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ESL User Manual

Electronic Shelf Labeling System

ESL

All information subject to change without notice.

This manual may not, in whole or in part, be copied, photocopied, reproduced, translated, or converted to any written, electronic or
machine readable form without prior written consent of Opticon.

User Manual

Summary of Contents for ESL DEMO KIT

Page 1: ...ject to change without notice 2012 copyright Opticon All rights reserved This manual may not in whole or in part be copied photocopied reproduced translated or converted to any written electronic or machine readable form without prior written consent of Opticon User Manual ...

Page 2: ...rials or workmanship with proper use during the warranty period Opticon is not liable for damages caused by modifications made by a customer In such cases standard repair charges will apply If a product is returned under warranty and no defect is found standard repair charges will apply Opticon assumes no liability for any direct indirect consequential or incidental damages arising out of use or i...

Page 3: ...alling the base station 11 3 1 3 Installing the ESLs 11 3 1 4 Installing the Optional Barcode Terminal 12 3 2 Linking a Back Office System to the ESL Server 12 3 3 Resetting the ESL System 12 3 3 Designing the ESL image layout 13 4 Back Office 14 4 1 Database format 14 5 ESL Server Application 16 5 1 Handling of incoming CSV files from the Back Office 16 5 2 Handling of modified ESL product links ...

Page 4: ...he Database Files on the Optional Barcode Terminal 32 7 3 Creating Links between ESLs and Products Locations Using the Optional Barcode Terminal 33 7 4 Deleting Existing Links 34 7 5 Verifying existing links 34 7 6 Sending the Modified Link Database to the PC 34 7 7 Settings menu 34 7 8 Version 34 8 Version history 35 9 Appendices 36 Appendix A Editing the ESL Template Files 36 A 1 Editing the Inf...

Page 5: ...cluding 6x2 CR2450 batteries UTP cable 6 0V 2A Power supply PC Installation Software examples Manual Optional barcode terminal 1 2 Physical Features 1 2 1 Dimensions and Weight Item Dimensions Weight Standard shelf tag w x h x d 70 x 33 x 14mm 2 76 x 1 30 x 55in 2 5g 09oz Base station w x h x d 129 x 28 x 102 mm 5 x 1 x 4in 125g 4 4oz excluding antenna 1 3 Environmental Specifications 1 3 1 Operat...

Page 6: ...200 Active area W 45 x H 22 mm Number of dots W 200 x H 96 Model EG020AS183 Gray scale level 1 bit Black and white Contrast ratio 10 1 Pixel pitch 111 dpi Connector EBS 10 Ethernet 10 100 Mbit Radio Frequency 2 4gHz Protocol IEEE 802 15 4 1 6 Electrical Specifications 1 6 1 Electrical Characteristics EE200 Parameter Typical Unit Remarks Operating voltage 2 8 3 2 V 2 x CR2450 Lithium battery Operat...

Page 7: ...e Polling for data reporting settings Interval 20 seconds Retransmissions 10 Report ratio 1 to 39 Yes No Yes 61 Display updates 4 per day Temperature 15 25 C No No 20 Out of range base station OFF Not connected 2 Number of channels 5 No No 4 Sleep time 99 9 Yes 9 Battery self discharge 1 year No 6 The correlation shows whether increasing the listed value increases or decreases the power consumptio...

Page 8: ...splay of the ESL is identical to the bar code on the back of the ESL 1 8 Safety Handle this product carefully Do not deliberately subject it to any of the following Shock Do not throw or drop the devices Temperature Conditions Do not use the devices at temperatures outside the specified range Do not pour boiling water on the devices Do not throw the devices into the fire Do not forcibly bend the c...

Page 9: ...ntaining all product info Generate truncated article database CSV format for the barcode terminal Image Generator Generate ESL images and XML files for the server application from the link and product database Base stations Forwards ESL status settings information to PC Sends images commands from server application to ESLs Handles software updates for ESLs ESLs Show images Provide status reports P...

