Inside a Zebra MC18 self-scan terminal
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 13 ก.พ. 2024
- I think it was Frost Giant who sent me an eBay link to these units. They are retired stock being sold off online. I'd guess they've been replaced by faster, more modern units.
Here's the UK link this one came from:-
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/325236405013
Some basic testing has shown that they appear to be locked down to avoid people interfering with them. There is a test/programming port on the back, but I'm not sure what sort of interface it's used with.
The battery with mine had locked out on low voltage and it is VERY destructive to open them, so I recommend not doing so. In the video I mention a way to nudge the cell voltage back up to a level where the unit might recognise the battery pack again, unless it has lock-out memory.
Nudging the cell back into life is strictly experimental. Lithium cells don't like being overdischarged, so some capacity or safety of operation may be lost. The cell is an 18650.
The internals were quite minimalist. The ribbon cables have two types of lock. The large display cable has a fold up latch which swings up from the cable entrance side, and the others have a captive wedge that has to be pulled outwards gently in the direction of the cable to unlock it. I totally wrecked the one for the touch panel by popping it out a bit too hard.
The speaker connector is best removed by gripping either side with a small pair of side-cutters to pull it out.
The unit went back together easily, but I'll need to improvise a shim for the touch interface cable to wedge it in properly.
These units will be a novel toy for an Android geek. Like a puzzle to get into the system to load a barebones Android install.
If you enjoy these videos you can help support the channel with a dollar for coffee, cookies and random gadgets for disassembly at:- www.bigclive.com/coffee.htm
This also keeps the channel independent of TH-cam's algorithm quirks, allowing it to be a bit more dangerous and naughty.
#ElectronicsCreators - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
"I'll Give it a hard rub and see if any screw holes appear" - Been my life motto for at least 20 years
Alas , the desired screw holes rarely appear and one is just left rubbing hard.
Liberal application of lubricant may help
Filth!
I don't know why, but that sounds dirty.
Fnarf fnarf
I used to repair these for a living. 11 years of it, from basic scanners to laptops. We had Symbol's UK repair contract. Such an odd company to work for. We had the racks filled with various versions. It was mainly modular swap-out repair, but there was some circuit-level tinkering too, from time-to-time. They started as dumb barcode scanners and then got more sophisticated (obviously) with mobile computers. Other contracts we had, those companies used off-the-shelf smartphones, applied their own software, and had hard shells they clipped on that included the barcode scanner unit built in. FUN FACT: in the Nu-Trek film (Star Trek 2009 with Chris Pine) Google a shot of the bridge. Right at the front, in between where Sulu and Chekov sit is a pair of Symbol barcode scanners 🤣 You can see their red lenses. Guess the set decorators felt they looked like phasers.
Also, "MC" stands for "Mobile Computer", and they also made long-range scanenrs for factories. You coulod fire it up at high shelves without needing a ladder. In theory. . .
@@HAL9000. Symbol M2000 Omni
that's hilarious. set Phasers to SCAN!
As someone who worked with similar Zebra devices (TC55s, 56s, and 57s) Airwatch is an automatic provisioning system that initially configures the device for its use case and makes sure that the Android software packages are automatically up to date. The launcher locks down the device and only allows you to use certain applications it can also auto launch apps on boot.
At their core these TC devices run Android it's just being obscured by the launcher. To factory reset the ones I worked with you had to boot into recovery mode with an SD card inserted and launch a factory reset zip file provided by Zebra. The device would then boot into a more familiar Android home screen.
I always assumed they used mobi control as standard for provisioning, I fix a lot of TC75/77 and factory resetting tends to bring up mobi
I imagine it depends massively on the store they are used in. i know in tesco everything is done through soti including managers phones. I believed zebra had they're own which some stores prefer over soti?@@anthonymeade6097
airwatch is a MDM software and is used by large corporations to manage their mobile fleet. its the software deployed on company issued mobile devices or tablets to manage them remotely. it could either be a bundle sold by the middle man you got your devices from or your company it has a contract/subscription with VMware for the software. you can remotely lock these devices down to custom apps, locate them, reconfigure them, erase them
The TOOTHBRUSH OF DESTRUCTION has just been added to Bigclives armoury
I miss the X-ray machine
I have experience with Zebra scanners in warehouses where they connect to a big ERP system to report inventory movement. Connected through RF connections, workers moved through the warehouse scanning locations and part numbers. . They were a constant source of frustration and seeing one opened up was very pleasing. Good work.
