Opticon ESL Server, EBS-40, EBS-30, EBS-31 User Manual

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Electronic Shelf Label

ESL Server manual

The ESL server manual describes how to

demonstrate and set up the Opticon ESL solution.

User Manual

v1.0.62.2

Opticon ESL

ESL Server manual

v1.0.62.2

All information in this manual is subject to change without notice.

Document History

Model Number:

ESL Server Manual

Specification Number:

Edition:

1.0.62.2

Original Spec Number:

Date:

2017

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

Limited Warranty and Disclaimers PLEASE READ THIS MANUAL CAREFULLY BEFORE INSTALLING OR USING THE

PRODUCT.

Serial Number

A serial number appears on all Opticon products. This official registration number is directly related to the device that is purchased. Do not remove the serial number from your Opticon device. Removing the serial number voids the warranty.

Warranty

Unless otherwise agreed in a written contract, all Opticon products are warranted against defects in materials and workmanship for two years after purchase. Opticon will repair or, at its option, replace products that are defective in materials 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 inability to use both the hardware and software, even if Opticon has been informed about the possibility of such damages.

Packaging

The packing materials are recyclable. We recommend that you save all packing material to use should you need to transport your scanner or send it for service. Damage caused by improper packaging during shipment is not covered by the warranty.

Trademarks

Trademarks used are the property of their respective owners. Opticon Inc. and Opticon Sensors Europe B.V. are wholly owned subsidiaries of OPTOELECTRONICS Co., Ltd., 12-

17, Tsukagoshi 4-chome, Warabi-shi, Saitama, Japan 335-0002. TEL +81-(0) 48-446-1183; FAX +81-(0) 48-446-1184

SUPPORT

USA

Europe

Phone: 800-636-0090

Phone: +31 235692728

Email: support@opticonusa.com

Email: support@opticon.com

Web: www.opticonusa.com

Web: www.opticon.com

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Contents

1. Features and Specifications ...................................................................................................... 6

1.1. Abstract ............................................................................................................................... 6

1.2. Contents of an ESL demo kit .............................................................................................. 6

1.3. Physical Features ................................................................................................................ 6

1.3.1. Dimensions ................................................................................................................................ 6

1.3.2. Weight ........................................................................................................................................ 6

1.4. Environmental Specifications .............................................................................................. 7

1.4.1. Operating Temperature and Humidity (EE201) ......................................................................... 7

1.4.2. Storage Temperature and Humidity (EE201) ............................................................................ 7

1.5. Interface Specifications ....................................................................................................... 7

1.6. Electrical Specifications ...................................................................................................... 7

1.6.1. Electrical Characteristics ............................................................................................................ 7

1.6.2. Main Batteries ............................................................................................................................ 8

1.7. Hardware Specifications ..................................................................................................... 9

1.8. Serial Number ................................................................................................................... 10

1.8.1. EBS-30 / EBS-31 / EBS-40 ...................................................................................................... 10

1.8.2. ESLs ......................................................................................................................................... 10

1.9. Safety ................................................................................................................................ 10

1.9.1. Shock ....................................................................................................................................... 10

1.9.2. Temperature Conditions .......................................................................................................... 10

1.9.3. Foreign Materials ..................................................................................................................... 10

1.9.4. Other ........................................................................................................................................ 10

2. Solution overview ................................................................ ..................................................... 11

2.1. CSV-file based solution ..................................................................................................... 12

2.2. SQL Solution ..................................................................................................................... 13

2.3. CSV / SQL hybrid solution ................................................................................................ 14

2.4. External content management solution ............................................................................. 14

2.5. SQL API ............................................................................................................................ 14

3. Setting up the hardware and software .................................................................................... 15

3.1. Installing the ESL Server application ................................................................................ 15

3.2. Installing and finding the EBS3x / EBS40 base stations ................................................... 15

3.3. Installing and activating the ESLs ..................................................................................... 16

3.4. Mounting ESLs .................................................................................................................. 17

4. Linking of ESLs to products .................................................................................................... 18

4.1. Linking in the ESL server application ................................................................................ 19

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4.2. Linking using an Opticon batch terminal ........................................................................... 20

4.3. Linking using the provided web application ....................................................................... 20

5. Configuring the base stations ................................................................................................. 21

5.1. Configuring the RF channel .............................................................................................. 21

5.2. Changing the local name .................................................................................................. 22

5.3. Changing the PAN ID / LAN ID ......................................................................................... 22

5.4. Configuring the Ethernet settings ...................................................................................... 23

5.5. Factory default .................................................................................................................. 24

5.6. Base station firmware update ............................................................................................ 25

5.6.1. Trouble shooting ...................................................................................................................... 25

6. Configuration and monitoring of ESLs ................................................................................... 26

6.1. Configuration of ESLs ....................................................................................................... 26

6.1.1. Associate interval ..................................................................................................................... 27

6.1.2. Poll Interval .............................................................................................................................. 27

6.1.3. Poll timeout .............................................................................................................................. 27

6.1.4. Display orientation ................................................................................................................... 27

6.1.5. Poll - Info Ratio ........................................................................................................................ 28

6.1.6. Scan channels ......................................................................................................................... 28

6.1.7. Temperature range .................................................................................................................. 28

6.2. Monitoring of ESLs ............................................................................................................ 29

6.3. Filtering ESLs .................................................................................................................... 30

6.4. Controlling ESLs ............................................................................................................... 30

6.4.1. Actions ..................................................................................................................................... 31

6.4.2. Load balancing ......................................................................................................................... 31

6.4.3. Firmware update ...................................................................................................................... 32

7. Database configuration ............................................................................................................ 32

7.1. CSV Data base configuration ............................................................................................ 33

7.1.1. Changing the database format and settings ............................................................................ 34

7.2. SQL Data base configuration ............................................................................................ 36

7.2.1. Tables ...................................................................................................................................... 38

7.2.2. Connection ............................................................................................................................... 48

