Upgrading the firmware of your Zebra RFD8500

Summary:

This article explains how to upgrade the Zebra RFD8500 RFID sled reader.

If you receive the following message from TagMatiks AT Lite, “Device connection initialization failed”, you may be running an older firmware version that may need to be updated. The following steps will outline how to update to a newer version of firmware.

Figure 01: Error Message from TagMatiks Application
Installation of Zebra 123Scan

Download the Zebra 123Scan utility software from the Zebra website.

Based on your system requirements, please download the 32 Bit or 64 Bit version
https://www.zebra.com/us/en/support-downloads/software/utilities/123scan-utility.html

Once you downloaded, 123Scan, we’ll need to install it.

Double click the Zebra_123Scan_(64bit)_v5.00.0008.exe File and follow steps below

Click the Install button to install 123Scan

Figure 02: Installation in Process
Figure 03: Click Next to continue the installation
Figure 04: License Agreement – Click Yes to Finish

Click the Finish Button. You can launch the application by clicking the shortcut from the desktop.

Figure 05: Shortcut for 123 Scan
Figure 06: Loading the 123 Scan Software

After loading the 123Scan software, connect your Zebra RFD8500 Reader to the USB Port on your PC.

Figure 07: Discovered RFD8500 RFID Reader
Figure 08

Click on ‘Update Scanner Firmware’. The device selection screen will popup to select your RFD8500 and then Click UPDATE FIRMWARE.

Select Option 2 Load Firmware AND Reset to factory defaults. Then Click Update firmware

Figure 09: Update Firmware
Figure 11: Latest Firmware
Figure 10: Verify Old Firmware
Figure 11: Warning Message

Click Continue Device to start updating the Firmware and reset the factory settings.

Figure 12: Updating the Firmware
Figure 13: Update completed

Activity Report can be viewed with the recent updates and activities.

Regulatory Settings

After updating firmware, the device needs to configure the basic settings.

Figure 14: Click RFD8500 to Factory Defaults
Figure 15: Factory Default

The screen will navigate to Factory Defaults with configuration file summary and click custom settings and Click Regulatory Configuration → Country of Operations. Select a specific country from the list and click Done.

After saving the configuration file, please click Load to the scanner. A popup screen will show the Load configuration. Click on to load the configuration file.

Figure 16: Discovered Scanner List
Figure 17: Load Configuration

After reaching 100%, we can remove the USB cable and connect to the TagMatiks AT Lite application via Bluetooth.

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