Not a hundred percent on this so don't quote me, but I'm pretty sure these self scan units connect to the same ERP system that the warehouses use. As for the constant frustration they cause, I too know that pain.
This seems particularly relevant to me. Obviously because I'm a fan of Big Clive and of taking apart electronics, but also because one of my first million view videos was about grocery shopping using one of these things.
Thanks for this. I was curious about what these things looked like inside.
Fancy meeting one of my other favorite educational TH-camrs here.
Urbanism and janky tech youtube is not something I thought I would see today...
Waiting for City Beautiful to comment on a Dankpods video now
interesting seeing you here!
i should watch that video, i've just been watching your videos about bikes and bike infrastructure
great content btw!
Alrighty not gonna lie, seeing NJB-FakeLondon-Jay here is very cool! 😀
"LCD display " was blatant redundant department of redundancy on Clive's part! I love it 😘
As in checking the LCD display while you enter your PIN number at an ATM machine
I liked how you disconnected the speaker!
I should use that technique more often.
I pioneered that technique 45 years ago when opening my toys! 😎
@@ZacabebOTG That's how we ended up here
@@ZacabebOTGYou would have been rich if you'd patented it.
"Task failed succesfully."
That logo on the big chip near the edge is Toshiba. They've used several logos over the years, all some kind of letter T. That one is a bit hard to tell because it's a like, isometric view of a T lit from the side. I had guessed it was an eMMC chip based on the size shape and the footprint it goes on, and it seems like I was right: THGBMHG6C1LBAIL is an 8 gigabyte eMMC made by Kioxia, who were formerly Toshiba Memory before rebranding (presumably they were spun off).
The beauty of self-scan over checkout scanning is that you can shop directly into your own bags or boxes. We have Sainsbury's plastic boxes we have reused for the weekly family shop for over 20 years!
Tenuous side note: If you take the rear seat squab out of an XJ6 SIII Jaguar the Sainsbury's plastic boxes fit perfectly in the exposed floor pan.
Nice. I never thought of doing that
On the rhe downside, I don' have any of the stores with self scanning that has a layout that makes for a sensible route to get the bags packed the way I want them
@@michaeltempsch5282 Actually, using your own bags is not the main reason. You would spend the same time reordering your shopping at the till or when you get home. The big saving is the queuing time. If you have 3 people with full trolleys in front of you, it is much faster to process three self scan customers than wait for three manual scans.
@@albanana683 When I put stuff in my cart I tend to roughly group/place them, and then put them on the belt in the order so that the stuff i want at the bottom (heavy, non sensitive, blocket) goes first, with the fluffy, sensitive stuff last, so that they can go that way into the bag (or two).
Walking around the stores to collect the items in that order would definitely take longer. I am fortunate to shop on a schedule where there's rarely much/any queues though. YMMV.
Die-cast aluminium (or aluminum), threaded inserts... More than enough to make that crazy Aussie bloke happy. Thing of beauty, joy for ever.
"and that's all she said"
Tongue at the right angle.
looks like magnesium to me
That's terrible, Muriel!
The black goo you can see "leaking out" from under some of the ICs is underfill. It's like a low viscosity, non conductive glue that is applied with a syringe (usually by a machine), and wicks under the BGA, gluing the BGA down to the board. It's used to make the BGAs vibration / drop resistant.
QFPs, J Leg devices (like PLCCs) and DIL packages all have leads which can flex and absorb the shock of vibration or the device being dropped. BGAs have solid solder balls directly connected to the pads which will crack rather than flex.
I used to see a lot more underfilled devices 10-15 years ago than now, but a lot of BGAs have been superseded by QFN or LGA type packages that are flat bottomed and solder direct pad to pad, removing the weak link of the solder ball.
The soldering looks bad overall. It looks like a lot of devices have come off the board, leaving the pads intact and not leaving the component terminals behind either. In each case it looks like the actual solder joint has failed as the component has left the board, like it didn't really wet properly. I noticed it was the solder joints that failed quite easily to disconnect the speaker too.
I don't know the manufacture date of the device, but it's possible these were made just after the line had transitioned to ROHS and they didn't quite have their lead-free soldering process dialed in yet.
VM Airwatch is a corporate management program by VMWare. It was never removed from that application prior to sale. It was probably sent from a company as scrap and then recycled by a recycler.
If you connect it to the internet without clearing that software, it will try to connect to the configured corporation.There is a key combination and a bypass code for Airwatch, but it's usually setup by the company that originally owned it.