7.2.3. Tables configuration ................................................................................................................. 49

7.2.4. Fields configuration .................................................................................................................. 49

7.2.5. Web Application ....................................................................................................................... 49

7.2.6. Advanced Settings ................................................................................................................... 50

7.2.7. Apply and reset ........................................................................................................................ 51

7.3. Open DataBase Connectivity (ODBC) configuration ......................................................... 52

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7.4. CSV / SQL Hybrid configuration ........................................................................................ 54

7.5. External content management configuration ..................................................................... 56

7.6. Manual editing of the product database ............................................................................ 58

7.7. Editing the Links-table ....................................................................................................... 58

8. Designing the ESL image layout ............................................................................................. 59

8.1. Template Selection ........................................................................................................... 60

8.1.1. Conditions ................................................................................................................................ 61

8.2. Using the Template editor ................................................................................................. 63

8.2.1. Static and dynamic Content ..................................................................................................... 65

8.2.2. Conditional objects ................................................................................................................... 65

8.3. Saving and exporting a template ....................................................................................... 66

8.4. Using Example data .......................................................................................................... 66

9. Connecting the back office using CSV-files .......................................................................... 68

9.1. Product database format ................................................................................................... 68

9.2. Product-ESL link database format .................................................................................... 69

9.3. Middleware application (CSV-files only) ............................................................................ 71

10. Barcode terminal application .................................................................................................. 72

10.1. Setting up the barcode terminal ........................................................................................ 72

10.2. Loading the database files on the terminal ....................................................................... 73

10.3. Creating links between ESLs and products ...................................................................... 73

10.3.1. OPH100x, H13, OPH3000 or OPL9728 .................................................................................. 74

10.3.2. OPN2002/3/4/5/6 ..................................................................................................................... 75

10.4. Sending the link file back to the PC .................................................................................. 75

11. Using the Web Application for linking and monitoring ......................................................... 76

11.1. Web application with Oracle, PostgreSQL, SQLite, MS-SQL and DB2 ............................ 78

12. Running the ESL server as service ........................................................................................ 78

Appendix A: Demo barcodes ........................................................................................................ 80

Appendix B: My-SQL demo configuration ................................................................................... 81

Appendix C: MS-SQL demo configuration ................................................................................... 83

Appendix D: Oracle demo configuration ...................................................................................... 85

Appendix E: PostgreSQL demo configuration ............................................................................ 87

Appendix F: SQLite demo configuration ...................................................................................... 89

Appendix G: DB2 demo configuration ......................................................................................... 91

Appendix H: Restoring the ESL server back to default (CSV) ................................................... 93

Appendix I: Using the SQL API ..................................................................................................... 94

Appendix J: Version history .......................................................................................................... 99

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1. Features and Specifications

1.1. Abstract

This manual describes how to set-up an Electronic Shelf Labels (ESL) system with e-Paper ESLs from Opticon Sensors Europe BV.

1.2. Contents of an ESL demo kit

The ESL demo kit consists of the following components:

 Ethernet ESL base station (EBS-30 / EBS-40)  6 2” e-paper ESLs (EE201) including batteries  UTP cable  6.0V 2A Power supply (European)  PC Installation Software (ESL server and web application)  Opticon ESL Server User Manual

The demo kit does NOT include a barcode terminal or scanner, which can be used to link ESLs to products using barcodes. Any of the following barcode terminals or scanners can be used for this purpose:

 OPH100x (+ CRD100x cradle)  H13 (+ CRD13 cradle)  OPL9728 / OPL9815 (+ CRD9723RU cradle)  OPN2002/3/4/5/6 (+ mini USB cable)  CLK3000 (+ mini USB cable)  Any handheld barcode terminal with Wifi and a web browser  Any USB-HID barcode scanner

1.3. Physical Features

1.3.1. Dimensions

2” e-paper ESL (EE201): W 65.0 x D 34.0 x H 15.0 mm

Base station (EBS-30/40): W 145.0 x D 110.0 x H 30.0 mm (excl. antenna)

1.3.2. Weight

2” e-paper ESL (EE201): 25 g (incl. 2 batteries)

Base station (EBS-30/40): 125 g (excl. power supply)

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1.4. Environmental Specifications

1.4.1. Operating Temperature and Humidity (EE201)

Temperature: 5 to 50° C Humidity: 20-85%

1.4.2. Storage Temperature and Humidity (EE201)

Temperature: -20 to 60° C Humidity: 20-85%

1.5. Interface Specifications

The radio interface of both the base stations and ESLs have the following specifications:

 2.4gHz IEEE 802.15.4 compatible  Transmission speeds: up to 250 kbps

1.6. Electrical Specifications

1.6.1. Electrical Characteristics

EE201:

Parameter

Typical

Unit

Remarks

Operating voltage

2.8–3.2 V 2 x CR2450 Lithium battery

Operating current

7-33

During RF and image refresh only

Sleep current

EE201 is in sleep state >99,9%

EBS-30 / EBS-40:

Parameter

Typical

Unit

Remarks

Operating voltage

6.0

Power adapter

Operating current

<300

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1.6.2. Main Batteries

The main batteries in the EE20x are 2 CR2450 Li-Mn batteries:

 Nominal capacity: 2x600 mAh  Nominal voltage: 3V  Low voltage: Less than 2.8 V  Operating time: >7 years (default settings; 4 refreshes/day; 15-25° C)

The operating time of the batteries is based on a realistic estimation of any of the following factors that influence the battery life:

Factor

Default values and estimated averages

Correlation * (Higher is better)

Influence

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 Yes

20%

Out of range / base station OFF %

Not connected: 2% Number of channels: 5

No No

4% Sleep time

99,9%

Yes

Battery self-discharge

1 % / year

* The correlation shows whether increasing the listed value increases or decreases the power consumption of the ESLs.

