browser or device doesn’t support camera access, or the page isn’t loaded over HTTPS (camera access requires a secure context).

Solution: Use the manual entry field instead — type the asset number directly and click Go.

”Camera permission was denied”

Cause: Camera access was blocked for this site.

Solution: Check your browser’s site settings and allow camera access for StationOne, then try again. Manual entry always works as a fallback.

Scan Finds No Match When You Expected One

Cause: The printed code doesn’t match the cylinder’s current Asset ID — for example, the Asset ID was edited after the label was printed.

Solution: Search for the cylinder by serial number instead, and update its Asset ID to match the physical label (or reprint the label with Print QR to match the current Asset ID).

Scan Finds Multiple Matches

Cause: More than one cylinder in the system shares the same (or a similarly-formatted) asset number.

Solution: Use the disambiguation list to pick the correct cylinder by its unit/location, then fix the duplicate asset number on the incorrect record so future scans aren’t ambiguous.

Public Scanner Not Showing on Brigade Page

Causes:

BA module isn’t enabled for the organisation
BA Equipment public access toggle isn’t enabled for the unit
There are no public BA sets or cylinders to show yet

Solution: Confirm the BA module is enabled, then enable the BA Equipment toggle under Brigade Settings → Public Page.