The face on ours was held on with the clips and adhesive foam tape. A heat gun helped with taking ours out.
Saving this
It's also hideously complicated to use, I just want to add.
@@HB45175 Yes it is, not including the hassles involved with getting into the interface, fining the correct site and then finding the place you need to be to do what you want.
Considering the version of Android being used, you can use vulnerabilities in the OS to reset the device. We didn't have the ability to disable boot options. You can load your own custom fastboot ROM and do whatever. Those TX/RX pins and the header on the back are just sitting there, wide open.
I have an 8KWh battery assembled from these devices at home, they are used by TESCO, we refit the battery for them every year. In our warehouse, these devices are resting in a trash can 😀 Greetings from Slovakia
Do they still have a decent capacity when they're retired?
@@bigclivedotcom if he took the time to assemble them into a battery...
@@bigclivedotcom I think that after a year they gonna lose quite a same amount of capacity as regular mobile phones
Awesome, using trash to make cool stuff. 👍🇮🇪😊
8KWh? That’s a lot of little batteries to connect together lol!
At around 5:20, that chip (that was missing by the time you got around to opening the battery pack) is most likely to be a battery fuel gauge. The pinout and footprint matches a Texas Instruments bq27541, which is a single-cell fuel gauge with an I2C or single-wire HDQ interface; given the presence of D1 and D2 for ESD protection, it's probably using I2C to talk to the scanner. While the chip itself can't lock out the battery, they can contain authentication keys so Zebra could restrict use of third-party batteries if they desired (not that I have checked this, though).
They could do, but the old MSP agent software can go one better. It can report the exact battery status, usage, charge time and also I think battery temperature on some models. With the smaller units like this I wouldn't be surprised if they offloaded a lot of the simple diagnostics to the battery. Makes the mainboard cheaper to produce.
I love the idea of the digital shop price displays. Got them in our local Aldi and I was intrigued by them. So clever, only little things, maybe 60mm across.
Looks like that unit has come from the Hessle Asda store in Hull. The VMware air watch splash screen is an endpoint management system which is probably what’s locking the device down. Surprised they ended up on eBay without being wiped first.
Speaking as a field tech, when we decommission gear we're occasionally allowed to keep or dispose as we wish. Sadly most companies just replace equipment instead of actually fixing them as it's more cost effective. (ex 1 hour to replace vs 3 to to troubleshoot)
Why hull
@@phonotical A much repeated sentiment 😅
@@phonoticalAt 02:16 it shows Store 4126 which is Hessle Road, Hull.
@@georgeprout42 ah
Elpida is a RAM manufacturer. The chip with the roll-off-the-tongue name will be flash, the TI part probably the power. I bet this is a "Package on Package" system and the main CPU/SoC is under the RAM. LIttle pin header on the back is probably JTAG or something for programming?
Bingo!
The flash is from Toshiba I think.
Yeah, too bad, would've been interesting to see what soc it ran.
Elpida translated from Greek means "hope".
That big chip... (EDB8164B4PR) Nearest I came is a dual-channel LPDDR2 SDRAM
datasheetspdf.com/pdf-file/1176013/MicronTechnology/EDB8164B4PR/1
216/220-ball (guess that's the soldering points) and 8 (dual)/16 (quad) GB.
A grocery store here recently added those for self checkout as you shop and it’s extremely nice to have, saves a lot of time
Expecting the usual question:"but can it run Doom?"
It already runs it's own proprietary version of Doom, ie normal use pushing a trolley around the supermarket 😅
even more, can it play Crisis? heheh 😄
No doubt it can. Seems like it's running some kind of version of Android.
To gain access to the battery terminals, heat up a couple of T-pins and push them into the plastic until they make contact with the battery terminals inside....instead of drilling and risking messing up the board.
VMware Airwatch is device enrollment software. used to keep devices locked down, secure and ensures can be managed/updated remotely. Mainly seen that on laptops and Mobile phones.
Yes, it´s a mobil device management software. At work I run a fleet with about 3000 mobile devices using AirWatch, a couple of hundred of those are Zebra PDA:s.
Finland has exactly those scanners atleast on markets called prisma. Ive been curious about this device. Im glad that you bought one and took it apart :) Great video!
Back in the late 90's and early 00's I worked in a Safeway in Scotland who pioneered these with their "Shop and Go" scanners and "Green Boxes". It very quickly got the name "Grab 'n' Run as people sussed that they could hide expensive items under cheaper goods before Safeway eventually phased it out altogether
So when these devices appeared I knew that it was just going to be the same thing all over again... And well yeah it was...