For example:

 Increasing the poll interval lowers the power consumption  Turning off the base stations increases the power consumption  A lower operating temperature increases the power consumption  More display updates per day increase the power consumption

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1.7. Hardware Specifications

Items

Specifications

Remarks

CPU

Type

Stellaris LM3S9B96 (EBS-30) Cortext-M4F TM4C129 (EBS-40) CC2530-F128 (EE200) CC2533-F96 (EE201)

Internal ROM

256 KB (EBS-30) / 512 KB (EBS-40) 128 KB (EE200) 96 KB (EE201)

Internal RAM

96KB (EBS-30) / 256KB (EBS-40) 8 KB (EE200) 6 KB (EE201)

External RAM

8MB (EBS-30 / EBS-40) N/A (EE200) N/A (EE201)

Clock frequency

80 MHz (EBS-30) / 120MHz (EBS-40) 32 MHz (EE20x)

Display (EE20x)

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-xx)

Ethernet

10/100 Mbit

Radio Frequency

2.4gHz

Protocol

IEEE 802.15.4

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1.8. Serial Number

1.8.1. EBS-30 / EBS-31 / EBS-40

The serial number can be found on the back of the base station. The base stations also have a unique MAC-address which is used for both Ethernet and radio communication.

1.8.2. ESLs

The serial number of the ESLs is based on the 16 hexadecimal digits MAC-address of the RF-module.

However, the first 6 or 9 digits of the MAC address have been replaced by a letter.  ‘B’ (instead of ‘3889DC’ or ‘3889DC000’) The default barcode that is shown on the display of the ESL is identical to the bar code on

the back of the ESL.

1.9. Safety

Handle this product carefully. Do not deliberately subject it to any of the following.

1.9.1. Shock

Do not throw or drop the devices

1.9.2. Temperature Conditions

Do not use the devices at temperatures outside the specified range. Do not pour water on the devices. Do not throw the devices into the fire. Do not forcibly bend the cable at low temperatures.

1.9.3. Foreign Materials

Do not immerse the devices in liquids. Do not subject the devices to chemicals.

1.9.4. Other

Do not plug/unplug the connectors before disconnecting the power. Do not disassemble this product. The device may be damaged by power surges

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2. Solution overview

5 different solutions are currently supported by the ESL server application:

 CSV-file solution. The CSV-file based solution operates by running the provided ESL

server application that monitors an input folder in which CSV-files, containing the product and link databases, are being placed by a back office system. Logging is done in a SQLite database file.

 SQL solution. The SQL-based solution (MS-SQL, MySQL, Oracle, SQLite, PostgreSQL or

DB2) provides the possibility to monitor and control multiple stores using one central of multiple local SQL databases in combination with the provided web application. The local ESL server application monitors an SQL database using staging tables and processes them and inserts status information of all ESLs into the SQL database. Optionally an ODBC data source can be used to connect using a DSN of an SQL database.

 CSV / SQL hybrid solution. Uses the provided ESL server application that monitors an

input folder in which CSV-files, containing the product and link databases, are being placed by a back office system, but inserts status information of all ESLs into a local SQL database to allow remote monitoring of the ESL system.

 External content management solution. Allows the connecting of an existing content

management system to the ESL server. Pre-generated images are placed into an input folder, which are automatically processed and send the corresponding ESLs. Logging of status information can be done by SQL if desired.

 SQL API. The ESL server supports a full SQL API, which can be used to create your own

(web) application by executing SQL queries to (remotely) control and monitor the ESL system, while running the ESL server as background service.

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2.1. CSV-file based solution

The CSV-file based solution operates by running the provided ESL server application that:

 Monitors an input folder in which CSV-product databases are being placed by a back office

system and processes them (optionally with pre-processing by a middleware application).

 Controls, monitors and configure ESLs and base stations  Allows manual editing of product and link data bases  Creates/changes image templates, generates the ESL images and sent them to the ESLs  Processes linking information from a handheld Wi-Fi barcode device or batch scanner  Stores log and status information into a local SQLite database file

A global overview of this solution is shown below. The following chapters will describe the different parts of this system in more detail and how to get started.

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2.2. SQL Solution

The SQL-based solution provides the possibility to monitor and control multiple stores using one central or multiple local SQL databases in combination with the provided web application.

The local ESL server application(s) will:

 Monitor a local or central SQL database using staging tables and processes them.  Inserts status information of all ESLs into the SQL database  Controls, monitors and configures ESLs and base stations  Allows manual editing of product and link data bases (optional)  Creates/changes image templates, generates the ESL images and sent them to the ESLs

The web application can be added to provide remote and in-store control over the ESL system. A global overview of this solution is shown below. The following chapters will describe the different

parts of this system in more detail and how to get started.

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2.3. CSV / SQL hybrid solution

The CSV / SQL hybrid solution matches the CSV-solution with as only difference that all status information on the ESLs and base station are logged into a local SQL database which can be retrieved by the back office system. See chapter 7.4 for more information.

2.4. External content management solution

When using external content management solution the back office or content management system handles the generation of the images and the linking of products to ESLs.

The ESL server application basically only monitors an input folder for new images and distributes them to the corresponding base stations / ESLs.

Status information will be logged into a local SQL database. See chapter 7.5 for more information.

2.5. SQL API

SQL can be used as API to create your own (web) application by executing SQL queries to control and monitor the ESL system, while running the ESL server as background service.

See chapter 7.2 for information on how to use the SQL product and link staging tables to link and update ESLs and use the status tables to monitor the ESL system.

See chapter 12 on how run the ESL server as service. See Appendix I: Using the SQL API for more information on this API.

For maximum flexibility the SQL API can also be used in combination with the CSV/SQL hybrid solution and with the external content management solution.

