Motorola MC9060 bar code scanner teardown

[Bud]

OK folks watch this YouTube video first to appreciate the teardown and the device. Sorry for the poor quality, the video is not mine.



I was looking for a barcode scanner and came across this video. I was impressed to say at least. I went on eBay and right away got incredibly lucky and found one for just $40 from a local seller. The unit came fully working and with a charged battery  , though fairly worn cosmetically, which could be expected from use in a warehouse, as you could see in the video 

It is a Windows Mobile rugged portable computer with a barcode scan application and a so called Long Range scanner. It indeed is able to scan a 3'x1'  size barcodes from 2m distance which I think pretty impressive, though I did not research what long range scanners are capable of in general. It also have built-in WiFi which I could not get on my wireless network but I think it may be because of my router and because the old version of the mobile OS. But my main interest was to see how the hell they build it to survive that sort of abuse. And I wanted a bar code scanner anyway so that was a cheap solution. Hell, only $46 with shipping  .I only need to find or make a charger for it 



There are several modifications of it with different OS versions, features, as well as key pad size. I got one with complete alphanumeric set and there are ones with just numeric and navigation keys which makes the device shorter in size. Mine also is with a pistol grip type of back cover, though I believe I could buy a normal handheld back cover and replace it. For barcode application it is better though to have a pistol grip handle because of the convenience to point to the target and the heavy device balances nicely in the hand and it is much less tiring for prolonged use.



If you watched the video, here is the famous "Exit window" , the laser beam clear window. I was curious if it is also IR transparent and checked with my FLIR E4 thermal imager, but it was not.



The battery removal is two-step. First you push two metal clips on the sides, that unlocks the battery and it pops out a little but still held by a metal strip with a notch. To fully remove the battery you push the green end of the notch strip and the battery slides out right into your hand. I think it is a brilliant design solution - be it just two side clips, the battery would often just fall down on the floor, or ejected out if the device was dropped and the locking clips got lose. With this design the second clip will catch and keep the battery inside the handle.



The battery has a number of hold plated connectors at the bottom for attachments and the charger or holster. The connectors seem to go right through to the other side of the battery where they mate with the device connectors when battery is inserted.
I was at first puzzled how to open the device. I found two screws on the outside of the pistol grip by the exit window and two screws inside that can be accessed after the battery removed, but still could not detach the pistol grip. It was dead clinched to the device! I had to watch a few videos before I spotted a clue. Then the device came apart. The secret sauce was in the device enclosure locking design as we can see in a sec, so to detach the pistol grip cover you apply a bit of force and slide it towards the exit window and away from the battery end (after removing the 4 aforementioned screws).



So here is the close up of the secret sauce. Note the teeth and groves on the back cover (right side) and the corresponding locking teeth on the top cover (left side). You put the covers together with a bit of offset so the top cover teeth go into the space between the bottom cover teeth, then slide the bottom cover towards the bottom of the picture so the top cover teeth slide into the grooves. You then tighten the two screws from inside the battery compartment and the force will further pull the covers together and that creates a dead grip! Brilliant !!   
This is why it is so difficult to crash this puppy. A robust impact resistance plastic material plus the locking teeth design.    But I still wanted to see how the electronics was mounted inside the device so it is capable of taking so much shock.



Next goes the keypad which has the same locking teeth design. To detach, remove two screws located below the screen and slide the keypad away from the screen then up. It takes a bit of force because of traction between the teeth. Removing the keypad opens access to a compartment with a full size SD card slot. My understanding the purpose of the SD slot is for the OS updates and to load optional features.



We can now take a look at the open back of the device. Just a backup battery there and the bar code scanner module, mounted on a (presumably) some sort of aluminum alloy plate which is also the PCB top cover with little walls between PCB functional circuits. Note a clip with ribs and two screws firmly holding the keypad flat cable connector. No way the keypad SMT connector can ever get loose or the clip get bent. Nice attention to details.

[Bud]

The top PCB cover plate seems to be made by stamping method, and is fairly rigid. The shielding walls also reinforce the plate mechanically. Here is the top side of the PCB which perhaps has the most of the components (I did not fully disassemble to see if anything on the other side of it). The WiFi chip and antenna connectors can be seen on the top right of the picture.



And here is the money shot with the second ingredient of the secret sauce revealed. The board assembly is wrapped in a thick rubber shock absorbing gasket that also have ribs and the whole assembly is firmly inserted into the top cover cavity so the board/screen assembly floats inside the top cover on the shock gasket ribs. There is no screws holding the assembly to the cover! The assembly is not loose inside but you can feel it move if to push the sides of the board assembly with a finger. Brilliant! 



I still wanted to see how they protected the screen so I disconnected the keypad connector and carefully pulled the assembly out of the top cover. The third part of the secret sauce was another shock absorbing gasket around the screen perimeter, separating the front protective glass from the LCD screen. This gasket is made of a softer material and is more like a dense foam rather then rubber, and about 0.1'' thick. Note the 4-pin touch screen flat cable on the left. In this device the resistive touch screen overlay is right on top of the protective window and there is a distance of may be 3mm between the touch screen overlay and the LCD screen which is inside the device. Because of that there is parallax that may be big depending on the angle you hold eth device and the device has touch screen calibration. But I found this not an issue, if you want to operate using a stylus or just the tip of your fingernail you hold the device in a certain way each time so calibration takes care of the parallax.  I am not sure what the protective clear window is made of, it seemed to be some sort of plastic, not glass and appears to be fairly thin. it is got to be so it does not block much light from the LCD. 



And here is a WiFi antenna (two of them on the sides of the screen compartment). I cant recall ever seeing a lower budget WiFi antenna- just a strip of tinned metal with a slot...  . This device is full of brilliant things!



The LCD is part of the board assembly and is sitting in its own cavity in the aluminum back plate made of the same metal alloy as the top PCB cover. Please excuse poor picture quality, it can hardly be seen that there is another thin rubber gasket around the perimeter of the LCD and inside the cavity.


 
The PCB/screen assembly is shown next and it can be seen that its construction gives it the required rigidity. The PCB is sandwitched between two metal compartmentalized plates, with the LCD sitting in its own cavity, with the whole assembly wrapped in a shock absorbing rubber gasket that has teethed profile. Men, very nice. I am tired to give thumbs up. 





As a final shot , the board assembly with the shock gasket taken off, it is easy to detaches and put back. Additionally, more reinforcement ribs can be seen on the front of the screen side cover plate (remember the guy in the video hammering the scanner against the concrete floor  )



So here you have it. A robust shock proof design of the board assembly by floating the assembly in the shock proof gasket, shock absorbing foam between the LCD and the front window, stamped alloy plates with a separate LCD compartment and RF shielding walls, tapered locking teeth on the front and back enclosure cover, impact resistant plastic body, to name a few things that was interesting to find during the teardown. Hope you enjoyed it and that it can give you ideas for your products. I did not research though if any of these are patented. Thanks for reading !

[amyk]

That would not have been cheap at all when new. Very nice construction.