Some things never change
The check out scanner at my grocery store requires the customer to enter a product code for produce items. The store must have a lot of loss, like people coding a $200 truffle as a $1.99 per pound mushroom. (innocent mistake)
@@IVEgotONEmoreTHINGtoPICK-cw9sw The loss is probably less than the cost of employing someone to do it. It's a crazy world we live in where a shop accepts theft and loss in exchange for less employees.
Symbol I believe was the company name before being acquired by Zebra in 2014 when they bought out Motorola Solutions. Basically all of their equipment are built like bricks.
Case in point, I know some people at work that have used our TC72s to pound screws into plywood in the absence of a screwdriver.
This looks like the same device I just used half an hour ago in Waitrose to buy my husband the bits and pieces for our valentine’s night meal. The lobster ravioli was great. Funnily enough I thought the ping when I scanned was very loud. Great video to watch with a G&T in hand! Love Alex xxx
I remember when I worked at asda and had the upgraded staff version of these. They can take one hell of a beating!!!
You could start a war and I'd never know with that deep man; calm and collective voice!
We have exactly these at the ICA supermarket here in Sweden. Nice you doing a deep dive on these! :)
I was interested about theese for years! Thank you for the video!
I found the listing and brought a bunch for a work-related hack-a-thon, thanks for the hot tip! (and the teardown)
Can you please share any results of hacking them on the Patreon feed perhaps? It would be nice to start a community effort and see where we can take it!
These things have always fascinated me - I've always been secretly plotting how I could grab one from a store but now, having bought my own, I can relax and wait or help with making them useful!!
I will keep you posted @@stepheneyles2198 , although I ordered them a while back, the seller doesn't seem to have sent them yet, maybe he's overwhelmed by a load of sudden purchases as a result of this video 🤣
As others have mentioned it appears the pins at the bottom are USB, the fact I found a USB driver for it on the manufacture website would lend support to this, I assume you powed it with 5v, which if true would also support that too. I have also found some tools that appear to be for updating or reinstalling the OS, but I've not had time to read the documents yet to work out what they actually do (again on the manufacture site). I've ordered a few but sadly not got acess to my bench at the moment (travelling), when I get back this will be the first project in line, looks like a fun challenge!
Can you post the URL or the search keywords to find the site you found?
@berlinberlin4246 Yes, I believe links are blocked in comments, but if you search "MC18 software" a webpage called MC18 mobile computer support & downloads should come up, you can find the software and documentation on their.
Unlikely USB, as the contacts connect to pads on the board labeled TX and RX. Probably more likely UART, which while not as plug-and-play as usb, is much easier to work with.
@faeranne quite possibly, the datasheets I saw were annoyingly non specific about it, usual just say "data" or "communicate", I wonder what the other com port is for as well, it's possible a programming thing? I don't recognise it as any standard, but I'm not all that familiar with these kind of device combination protocols
The bottom pins only can provide power, but not data. To flash software, you’ll need to connect something up to those back pins.
You did well on disassembly, Symbol cases I am sure were all designed by Rubiks.
The old MC9000/9060 series were amazing with an entire scan engine module. with oscillating mirror and laser that scans, decode and output the required info inside a rubberised housing that takes a beating from some of the most ham-fisted I have ever seen on many sites.
Absolutely adore using such self-service terminals.
Me too, I shop straight into my bag, pay and leave
Then get checked randomly and they empty everything out to check and make sure, I was checked once and the were 5 loose potatoes and the barcode sticker was on another item as it wouldn’t stick to a potato, the lady asked if I had scanned and paid for them… WTF 5 potatoes are you serious!! “She said we have to check”
yeah, hasn't happened to me very often. There's a trust thing so the longer you use the less your bothered @@wisher21uk
Useless if I'm buying any alcohol, because someone has to come and check I'm not underage. And I'm never not buying some beer.
yeah, thats a reasonable point !:)@@AttilaAsztalos
Thankfully I'm familiar enough with ribbon cables from dismantling ancient PCs that I didn't break anything too severely when I opened up my phone (the one I'm typing this on!) but I'd never seen the connecter with the little flap that lifts up. Thank goodness for instructional videos from guys with thick Indian accents otherwise I'd have tried to just yank it out. I did break the little fingerprint reader on the side, but I never used it anyway so no great loss.