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3. Setting up the hardware and software

This SDK contains the following pieces of hardware and software that will have to be installed in order to get an ESL demonstration or pilot up and running:

 The ESL Demo kit installer containing:

 The ESL server application  The ESL Web application  Example database files and image templates  Firmware for the barcode terminal, base station and ESLs  Appload (optional)  USB drivers for the barcode terminal cradle (optional)  User manual

 1 EBS30 / EBS40 Base station(s) that includes:

 6V Power supply  Ethernet cable

 6 EE201 2-inch e-paper ESLs (batteries included)

To be able to quickly link ESLs to products using barcodes, you can use the following options:

 USB-HID barcode scanner (connected to the ESL server or by using the local web application)

 OPH1004, H13, OPN2006 or OPH300x barcode terminal (incl. communication cradle/cable)

 H21, H22 or H32 using Wifi (requires a local web server running the provided web application)

3.1. Installing the ESL Server application

To install and run the software you will also need a PC running Windows 7 or Windows XP (with server pack 3) as server.

Before installing the software, make sure you have administrator rights and the PC is fully updated with al Windows updates, including the latest Internet Explorer updates.

If your PC doesn’t have .NET Framework 3.5 (or higher) installed, you will have to install it prior to installing the ESL Server application.

Run the SDK installer by starting the ‘setup.exe’ file. Select the components that you wish to install. If you haven’t installed Appload or the Opticon

USB drivers on your PC before, make sure you install those components as well.

3.2. Installing and finding the EBS3x / EBS40 base stations

The base station can easily be installed by powering it up, connecting it to the Ethernet with DHCP support and placing it within 10 meter (the actual maximum range is bigger) of your ESLs. The PC will need to be connected to the same LAN, so it can communicate with the base station*.

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After starting the application for the first time, no base station will be available to communicate with ESLs.

Press the ‘Find’ button on the ‘Base stations-tab to find the connected base station.

Select the discovered base station to add and connect your PC to the base station.* If activated ESLs are nearby, then the ESL count will start incrementing as they start connecting

to the base station. However if the ESLs are still ‘deactivated’, they will first have to be reactivated.

* Note 1: when the base station is connected to the LAN with DHCP the IP address can vary over time, making it necessary to remove the old base station entry by pressing the ‘Delete’-key of your keyboard and discovering the base station again using the ‘find' button. Using static IP leases in the DHCP server can resolve this problem.

* Note 2: when the base station is connected to the LAN without DHCP, the default IP address/subnet mask of the base station is 169.254.19.63 / 255.255.0.0. Configure a PC or laptop on the same subnet to change this using a web browser.

3.3. Installing and activating the ESLs

On arrival the ESLs already have their batteries inserted. However, to allow safe transport by airplane, it is likely that the ESLs will show a

‘DEACTIVATED’ message in their left top corner. This means the ESLs do not emit any radio

signals and won’t be searching for base stations at this point.

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To reactivate these ESLs place them nearby the connected base station and select the base station in the list view of the ‘Base stations’-tab. This allows you to press the ‘Reactivate ESLs’ button in the bottom right corner.

After pressing this button, a dialog will appear showing a progress bar and how many ESLs have been reactivated so far.

Since the ESLs will only wake-up for a split second every few minutes, it can take more than 15 minutes before all ESLs have been successfully reactivated. You can verify this by checking

whether the ‘DEACTIVATED’ message has disappeared from the screen.

Active ESL’s will be periodically seek for an Opticon base station, so as soon as an Opticon

base station is within range, they will associate with it and start sending data requests and status information to it. When a base station is turned off or an ESL is moved out of range, an ESL will time out after a couple of minutes and starts seeking for another base station in range. See chapter 6.1 for more information about configuring ESLs.

It might be possible that even though the ESLs are working properly, they still don’t connect to the base station. This might be caused by strong interference on the default RF-channel of the base station. To resolve this problem, see chapter 5.1

3.4. Mounting ESLs

Since there are many types of mounting clips to mount shelf labels to shelves, the ESLs of the demo kit are supplied without mounting clips. Please contact Opticon for more information on the mounting possibilities of our ESLs to your shelves. For simple demonstration purposes with small amounts of labels one might also consider using double sided foam tape as a temporarily solution.

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4. Linking of ESLs to products

Linking of ESLs is the process of telling the system which product should be shown on which ESL. This is usually done by scanning the MAC address bar code on the ESL label followed by scanning (or entering) the unique ID of the product.

The unique ID can be anything: an EAN code, article number, location, room number, etc. As long as it’s a unique identifier in the database, it can be linked to an ESL.

Opticon provides 3 methods for linking ESLs to products in your product database.

1. Using the ESL server application (manually or by using a USB-HID barcode scanner )

 Advantage: Linking of ESLs in the ESL server application requires no additional hardware.

This makes it ideal for demonstration purposes and small installations.

 Disadvantage: The ESL server usually isn’t located right next to the products and ESLs in a

store, which makes scanning both the ESLs and products and time consuming process

2. Using the provided web application (requires a handheld terminal with web browser & Wifi)

 Advantage: Linking of ESLs using a web application is quick and can be done everywhere

in the store with almost all handheld barcode device (as long as it has a web browser and Wifi). ESLs will immediately start updating after linking.

 Disadvantage: Requires that the Web application is installed using an HTTP-server (like

Apache) and to be available on the Wifi network.

3. Using an Opticon batch terminal

 Advantage: Linking using a batch terminal is quick and can be done everywhere in the

store and without any wireless connection.

 Disadvantage: It requires an Opticon batch terminal, which needs to be moved back to the

ESL server to upload the created link information. ESLs won’t start updating until the batch

terminal is connected to the ESL server PC.

The following 3 chapters will describe these 3 methods in more detail.

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4.1. Linking in the ESL server application

Linking in the ESL server application can be done manually and by using any USB-HID barcode scanner.

Hint: Using a USB-HID barcode scanner is quick and avoids human error.

To (un)link an ESL, either select the ESLs-tab of the ESL-server and double click on an ESL that needs to be (un)linked and then type, scan or find a product in the product database and then press apply.

Or select the ‘Data’-tab and press the ‘Add’ button or double-click on an existing link and then type, scan or find the MAC address of the ESL and the product ID.