Page 10: ...ode terminal kit that includes A communication cradle An RS232 and or USB cable A 6V Power supply To install and run the software you will also need a PC running Windows 7 or Windows XP with server pack 3 as server 3 1 1 Installing Elements of the ESL Kit Software Make sure you have administrative rights before installing the software Run the SDK installer by starting the setup exe file If your PC...

Page 11: ...electing the best RF channel can be found in section 5 6 1 Note The base station can also be controlled over the Internet or via a public network but it this is not a secure solution since SSL isnʼt supported yet in this SDK 3 1 3 Installing the ESLs On arrival the ESLs usually already have their two CR2450 batteries inserted If not the batteries can be easily inserted by removing the back shell W...

Page 12: ... itʼs also possible to manually place and rename some CSV files in the Input folder for demonstration purposes and testing See section 5 1 See chapter 2 for information about on setting up the back office system 3 3 Resetting the ESL System After installing and configuring all the components listed in this chapter it will be necessary to reset the complete ESL system since on start up the ESL serv...

Page 13: ...yed on the ESLs When designing the layout of an e paper ESL itʼs important to know the limitations of what can and what canʼt be displayed The main characteristics are Fixed resolution of 200x96 pixels Monochrome images only black white No anti aliasing can be used on fonts limiting the amount of available fonts Monochrome company logos and other product group images can be added to the layout Bar...

Page 14: ...se must contain a unique product ID field to allow linking of an ESL to a product If thereʼs a 1 to many relation between the unique product ID and the barcode on this product then the same product should be added to the database multiple times for each unique barcode but all other fields must be identical Also any product modifications like price should be applied on each record for this product ...

Page 15: ...ectly uses the provided CSV files because the middleware software actually processes these files For this reason only the middleware applications have to be customized or configured and not the ESL server application itself Note 1 Due to the 1 to 1 relation between a product and an ESL it is currently not possible to link multiple ESLs to the same product Note 2 Database formats other than CSV can...

Page 16: ...ne as follows The file is moved copied to a configurable local folder called the Input folder When moving copying the file from the Back office to the folder a temporary name is used i e productdata_1 tmp productdata_2 tmp etc After a check that the complete file has been moved copied the file will be renamed to its final name i e productdata_1 csv productdata_2 csv etc The server application will...

Page 17: ... used and the ESL are linked using a different method i e using the existing cash register then the linked csv file should be placed in the Output folder as follows When moving copying the link file a temporary name should be used i e linked tmp After that the file should be renamed to its final name linked csv which will overwrite any existing file of the same name Each record of the link file sh...

Page 18: ...successfully processed a file by sending the image to an ESL it moves the files to the sub directory Completed of the Images in folder The middleware application will only generate new configuration and images files for products that are not found in the Completed subfolder or have been changed The ESL server application processes any changed files and checks the images folder for unprocessed file...

Page 19: ...and settings of that ESL If the base station has not yet received the settings from this ESL then it will automatically request the settings the next time the ESL sends a poll for data To edit configurations check Edit Settings in the left bottom corner After that there will be five configurations that can be edited In following sections these configurations will be described Associate Interval Po...

Page 20: ... status and settings to the base stations By default the ESLs will transmit this information once every 40 polls so a ratio of 1 39 The status and information of an ESL is also requested immediately by opening the settings dialog of an ESL by right clicking on the ESL This will cause the base station to request the settings the next time this ESL polls for data The poll info ratio is set to a rela...

Page 21: ...15 i e 11 12 13 14 and15 are enabled Channel 11 canʼt be disabled This is to ensure that when an ESL that is not associating to any base station and the ESLʼs RF channel range is unknown it can always be retrieved by configuring a nearby base station to channel 11 5 5 ESL status information Each ESL will also periodically transmit the following status information Battery voltage Current battery vo...