I broke my phones fingerprint scanner too, tried pulling the back off and it was really hard, then it just suddenly flew off and ripped the scanner off. Bad design lol
Thanks Clive. Spat some tea out when the speaker leads came away in your pre-planned, 'controlled' manner! :)
Pretty neat...nice to see what is inside one of these thing :)
Used one of them today in Asda 😊
Thanks Clive
Fantastic here Clive as Zebra also supply scanners to Royal Mail great to see their workings
They also supply label printers, And Printers for washing instructions tags.
@@dogwalker666 Symbol originated on long island, ny, USA. I had forgotten they were owned by Motorola for a while. Symbol was then bought by zebra, the not-for-consumers printer company about a decade ago Symbol and Zebra operated in similar environments: Stores, warehouses, stock rooms. Don't recall why Motorola bought Symbol; the Symbol/ Zebra pairing makes more sense to my mind. Up until around 2000 or so, mfg was actually ON Long Island at a facility that advertised 3rd shift worker openings ( BIG signboard out front). Electronics manufacturing (and engineering) locations (global) have changed a LOT in the last two plus decades.
Before retiring from full-time work, I took a part-time job at B&Q that used the Zebra MC software in the hand-held stock control computers. They were remarkably tough units. Tesco also had a similar system that could be used on mobile phones.
MC is the Motorola part number series for these devices . Before selling the consumer phone division to various global players, the professional bar code / handheld computer activities were sold off and became Symbol or part of Symbol . Eventually, it was bought by the bar code competitor Zebra .
They use them in Jumbo and Albert Hein in The Netherlands.
the lock in the cradle you mentioned can be bypassed by a zip tie, and the store near me have a ziptie on the cradle rack by the checkout for when they move the scanners back to the pickup point at the front of the store.
These have been used in my local supermarket in Sweden for the last 5+ years. It’s a bit chunky but does the job.
tesco in ireland has these, awesome video!
Used to work with Asda. As I flash roms on various house hold android devices thought I'd try getting it in to download mode, was surprised how much I could of done with it if I had time. Bet I could of got stock android at least running on it. Nice to see the internals 👍 Great informational video as always, thank you
The ELPIDA is a RAM chip which is on top of the main CPU (this technique is called package-on-package). The Actel chip is an FPGA (programmable logic chip).
I love this one!
A strange new devise.
And we get to see Clive struggle and search with us as we figger this shit out! 😂
Thanks , Clive.❤
We have these in Tesco and Metro. I think it's better than the other self-checkout, where you have to scan everything at the cashier. You just put the cart on a scale, and if the weight matches, you can pay and go.
You only re scan every now and then at the cashier not every time thats just pointless, scan, in the bag and go pay easy.
Those lil zebra devices are taking over in the factory i work in, it's putting the old honeywell devices out to pasture, so it's kinda cool to see one of 'em being torn apart, even if it ain't the same model (factory guys use the pistol grip type that can read across the damn warehouse)
Might be some room for some arbitrage. These haven't reached the US market yet, so the handful of listing on US eBay are going for much, much more than 10 quid. Some sellers are trying to move the scanning module alone for far more than you paid for this.
As for unlocking, it appears that the four wires at the base are USB, and if AirWatch lets you put it in MTP mode you can dump an OS update on the pseudo-sdcard and it'll self-update. If AirWatch lets you update with a generic Zebra image...
Barring that, though, that 8-pin IDC connector may be a somewhat standard JTAG header for ARM devices (quite possibly with the pins swapped around) which should allow flashing from scratch, so the base Zebra image should turn this into a generic android device, running Lollipop. Not new, but not 4.4... If more stores start dumping these on eBay, there's enough reason for somebody to come up with a wipe and flash process.
My US grocery store has had devices like this for 10+ years but maybe I misunderstood your comment?
@@freemandrew By "US Market" I mean on eBay.
The best thing I have found for opening things like that battery casing, wall warts etc. is a "razor saw" sold for model making. Very fine saw blade which can cut only as far as the wall thickness.
i found a wild "broken" one of these at Tesco's, i had a little play around although it was locked in the "charger" or "dock" whatever you wanna call it. it was using generic android with some custom programs installed. i could open the play store, google chrome, i tried the camera but that didn't show anything. i wanted to download something but it seemed unable to connect to the free Wi-Fi in store. a member of staff came over to see what i was doing as i was stood there for a while and i assume they thought i needed assistance. i said how i was interesting in how it worked and was asked to leave it alone because it was "broken" so i went about my day
You're right about them being old fashioned, I'm 32 and when I was a small child I remember begging my mum to let me use the scanner guns in a shop called Safeway in Colchester. That would have been in the mid 90s.