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When using an USB-HID scanner, this can be quickly done by scanning the MAC address bar code on the ESL label followed by scanning the unique ID or barcode of the product.

4.2. Linking using an Opticon batch terminal

Opticon provide software for a wide variety of batch terminals to perform this task. The following bar code terminals are currently supported:

 OPN2002/5/6 (bar codes only; uses a mini USB cable)  OPH1004 (bar codes & keypad; requires a CRD1001 cradle)  H13 (bar codes & keypad; requires a CRD13 cradle)  OPL9728 (bar codes & keypad; requires a CRD9723RU cradle)  OPH3000 (bar codes & keypad; uses a mini USB cable)

More information on how to set-up the barcode terminal can be found in chapter 10.

4.3. Linking using the provided web application

Using Opticon’s H21, H22, H32 or any other Wifi terminal it is possible to link ESLs to products and monitor the ESL system using a WiFi connection. This is done by installing a local web-server that runs the provided web page to perform the linking.

For large installations this is the ideal solution, because it’s quick, can be done in the store, ESLs will immediately start updating after linking and it contains multiple monitoring options to check the status of all ESLs, products, base stations and the ESL server.

Using and setting up the web application is described in more detail in chapter 11.

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5. Configuring the base stations

Base stations have very few configurations besides the configuration of the Ethernet settings (which will be described in chapter 5.4). The only vital configuration is the RF channel on which the base station operates.

5.1. Configuring the RF channel

The base station operates on a single RF channel, which can be selected in a range of channel 11 to 26 (as specified by the IEEE 802.15.4 standard).

When using multiple base stations it’s strongly recommended to use a different RF channel for each base station within range to improve the maximum throughput of data and reduce data collisions.

Since the base station / ESLs, which apply the IEEE 802.15.4 standard, operate on the same

frequency band as i.e. WIFI and Bluetooth it’s important to make sure that a base station does not

operate on the same RF channel as any nearby WIFI network to minimize interference. To detect which RF-channels are least active, the base station can perform an energy scan on all

16 available channels and graphically show the energy levels in a real-time graph.

To check the energy levels on the RF bandwidth select the base station in the ‘Base stations’-tab and press the ‘Scan’ button.

Since the EE201 ESLs will (by default) only look for base stations on channels 11, 15, 20, 25 &

26. Look for the RF channel with the lowest energy level (on average) of these 5 channels.

If the RF channel of the base station is set to a channel outside this selection, the ESLs will not

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find the base station. If you do wish to use any of the other channels, then it’s necessary to first

configure a different RF channel selection into the ESLs before configuring the base stations. (See chapter 6.1.6)

Note: If an ESL is not associating to any base station and its RF channel range is unknown, then configure a base station to channel 11. This channel will always be scanned by an ESL to make sure they can always be found and reconfigured without having to look for it on all channels.

After determining the least active RF-channel, close the RfScan-dialog. After that you can change the ‘RF Channel’ in the ‘Configuration’ section of the ‘Base stations’-tab and press ‘Apply’ to confirm.

After the RF channel is changed the base station will automatically reset to apply the new setting. Be aware that any ESLs that were already associated with the base station before changing the

RF channel will lose their connection with the base station. By default it will take 30 polls (times the poll interval of 20 seconds) before the ESLs will time out and start looking for another base station.

To avoid having to wait a couple of minutes before the ESLs starts looking for the base station on the new RF-channel it’s possible to disassociate all the ESLs from the base station prior to

changing the RF channel. To do so, select all ESLs in the ‘ESLs’-tab that need to be

disassociated, then select the ‘Kick from base station’ action and press the ‘Start’ button. All ESLs should now start disassociating from base station. Once they’re all gone, quickly change the RF

channel and the ESLs should start to reappear again on the new channel.

5.2. Changing the local name

To make it easier to distinguish multiple base stations, it’s possible to assign a name to base stations. This can be done by editing the text field besides ‘Local name’ and pressing the ‘Apply’

button afterwards to store the name inside the base station.

5.3. Changing the PAN ID / LAN ID

This feature requires EBS3x firmware version: IBMV0015 or higher and EExxx firmware version IBxV0058 or higher!

Base stations are addressed by the ESLs by their PAN ID (2 bytes) and a 16-bit LAN-ID.

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The PAN-ID makes it possible to have multiple base stations operating on the same RF channel. By default the PAN ID is the same as the 2 least significant bytes of the MAC-address. In the extremely rare case that you will have two base stations that have the same default PAN ID, it’s necessary to change the PAN ID manually. In this case, edit the PAN-ID to a unique 4 digit

(hexadecimal) value and press the ‘Apply’ button afterwards to store the name inside the base

station. The LAN-ID makes it possible to run two or more parallel ESL networks next to each other. By

default the LAN-ID is 0000, which means any Opticon ESL will connect to this base station. To run two ESL networks in parallel, change the LAN-ID of both networks to non-zero.

Do this by configuring the LAN-ID of all base stations of both networks. Then make sure the LAN-

ID of all ESLs is cleared (=default), by using the ESL action: ‘Clear LAN Id’). Then move all ESLs

to a base station of the desired LAN-ID. Once all ESLs are associated to the correct network, choose the ESL action ‘Set LAN Id’ to lock the LAN-Id of the ESLs.

Be aware that any ESLs that were already associated with the base station before changing the PAN-ID or LAN-ID will lose their connection with the base station. By default it will take 10 or 20 polls (times the poll interval of 20 seconds) before the ESLs will time out and start looking for base stations again.

5.4. Configuring the Ethernet settings

By default the base station is configured with DHCP enabled. If DHCP is not available, then the EBS-3x / EBS-40 will be available on the following IP address and subnet mask: 169.254.19.63 /

255.255.0.0.

If DHCP is used, make sure the DHCP server always leases the same IP to the same base station to prevent having to find and add the base station again every time that the IP-addresses changes.