Page 22: ...th the base station before changing the RF channel will lose their connection with that base station By default it will take 30 polls times the poll interval of 15 seconds so 450 seconds before the ESLs will time out and start looking for a useable base station signal To avoid having to wait a couple of minutes before the ESLs starts looking for the base station on the new RF channel itʼs possible...

Page 23: ... prevent IP address conflicts when a base station is connected to a network DHCP is enabled by default On most installations a fixed IP address setup is recommended If DHCP is used make sure the DHCP server always assigns the same IP address to the same base station Before IP and DHCP settings can be changed the base stations need to be found on the network If no DHCP server is available the IP ad...

Page 24: ...tation use telnet with the found IP address i e C telnet 192 168 0 17 or press ʻTelnetʼ in XTAdminXXL When using Windows 7 telnet can be enabled as follows 1 Start Control Panel 2 Programs and Features 3 Turn Windows features on or off 4 Check Telnet Client 5 Click OK ...

Page 25: ...make sure all base stations have a unique IP address and the subnet mask is set correctly Trouble shooting If for some reason all network settings have been deleted for instance when the Factory settings menu was used you can restore the desired settings by uploading a configuration file via FTP server Contact Opticon for the latest configuration file and upload instructions ...

Page 26: ... typical ESL pilot configuration and a matching file system tree 5 7 1 Base stations After configuring the network settings of the base stations add them to this list The only supported configuration at this moment is a TCP Client TCPC This means that the ESL Server actively connects to a base station For every base station add a line with the following format TCPC aaa bbb ccc ddd port ...

Page 27: ...ween ESLs and products Be aware that all links will have to be manually created again using the barcode terminal after doing this See chapter 1 3 for more information about re installing an ESL system 5 7 5 Delete Database Delete Database removes the complete combined database file dbase csv from your system Be aware that a new full database will have to be placed in the Input folder in order to g...

Page 28: ...database linked csv into BMP and XML files for each linked ESL You can customize the layout of the generated images and XML files themselves by changing the image layout file XML based and the XML template file 5 7 9 Image Layout The Image Layout is an XML based layout file that determines the format of the images that will be displayed on the ESLs The layout file can only be manually edited using...

Page 29: ...bfolder is used by the server application to store the last sent image to an ESL 5 7 13 Apply The Apply command saves all settings and restarts the Application 5 7 14 Reset The Reset command restores the settings to the last known state 5 7 13 Cancel The Cancel command allows you to exit without saving any new settings ...

Page 30: ... etc The typical record format of a complete product database is Unique ID Barcode Description Field 4 Field 5 etc Except for the first field modification code the order and quantity of the remaining fields can be varied See section 5 5 7 for more information on the CSV format The record format of the truncated database file scan csv that is generated for the optional barcode terminal will have th...

Page 31: ...link database See chapter 7 The ESL server manager will call up the Image Generator with the following parameters as specified in the Setup window of the ESL server application Image generator exe O Output folder Image layout xml Info template xml So the default call out by the ESL server application would be ImgGen exe O Output Templates image xml Templates info xml Note The option ʻ fʼ can be ad...

Page 32: ...on Make sure youʼve selected the correct COM port Then press the Update Firmware button and select the firmware file for the desired terminal XPA3693x HEX for the OPH1004 or the H13 LBF3693x S32 for the OPL9728 These files can be found in the Firmware folder of this installation After loading the software the terminal should display ESL LINKING APPL 7 2 Loading the Database Files on the Optional B...

Page 33: ...e paper ESL is not accessible it is also possible to view this same barcode on the e paper ESLʼs display To do so select all ESLs in the server application that have not yet been linked then select the image checkbox and press the Reset button Each of the selected ESLs will then display its default barcode image containing its unique MAC address After scanning the MAC address you can either manual...

Page 34: ...eds to be sent back to the PC for processing by the server application This can be accomplished by placing the terminal back into its cradle The terminal should now automatically upload the link database linked csv to the PC Subsequently the ESL server application will call up the middleware application to parse the combined database and link database into ESL image files bitmaps and configuration...