I was walking around tesco doing my shopping the other week wondering what was in these scanners 😂👍 pretty complex for a shopping scanner I must admit. Great teardown, spesh the speaker wire tear off 🤭
I repair a lot of Zebra units at work, and its interesting how similar the MC18 is in construction to the newer hand scanners. The hand scanners I work on run Windows Mobile and are actually pretty capable little machines. The MC18 also has the same thing on the main processing chips that Datalogic uses on their hand scanners, that weird epoxy stuff.
Many years ago when I worked at Sainsbury's, we had their first generation of scanners. These were locked into a rack and one would be released after the pre-registered loyalty card was scanned. There was a tiny slot into which a wire key could be inserted to release a faulty handset (I had my own, made from piano wire). A technician had shown me how to force the scanner to reboot by holding down three of the four buttons for ten seconds, which brought most of the 'dead' scanners back to life. For several years after I left until the whole lot were replaced with a new model I would sometimes instruct members of staff how to do it, when the number of working scanners was becoming seriously depleted.
Having serviced/repaired/catabolised many Zebra/Motorolla/Symbol devices there is a lot of info you can get from the label on the back.
The serial number starts with the year of manufacture - in this case 17 - or 2017.
That suggests the device is either running Windows CE or Android - Its around the time they offered both versions. I couldn't fully tell from the screen. Symbol's website would tell you more.
Almost all of their devices regardless or shape or size are built on modular components operating exactly the same way. MC70/MC75/MC90/MC67 - all different but evolutions of the same design. Never had the MC18 here but from the first 8 min of the video it's very familiar.
If you had the cradle and the cradle had a USB port it would have been likely that you could have got into the file system and disabled the AppCenter software and unlocked all the Windows goodness. Other than that there is almost no way you can boot them into a diagnostic screen or boot loader. By design they are easy to reset, but you need the cradle.
Behind the chassis plate you likely will find the hardware to drive the screen as well as the speaker assembly. All the Symbol gear is modular so it is designed to come apart for service and they all stack together in layers. I didn't see the backup battery.
The chips (without looking them up) are typical Motorola risc chips - this unit is pretty old so in the 600-800mhz range. They could run Windows CE or Android. IF this model supported both, the conversion to the alternative OS could only be done at the service centre. IR Scanner module is typically proprietary and most likely a camera on this one - not a dedicated 2D linear - so short 50cm scan range.
TBH I'm certain this unit is using a Windows OS because on boot it's configured with the launcher software and firing up the Motorolla MSP agent to update the server with the device location and check for updates. Being a wifi only scanner it will always fail and lock down the interface.
Typical though. Person disposing of these didn't bother to do a clean and remove their inhouse software before disposing.
That's a nice enclosure, fit a Nextion display with an Arduino, some blinky led's.
And you could have a hand held spoofiness detector.
Rite Big Dude, Best way to get speakers off in my view! TFS, GB :)
lol
Decided to take a break from my work and check out your latest
To my surprise i see you are going to tear down one of our old systems…
My involvement has been with mechanical simulations and materials….
Drop simulations to be sure that the system can survive 6 foot plus drop onto concrete and little Bobby using it as a rattle wacking the back of the cart…
Fun to watch your work…. Thank you!
It does feel very chunky and robust. Quite nice to hold.
I can confirm that little module in the lower left is almost certainly an RF module of some kind, and that is an antenna to the side. Probably an inverted-F style antenna, by the look of it. The small gold and black connector bit below the RF module looks to be a in-line RF probe switch, most likely for testing at the factory.
These things are awesome! you scan your stuff put it straight into your bag and when ya done point it at the till and then pay and off you go. No fucking about at all, bloody marvellous.....cheers.
Amazon uses Zebra products in the distribution centers. The one I'm most familiar with is in a cell phone package that has dedicated buttons on the left and right side for activating the scanner. They are robust and can take a beating, but they are also crap and will just hang, fail to communicate, and drop their Bluetooth devices with regularity.
Yeah the TC57 PDA if i'm correctly
Zebra seems to be popular in DCs. My DC (not Amazon) also uses Zebras, but the MC33xx model that recently replaced their antediluvian MC9090s. Though they did feel strange seeing as the MC33xxs we have lack the pistol grip, meaning that they had to be operated like a TV remote.