To change the Ethernet settings, you first have to find and add the base station in the ‘Base

stations’-tab of the ESL server application. After that, you can open the embedded webpage of the base station with your default web browser by pressing the ‘View’ button next to ‘Ethernet settings’.

It’s also possible to access this webpage directly from your web browser using the IP-address of

the base station. After that you can change all the settings of the base station by going to the ‘Configure’ page. Important notes:

 If DHCP is disabled and the current IP address and subnet mask are unknown, then it’s

possible to recover the EBS-3x/4x by applying power the device with the reset button pressed. This will re-enable DHCP temporarily to allow reconfiguration on a network with DHCP enabled.

 If DHCP isn’t available or working, then it’s possible to connect the base station directly to

the Ethernet port of your PC with the following IPv4 set-up: ‘Obtain IP address automatically disabled; IP: 169.254.19.61; Subnet: 255.255.0.0. After that the base station can be

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discovered and configured on the default IP-address: 169.254.19.63 using the configuration webpage.

 Do not use a WiFi connection to connect your ESL server to the EBS-3x/4x’s to unsure a

reliable connection.

 The default password of the configuration page is ‘admin’.  The base station can also be controlled over the Internet or via a public network, but it won’t

be a secure solution, since SSL isn’t supported yet in this SDK nor is the webpage password protected.

5.5. Factory default

To set the base station back to factory default, apply power with the reset button pressed and keep it pressed for 15 seconds. This will re-enable DHCP and set the IP address and subnet mask back to the default values: 169.254.19.63 / 255.255.0.0. Also the other configurations will reset to factory default.

Important: If DHCP is disabled and the current IP address and subnet mask are unknown, then it’s possible to recover the EBS-3x by applying power the device with the reset-key pressed. This will re-enable DHCP temporarily to allow reconfiguration of the base station on a network with DHCP enabled.

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5.6. Base station firmware update

The latest firmware is always included in the latest ESL server application, which can be downloaded from our FTP:

ftp://ftp.opticon.com/pub/ESL/

You can upgrade the firmware by selecting the base station in the base station-tab of the ESL server application and pressing the firmware update button on the bottom right.

The firmware file for the base station can be found in the 'firmware' folder of the installation directory of the ESL server.

Updating the base station firmware

5.6.1. Trouble shooting

If a firmware update fails, this can have a number of causes:

 Older firmware versions require the EBSxx and ESL server to be on the same subnet

(connect the EBSxx on the same subnet)

 One of the following ports is use: 67, 68, 69, 1002 or 13633 by another process (use netstat

to find out which process uses one of these ports.

 Your firewall of router is blocking on of the above ports.  Your router/switch has its own bootstrap server (BOOTP) enabled. Check your manual of

your router on how to disable BOOTP (i.e. using ‘ip dhcp bootp ignore’ on Cisco systems) or connect the EBSxx directly to your ESL server,

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6. Configuration and monitoring of ESLs

6.1. Configuration of ESLs

There are a number of configurations that can be made in the ESLs to control, customize them and to regulate power consumption.

To edit configurations of an ESL, go to the ‘ESL’-tab base station tab and select the ESLs that you which to configure. To select multiple ESLs, use the shift- or ctrl-key.

After doing so, the current settings of the first selected ESL will be shown below.

Note: If the base station has not yet received the settings from this ESL, then you’ll have to wait till

the settings have been received from the ESLs. These are automatically requested the next time the ESL polls for data.

There are 6 configurations that can be edited. These configurations will be described in the following chapters:

 Associate Interval  Poll interval  Poll timeout  Display orientation  Poll - Info ratio

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 Scan channels  Temperature range

6.1.1. Associate interval

When an ESL is not connected to any base station it will automatically start looking for nearby base stations. Since searching for base station consumes a relative large amount of power it will not continuously search, but only once every couple of seconds. The associate interval determines the time (in seconds) between two associating attempts of an ESL. The default associate interval is currently 60 seconds.

If an ESL stays disconnected for a longer period of time, then the associate interval will start to increase up to 15 minutes to minimize battery consumption.

The amount of power that is being consumed by the ESL, when it’s not connected to any base

station is also strongly related to the number of RF channels it is configured to search for base

stations. More information about the configuration of the ‘Scan Channels’ can be found in chapter

6.1.6.

6.1.2. Poll Interval

The poll interval specifies the interval (in seconds) at which the ESL sends a poll for data to the base station. This parameter is the most significant configuration of an ESL since it strongly determines the response time of an ESL (how fast is an image displayed) as well as the battery life time.

By default the ESLs poll every 20 seconds once they’re connected to a base station. This means that to response time of an ESL can be anywhere in between 0 to 20 seconds (unless the poll doesn’t arrive at the base station due to interference).

The poll interval greatly influence the battery life time, so lowering it is not recommended. For example, changing the poll interval from 20 seconds to 5 seconds will roughly triple the power consumption and thereby shorten the battery life time by a factor of 3.

An advantage of making the poll interval bigger is the reduction of the used bandwidth per ESL, making it possible to connect more ESLs to a single base station.

6.1.3. Poll timeout

The poll timeout specifies the number of polls without acknowledge from the base station after which the ESL will time out its connection and start searching for another base station. The default poll time out is currently 10 polls, so by default the time out is 10x20 seconds = 200 seconds.

6.1.4. Display orientation

It is allowed to mount ESLs up-side-down. To make sure that the images are displayed correctly, the display orientation can be changed to ‘Flipped’.

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6.1.5. Poll - Info Ratio

The poll info ratio determines how often ESLs will automatically send their current 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 selected un ESL in the ESL-tab. 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 relative high value, because settings and status usually don’t vary a lot. Also sending settings and status information uses more bandwidth and consumes more power than regular polls for data.

6.1.6. Scan channels

Once an ESL has associated (connected) to a base station, it operates on a single RF channel.

