Motorola 9808 – First Hybrid Laser and Imager Barcode Scanner

Motorola (formerly Symbol Technologies) has released their latest barcode scanner, the 9808. Why is this an important announcement? It’s the first barcode scanner that has both a laser engine and an area imager.

The laser engine is available as either an SR (standard range) or LR (long range) laser engine. The only difference between the two is working range. The LR will read a 100% UPC barcode out to 18″, while the SR will read a 100% UPC out to 10.5″. Both options will read a 100% UPC barcode at contact. Most people will ask the question, why wouldn’t I always want to use the scanner that reads out the furthest? Some people don’t want to read out to 18″. If the scanner is sitting on the counter and somebody passes a product by, that product can easily be read and possibly rung up on the wrong customer’s order. Meaning somebody is getting charged for something they didn’t buy. That scenario happens more when a long range laser is used.

Along with the laser engine the scanner has an area imager. The laser engine sits on top of the area imager. The area imager is a 752 pixel wide x 480 pixel high sensor. It’s actually old technology, but quite effective for fast barcode reading. Remember an area imager allows us to read 2D barcodes (Data Matrix, Aztec, QR Code, PDF417) and also capture images if needed. You wouldn’t be able to capture a high resolution image, but typically high resolution images are not required in the applications where these barcode scanners are being used.

Another unique feature of the 9808 is the dual trigger. Symbol has long used a 2 finger trigger option. They’ve taken advantage of this in the 9808 by putting two trigger switches in. The trigger button is on a rocker type switch. Pull the upper part of the trigger for trigger A and the bottom part of the trigger for trigger B. The triggers can be programmed independently to activate either the laser engine or the area imager. For example: If you wanted the primary scan engine to be the laser, you could program the upper trigger switch to turn the laser on and the lower switch to turn the area imager on. You can also program the switches to activate the same scan engine. Basically the trigger switches are totally independent and programmable.

The scanner is also available with an RFID reader. Just like the laser engine and the area imager, the RFID reader can be controlled via the trigger.

The 9808 also has EAS deactivation. EAS is Electronic Article Surveillance. You know those tags that are affixed to products you buy in the store and cause the alarm system to beep if you walk out the door without deactivating them? Those are EAS tags. Basically the scanner has a coil in it that when driven at a certain frequency will blow those tags so they don’t set off the alarm when you walk through the security gates.

Symbol has once again been the first to market with a new technology. In this case a hybrid laser scanner and area imager. It seems to me this would be a fairly expensive scanner. A laser engine and an area imager, plus two trigger switches, RFID, and EAS all available. I don’t know yet what options are available together. I’m sure you don’t have to get all options in a single scanner if you don’t want them. But they do all have a laser, area imager and two trigger switches at a bare minimum. It has to be somewhat expensive with all the hardware packed in this.

Check out the 9808 at Motorola 9808

If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.

Powered by Wordpress | WP Premium theme by WP Remix
Copyright 2007. www.barcodehelponline.com. All rights reserved

• Home
• Barcode Scanners
• About Me
• Favorite Links
• Contact
• Privacy