Pound land power banks and TP4046 modules are good for bringing the voltage up on batteries that went below their protection voltage. But you have to keep plugging them in and out as they only put out current for a second or so when 1st connected.. handy tip if you don't want to take something apart (but if there's a problem it will go below voltage again😢) 👍🇮🇪
I deal with Zebra mobile computing products on a daily basis at the hospital I serve. We use their TC52 mobile computers for our nurses and they interface with our nurse call system.
I've used this exact model as a customer at Waitrose in the south of England. I remember when they first introduced a Motorola version probably about 15 years ago now (it had Waitrose green down the sides of the screen). Then they switched to the Symbol branded version you have here. I'm not sure if they're on yet another edition now, but I think this might be the current generation.
Very good in the era before everyone had (powerful) smartphones. I still use them at Waitrose as it's nice not to drain my phone's battery while scanning. At Sainsbury's, however, I use my phone instead. Wonders of the modern world.
I've always been curious as to what's inside these - they seem incredibly robust. I often wonder how often the batteries need replacing over the course of a decade or so of use... They must get through a lot of charge/discharge cycles... I was impressed with the die-cast aluminium frame. Nice video, thanks.
7:47 who else was screaming at their screen, there's another screw Clive, right there, there in the handle, right there, a little black Philips one. You've put your thumb right on it at 8:24!!! C'mon Clive...🤣🤣🤣
I was several times.
Me! I was 🤣🤣
I am always aware that people are screaming at their screens at those points.
TH-cam should experiment with two way audio. That maybe not passes the audio but just shows a decibel meter on the side of the creator of the combined averaged viewer mic-levels (during live streams).
Been waiting for this video , I usually use one in the local Tesco and a few times I've been distracted I put it back on the trolley at checkout walked out the door with it no alarm sounded thought it a bit weird as they can't be that inexpensive
Fascinating. I worked on the original Asterix 2 and 3 devices when I was at Symbol Technologies between 1999 and 2005.
No I was in no way responsible for the creative accounting practices that mean that Tomo Rasmilovic is still on the run.
I was heavily involved in the UK pilot projects for the Asterix 3 installations for Safeway (RIP - sadly missed).
Always some interesting developments in the world of mobile computing and early 802.11 (partly based on Symbol's Spectrum 24) wireless networking.
The shape reminds me of the old Compaq phones. I know there were a few companies that adapted those phones as scanners for inventory and delivery.
The large LRT gun style zebra with the aiming laser is impressive - it can scan a tiny, dense bar code, the size of the UPC on the box in the video, from a good 10 feet. Maybe more if you have steady aim.
awesome! i have often dreamed about just walking out with one of these things so i can take it apart later at home. i can't bring myself to stoop that low though, so i've been waiting for someone else to do it haha
Interesting self scan device
I love shopping in places using those.
I live a cross from a supermarket that uses these, I walk a cross for Every Little Thing, and I usually use this kind of scanners, but I would swear I saw Windows CE running on Them sometime (with te small start button). I like this scanner so much I can put the groceries right into my bag.
It's likely they make several versions as some companies will have old CE based software they may want to use.
This was a fun video.
We still use these at Home Depot/Lowe's type home improvement stores at all the checkouts (self serve and otherwise) to assist in scanning awkward or heavy objects.
A company I work with uses Zebra TC21 scanners. They are basically normal Android phones with added scanning hardware and a few pre-installed apps for that.
The thing you took apart looks like a version that has been "dumbed down" to the bare minimum so it can run just one specialized scanning app that hands the scanned data over to an actual terminal/register. Interesting to look at ^^
Back in early 2000s Symbol made Barcode scanner devices with early wifi radios that ran on PalmOS
Waitrose quick check systems (mid 2000s to at least 2016) used Windows CE. When taken down to the basement car park they'd lose signal and reboot themselves until they found signal. During quiet periods you'd be able to hear the reboot chimes from the opposite side
@@joeynebulous816Tesco had Windows CE up until 2023. Only now are they using android
I need one of these so I can finally combine my two hobbies, geocaching and zebra scanning.
Walmart and a few more stores announced this week, they are removing self-checkout at most stores due to shoplifting!!!
They bit more than they could chew.
@@Aduki65 They do have one or 2 people watching customers, but people are very resourceful. They thought they could benefit from firing all the cashiers, but it seems they shot themselves in the foot!
one of those would be interesting to get ones hands on for exploration and experimentation
When you realise all the background costs and red tape of employing people these days, it's probably still a lot cheaper to have some level of theft.