However when it’s not yet connected to a base station, the ESL will automatically scan a range of

RF-channels for base stations. The range of RF channels that an ESL will scan for base station is configurable. All channels in the range of channel 11 to 26 can be scanned by adding the channel in the dash-separated list of channels.

By default the channels 11, 15, 20, 25, 26 are enabled. Channel 11 can’t be disabled to make

sure that when an ESL that is not associating to any base station and its RF channel range is unknown, it can always be retrieved by configuring a nearby base station to channel 11.

6.1.7. Temperature range

Configures the temperature range at which the ESL is installed. Because e-paper displays become slower at low temperature, lowering the temperature range compensates for this to avoid the display not updating correctly.

Only use this feature when the display is not updating correctly under low temperatures, because lowering the temperature range increases power consumption, because it takes longer to update the display. Also be aware that low temperatures decrease the battery capacity and thereby also the battery life time.

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6.2. Monitoring of ESLs

All available information of an ESL can be displayed in the ESL-tab. Each column can be enabled or disabled by right-clicking of the column-header and (un)selecting items of the list below.

 Unique ID Unique ID of the product to which the ESL is linked.

o Red Product was not found in product database / image file could not be found

 MAC 16-digit MAC address of the ESL  Group Product group as configured in the ‘Data’-tab.  Description Product description as configured in the ‘Data’-tab.  Image file File name of the generated image for this ESL

o <Empty> ESL is not linked to any product o Light green Image on ESL is up-to-date o Dark green Image is currently updating o Yellow Image is currently updating (previous attempt failed) o Orange Image is ready for updating, but the ESL has not polled since o Red Error: Image file could not be found / Image update failed o Light grey ESL is missing / not associated to any base station

 Poll Interval Poll interval (see chapter 6.1.2)  Poll Timeout Poll time out (see chapter 6.1.3)  Associate Interval Associate interval (see chapter 6.1.1)

 Battery voltage Current battery voltage (deprecated)

 Model Hardware model of the ESL (i.e. EE200 / EE201)  Version Software version of the ESL firmware  SubVersion Software version of the sub-processor of the ESL (if present)  Image Id Image Id of the image on the ESL. (0=default image; 1=normal image)  Backlight Backlight setting of the ESL (only for TFT based ESLs)  Display Orientation Display Orientation (Normal or Flipped; See chapter 6.1.4)  LQI Indicator of the signal strength from an ESL (measured by base station)

o Dark orange (1-3) Link quality is poor and high packet loss (>60%) o Orange (4-7) Link quality is poor and significant packet loss (>20%) o Yellow (8-10) Link quality is poor, but no significant packet loss (<20%) o Light green (>10) Link quality is good and no significant packet loss

 LQI (Rx) Indicator of the signal strength from an ESL (measured by ESL)  Last Poll Time of the latest poll that has been received from the ESL  Base Station IP-address of the base station to which the ESL is currently connected

o Light green Base station is connected o Orange Base station is not connected o Light grey ESL is missing / not associated to any base station

 Status Current state of the ESL.  Temperature range Temperature setting: 0=default (higher the value, the lower the temp.)  Image status Shows the current status of the image update  Firmware status Shows the current status of the firmware update  LAN ID Shows the preferred LAN-ID on which the ESL will look for base stations

(0000=associate to any base station, XXXX = only associate to base stations with same LAN-ID or with 0000 only)

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6.3. Filtering ESLs

Using the newly added filter options in the ESL-tab it’s possible to sort and filter on almost any ESL property.

6.4. Controlling ESLs

ESLs can be further controlled by using the ‘Actions’ of the ESL-tab. To use these features, select one of more ESLs and then select the action that you wish to execute.

Features that are unavailable for this ESL will be grayed out. Below a description of the different actions is given.

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6.4.1. Actions

 Reset Resets the firmware of the ESL, causing it to reassociate with the

same base station

 Show default image Make the ESL show the default image with its MAC address (if the

ESL is linked, the default image is shown for 15 minutes after which the product image is send again)

 Refresh image Refreshes the current image on the ESL  Resend image Resends the current image to the ESL  Request settings Force the ESL to send its current settings  Unlink Unlinks the ESL from the link database  Find best base station Search for a base station with a better link quality  Kick from base station Search for another base station  Move to base station Move ESL to the specified base station  Set LAN-Id Sets the LAN-Id (see chapter 5.3)  Clear LAN-Id Clears the LAN-Id (see chapter 5.3)  Deactivate De-activate the ESL for transport or storage  Factory default Resets the firmware of the ESL to default  Radio test mode Used for certification only (disabled by default)

6.4.2. Load balancing

ESL server 1.45 and higher has to possibility to automatically and manually re-balance the ESLs over all available base stations. Enabling this option on a daily basis improved the average link quality of the ESLs, because all ESLs with poor link quality will check if there’s a better base station available.

Especially after a new base station was added or a base station has been temporarily offline, it can be beneficial to execute load balancing manually.

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Please note that load balancing significantly improves if ESL’s run firmware IBxV0058 or higher.

Be aware that during the rebalancing of the ESLs, they can appear to be offline for 1 to 15 minutes, so it’s safest to execute the daily load balancing at night to avoid slowing down the image updating process at daytime.

6.4.3. Firmware update

To upgrade the firmware of ESLs, select one of more ESLs and then press the ‘Firmware update’ browse button and select the correct firmware file for these ESLs, which can be found in the ‘Firmware’

sub-folder of the installation. Make sure the first 3 characters of the firmware file match the reported first 3 characters of the reported firmware version by these ESLs.

7. Database configuration

The ESL server support 8 different database formats:

CSV

Comma separated files. It’s easy to setup and it’s suitable for smaller projects and demos with a limited number of ESLs. Disadvantage is that the ESL server is difficult to control and monitor by an external server due to the limited feedback on the status of the ESL system. Also CSV-based systems tend to become slow when used with large numbers (thousands) of ESLs. Status information is stored in a SQLite database file. See chapter 7.1.