Page 35: ...35 ESL User Manual 8 Version history V0 1 First final release February 21 2012 ...

Page 36: ...or each ESL the Unique ID the MAC address and a description of the linked product Note The description will be shown in the data tab of the ESL server application The default location of the information template is Templates Info xml This template consists of the following xml version 1 0 encoding utf 8 EslImageInfo Label Label ImageFile 1 bmp ImageFile X 0 X Y 0 Y Width Width Height Height HOffse...

Page 37: ... location of the image template is Templates Image xml The image template currently supports 5 types of objects for designing the ESL layout Text fixed and dynamic Lines Rectangles filled Images monochrome fixed and dynamic Barcodes These objects should be added to the template file using the following formatting xml version 1 0 encoding utf 8 EslLayoutInfo EslTemplate Variant H Variant Width 200 ...

Page 38: ... ID Price Description Weight Unit and so on then the Price field would be added by using 3 since it is field number 3 starting from Modification code which is field number 0 Combining multiple fields as dynamic content is also allowed An example of adding dynamic content e g adding weight plus a standard unit would be Content Weight 5 6 Content Special characters can be added using the standard XM...

Page 39: ...es HAlignment CENTER HAlignment VAlignment CENTER VAlignment Text Object Condition optional Displaying conditions Content The Dynamic fixed text to be rendered Color Text color 0 Black 1 White X Y Width Height Specify the rectangle within the text is rendered Font Specifies the type style and size of the used font Lines Number of lines the text may be wrapped if needed HAlignment Horizontal alignm...

Page 40: ...e X Y Width Height Specify the position and size of the rectangle A non filled rectangle can be added by simply drawing two rectangles on top of each other in opposite colors A 5 Adding Lines A line can be added to the template using the following format Object Line X1 0 X1 Y1 77 Y1 X2 200 X2 Y2 77 Y2 Size 1 Size Color 0 Color Line Object Condition optional Displaying conditions Color Color 0 Blac...

Page 41: ...st any type of barcode can be added to the template using the following format Object Barcode Content 2 Content Type 1 Type Color 0 Color X 50 X Y 80 Y Width 100 Width Height 20 Height HAlignment CENTER HAlignment VAlignment BOTTOM VAlignment Barcode Object Condition optional Displaying conditions Content Content of the barcode Color Foreground Color 0 Black 1 White Type Specifies the bar code typ...

Page 42: ...19 MSI Mod11 20 MSI Mod11 Mod10 21 Modified Plessey 22 Code 11 23 USD8 24 UCC 12 25 UCC 13 26 LOGMARS6 27 Code 128 28 Code 128 Code set A 29 Code 128 Code set B 30 Code 128 Code set C 31 ITF14 Interleaved 2of5 14 digits 32 Code 93 33 Telepen Please note that the content of a barcode usually must match various criteria i e fixed length and check digits in order for it to render properly If a barcod...

Page 43: ...i e fixed length and check digits in order it to render properly Please check the log file of the parsed CSV file in the Processed folder for more information about the cause of rendering issues 3 Incorrectly configured field numbers Make sure that the field numbers Unique ID barcode and description in the Setup window of the ESL server application match the field sequence of your CSV export Remem...

Page 44: ...nd hardware the only configuration step necessary are configuring the IP address of the base station and the serial port of the barcode terminal in the Setup windows of the ESL server application After that the demo database file should be automatically sent to the barcode terminal and then you can link your ESLs using the barcode terminal and the product barcodes in the images below See chapter 7...

Page 45: ...Fax 425 454 0865 Email sales opticonusa com support opticonusa com Copyright Opticon All rights reserved This information is subject to change without prior notice For availability contact your local representative The Netherlands Hoofddorp France Issy Les Moulineaux Germany Dietzenbach Italy Villanova di Castenaso BO Sweden Järfälla United Kingdom Luton Bedfordshire U S A Renton WA Brazil São Pau...

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