Some supermarkets in Australia are removing self serve too... not chain specific though. It's being done based on how popular they are vs losses they might be allowing/causing. Both Coles and Woolies are doing it.
That's the rumour I've heard anyway. Might be entirely fictional.
I’ve found a wide sharp chisel and a firm, yet swift, tappy-tap-tap with a gentle persuader makes clean work of opening ultrasonically welded cases.
very interesting on what is inside these - local waitrose uses them and I use them pretty much all the time unless I'm grabbing a couple of things. Pretty much scan, pay & go via the self checkout, saves some time as you don't have to then go through scanning all your items before paying. But interesting to know what's in them!
Thank you, keep working.
For the people who are wondering why the comments are 7 days ago, this was posted on Patreon and then on youtube, 7 days later
I have a brain, sir or ma'am
Now where'd I put my sippy cup?
I'm only allowed to have my whiskey in sippy cups ever since "the incident"@@Boogie_the_cat
That scanner is from ASDA Hessle Road, Hull for anyone wondering.
Yes, they still use such scanners at my local Jumbo supermarket in The Netherlands. I like them better than a completely selfscan-service (which my supermarket doesn't even have) as a human being is given the scanner at checkout, asks if everything went okay and (because shoplifting is a big thing since implementing selfscan-services) quite often performs a random check to see if you didn't forget anything.
Only reason I can think of why they are being replaced is the OS-version becoming too old, making them vulnerable for attacks of whatever kind one can think of.
The strange thing the scanners at Jumbo have (or used to have, they were replaced recently or at least got the software changed) is the fact they have a camera on the front-face of the scanner, right above the display. I haven't got the faintest clue WHY...
And yes, they lock into the cradle: when you want to pick a scanner, you have to tap a touch-screen first. Some quite advanced system than most likely looks for the best-charged scanner and unlocks that specific cradle and shows a green LED-ring around it. Sometimes it does light the ring and you the clear 'clunk' from unlocking, but it cannot be retrieved from the cradle.
A square chip in the middle you would think was the processor, but Elpida is known for their memory chips. RAM or storage.
Elpida is owned by Micron/Crucial.
It will be interesting to see what somebody is able to do with one of these.
I use an MC18 in my work as a security officer, but our units are full mobile phone / personal computers, with a SIM card, 4G connection, NFC, and front and rear cameras. It also has a much bigger battery, and is weather resistant. I believe that they were originally made by Motorola, before Zebra.
Not sure if they make a MC18 with those features. Are you using a higher end model like the zebra TC83? You are right that Zebra acquired Signal, which acquired the retail mobile division of Motorola, which I believe had acquired the old Telxon company and maybe a few others, which explains why many of the older devices have mixed branding.
That 8-pin header is probably a JTAG or something that the smart types would be playing poke & probe on to see if it's trying to talk to the outside world and figure out how to make it do the things they want to make it do, like as mentioned, play an android version of Doom of course... :P
At 16:16 you can also see serial port pads. Possibly connected to the 8 pin header.
Yes, I would be hooking that up and seeing what spews out at boot up.
There is a cable cup to connect to it. We do have one at work that functions as a regular USB connection.
There are Rx/Tx pads near the cables at the bottom of the pcb.
I’ve got a little Symbol scanner which I got new on eBay. It appears to be early 2000s and connects to USB either as serial device or an HID (keyboard). I used HID and Windows sees it as a keyboard. The device can scan a surprising number of different bar code formats and is very accommodating about poor alignment with the label. The unit generates a laser scan line when a trigger is pulled. There must be a fair amount of processing power inside given its flexibility, but not nearly as advanced as this self-scan tool, there’s no LCD screen.
The shop lifters favourite toy !
That is an enormous speaker just to 'ping'.
AirWatch is a mobile device management platfform made by VMWare. It's probably used to provision these things into the retail environment and to enforce restrictions. It may be used to locate the device if the device has the hardware to allow that.
Depending on the price it could be a nice source for a semi decent LCD display for an Arduino project.
Yet another thing I want in my life
Every time I use 1 of these in Asda I wish I could take it home and tear it apart lol. From seeing faulty units in the shop, I've been able to work out that the system is windows based and the terminal to unlock handsets runs through a web interface/application.
Here in the US several stores that used to use those, have switched to apps on your phone, where you scan the item and pay right on your phone, then get checked at the door.
Zebra builds some quality gear, but are very expensive for what they do.
But I love their name! It's perfect for a barcode-focused company! 🙂