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In today’s blog, I’m gonna show you the pieces and parts that you need in order to configure and order a Zebra MC 9300 or if you are looking for refurbished one what to look for in terms of an MC92 to MC99 and soon.

This type of barcode scanners primarily uses a manufacturing warehousing even in retail. It’s a device that’s been on the market for quite a long time. The form factor hasn’t changed so much but the operating system has over the years. We’ve seen this device go through Windows Mobile, Windows CE, Windows 4.5, CE 7.0 and now it’s only being offered at Android.

When you order this device new, the only operating system or software that you can select on the MC 9300 is android. So, this really depends on what kind of flavor lollipop, marshmallow that you order and what you get from the manufacturer.

You could always upgrade the device to the firmware label of your Zebras website. Let’s get into ordering and speaking out this device. There’s a couple of options, the main thing here that I look at is the scan engine. The scan engine is the most important thing when ordering this because if you order the wrong type of scan engine a lot of your warehouse users in manufacturing or in warehousing if they’re on a forklift then they’re picking up high on the ceiling and if your scan engine is not adequate or it doesn’t reach the length of that barcode place on that rack, your driver or your users gonna have to get out.

What I recommend is making sure that you test the unit. Get a demo, get it into your warehouse, get into your hands your pickers and let them run with it for half a day or day so just so they could test out the scan engine to feel the weight and the responsiveness. In terms of wireless, this can be configured to any wireless network just as long as you have something that’s somewhat recent but supported because the main thing you want to look at is making sure you have the pup or firmware levels.

A lot of the manufacturers out there are gonna upgrade the firmware level on an access point and then you’ll also upgrade the firmware on the device. It is matched with the recent firmware that is out there because of a lot of developers like to develop on your protocol security. You want to make sure you have something that least supported. Don’t look for access points or devices that are out of support. You’ll always wanna make sure that both your access point and this device at least some kind of maintenance that you can update the firmware.

We talked about Barcode scanner, there’s a lot of options for barcode scanning. You really want to figure out in your warehouse or from your supplier what kind of barcode labels you’ll gonna be getting. That’ll make your ordering process, you’ll kind of narrow down your ordering process because then you can figure out exactly what you need, so usually, there’s like a 1D which is scanning just a regular line linear barcode or you can get a 2D imager, depending if there’s an image as a barcode then you can actually snapshot that. Usually, you see that with QR code. If you do have QR codes and you probably want to get an imager scanner then there are also aggressive scanners like there’s near-far, short-range, long-range and Lorex.

Lorex was built in the MC 9090 devices but now they call it near-far scanners and that’s the most aggressive scanner. You’re gonna be able to scan close far or near usually your sweet spot is probably I think around less than a foot but then you could also scan further back. There are some of the options that you’re looking for in the MSE 9300.

The next part is the keyboard overlay. First, you gonna figure out what kind of emulation you’re running. Some clients run ES 400. So when you’re running an ES 400 typically you’re going to order 250 keyboard overlay.

I always recommend getting a full 53 key because it is a lot easier to configure, lot easier to get to the parameters. You don’t have to type in blue f3 to get to a certain key. That is the keyboard overlay.

The next is display in storage that I’m going to talk about. Usually, color monochrome most of these devices come in your LCD display so you want to look at that spec. The next one is the storage in memory. You don’t really need a lot of storage not unless you’re storing a lot of files here but typically most warehouse management systems all of the data is just going back, it’s coming to your device then going back to your warehouse management system or your application server and it’s residing there.

The next thing you want to look at is compatibility. That’s when we talk about software. Are you running stay linked, are you running avante or you’re running a third-party application, you’re gonna have to figure out is it compatible with Android, if you’re buying used, is it compatible with Windows CE or it is compatible with Windows Embedded. Like I mentioned Microsoft stopped supporting this device and you want to go to Android. That’s the first thing you want to make sure that your application support Android.

Next, is battery life, that’s one thing to consider when you’re looking to purchase a unit. How long will this battery last? That’s one thing I look. You want to make sure you might have six bank cradle. Typically the way you charge these is you’ve 2 batteries per device. One just setting in the cradle as charging and when your operative runs out of the battery they change it right away. So, you’ll always have a fresh battery and I need to talk about the last piece that you’re gonna have to look at is depending on your use case. Do you need cellular on this. There’s a lot of handhelds devices similar to the MC 9300 that has a built-in cellular feature on this. Now, most of these devices are used within the four walls so meaning that it’s being used within your wireless LAN environment.

In the event that you’re doing some kind of POD application proof of delivery and you need a signature capture. Sometimes these go out on delivery trucks and for example, Puralator UPS, FedEx, they all have these devices or a smaller version of this with a stylus pen. Then they lost a customer to sign and that’s connected into a cellular base network outside of the four walls and then when they come back into the environment or within before walls 802 11 radio picks up or the wireless LAN radio picks up and connects to their WMS or application server.

That’s it for ordering, there’s a lot of other features such as a boot to strap, the handle, RFID options. Just get into the basics of ordering this. Very straightforward, when you’re looking for use or for a refurbished device you just want to make sure that it’s compatible with your network and it supports your secure so that’s the main thing when you’re looking for a used device and you’re running a high level and encryption like a total. Even if you’re running 801 11 or with a radio server. You want to make sure that your older guns can support that encryption because some of the older guns might not be able to support 211 with authentication and a radio server. If you need any advice and if you want to hop on a free call I’m available for a 15-minute call we’re based out in Toronto. You could talk to us about any of your barcode scanning technologies. I’ve personally been doing this for the last 19 years. So, I’ve been doing this before even 802 11.

In this blog, I explain how to order or what to look for when ordering or buying a wireless barcode scanner for your warehouse environment or manufacturing environment. I’ve been selling, supporting and installing barcode scanning systems or barcode scanning solutions for the last 18-20 years (yes I’m that old lol). You can jump on a free 15 minutes call with me or someone from my team and we can go over your barcode scanning needs. Were a group located in the greater Toronto area but also perform software solutions, consulting and more across North America.

ron [at] innovativedigitalgroup.com 416 350 8032

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