MySQL

MySQL is an OpenSource relational database system. Requires knowledge about SQL databases and MySQL has to be installed on your system. MySQL provides the possibility to monitor and control multiple stores using one central of multiple local SQL databases in combination with the provided web application. MySQL is suitable for a large number of ESLs per ESL server. See chapter 7.2.

MS-SQL

MS-SQL is a relational database system from Microsoft. Same advantages and disadvantages as MySQL and Oracle. MS-SQL has a slightly better performance over MySQL, because the ESL server is developed on and runs on a Microsoft platform. To use the provided webapplication it is recommended to create an ODBC data source. See chapter 7.2 and chapter 7.3.

Oracle

Oracle is a relational database system from Oracle. Same advantages and disadvantages as MySQL and MS-SQL. Oracle databases have tons of features, but this also makes them more complex to set-up and requires serious knowledge about this database format. To use the provided web-application it is recommended to create an ODBC data source. See chapter 7.2 and chapter 7.3.

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PostgreSQL

PostgreSQL is an OpenSource relational database system. Requires knowledge about SQL databases and PostgreSQL has to be installed on your system. To use the provided webapplication it is recommended to create an ODBC data source. See chapter 7.2 and chapter 7.3.

SQLite

SQLite is a lightweight cross-platform relational database library. It requires some knowledge about SQL-databases. No additional software has to be installed on your system and configurations are minimal. When using SQLite it is recommended to apply changes to the product and link table by placing CSV-files into the Input-folder to avoid locked database conflicts. To use the provided web-application it is recommended to create an ODBC data source. See chapter 7.2 and chapter 7.3.

DB2

DB2 is a relational database system of IBM. Requires knowledge about SQL databases and a DB2 database has to be installed on your system. Currently DB2 is only supported using an ODBC connection. To use the provided web-application it is recommended to create an ODBC data source. See chapter 7.2 and chapter 7.3.

ODBC

ODBC support makes it possible to connect to any SQL-based data source. ODBC makes it easier to connect to SQL based databases since it only requires a Data source name (DSN), username and password. Requires knowledge about ODBC and SQL-databases and it requires the installation of an ODBC-driver. An ODBC data source first needs to be configured using the ODBC data source control panel. Be aware that using an ODBC connection is generally slower than a direct connection to the SQL database. See chapter 7.3.

CSV & SQL hybrid

It is possible to combine the advantages of CSV and SQL by configuring a hybrid configuration with both CSV (to provide the product databases and ESL-product links) and SQL (to log all ESL and Base station status information). This makes it easy to link the back-office to the ESL server using CSV-files and all status information will be available for remote monitoring. See chapter

7.4

7.1. CSV Data base configuration

When using CSV-files, the ESL server application is triggered by files that are being placed in a

specified ‘Input’ folder by the back office. These can be either: CSV-, image or template files. Using a shared folder it’s possible to allow external access by the back office from anywhere in

the world.

If the back office system is not yet available, then it’s also possible to edit prices, links and

products manually in the ESL server application in the ‘Data’-tab. Alternatively there’s also the possibility to manually place (and rename) some CSV-files in the

‘Input folder’ (see chapter 7.1.1) for demonstration purposes and testing.

To select the CSV-database format, select ‘CSV’ in the ‘Data’-tab. See chapter 9 for information about on setting up the back office system.

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7.1.1. Changing the database format and settings

Important: Whenever you change the database format (i.e. by changing the field sequence or by adding/removing fields) or change the database set-up, then it will be necessary to place a new full copy of the product database in the ‘Input’-folder. This will automatically trigger the parsing of database with the new format or settings.

(a) Input Folder

Directory in which the back office uploads the new product data files (see chapter 9.1. The database files must have the file extension .csv in order to be detected by the ESL server application. Besides database files, it’s also possible to place ESL-product link files (see chapter 9.2), template files, images and template files in this folder for processing.

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(b) Output Folder

It will contain 2 CSV-files:

 dbase.csv (combined product database)  linked.csv (ESL-products links)

When using a bar code terminal for linking, it can also contain the following file:  scan.csv (truncated article database)

Any processed CSV-files from the Input folder will be moved to the sub-folder:  /Processed

Important note: The CSV parser field can best be left empty if no post processing is necessary on the provided CSV-files!

Executable of the middleware application that parses a new product databases into a combined database file (dbase.csv). When a bar code terminal is used, it can also generate a truncated article database (scan.csv) that is sent to the barcode terminal to allow linking of products to ESLs.

By default the CSV-parser expects the following field sequence in the CSV-files:

<Modification code>;<Unique ID>;<Barcode>;<Description>;<Group>;<From price>;<Sell

price>;<Discount %>;…;etc.

If the field sequence of the supplied database is different, then this can be changed by altering the following field numbers.

Important notes:

 The first field is field number ‘0’, the second is ‘1’, etc!  The default CSV-parser uses the field 0 to detect whether it’s a complete or modification

database file, so please don’t remove this field.

Unique Id field: Field number of the unique product ID in the CSV-record. Even though the product ID must be unique, it is allowed to have multiple records with the same ID in your database with different barcodes.

Barcode field: Field number of the product barcode in the CSV-record. If the barcode field is the same as the Unique Id field or when the barcode field isn’t unique or present, use the Unique Id field number for both configurations!

Description field: Field number of the product description in a CSV-record.

(The description is shown by the barcode terminal when a link is created, so the user can verify the correct product was linked).

Group field: Field number of the product group in a CSV-record. If no group field is present in the CSV-record, set the field number to ‘0’.

From price field: Field number that holds the ‘from price’ from the article. If no ‘from price’ is present in the CSV-record set it to the ‘sell price field’

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Sell price field: Field number that holds the current ‘sell price’ from the article. If no ‘sell price’ is present in the CSV-record set it to the ‘0’

Discount % field: Field number which holds the automatically calculated discount percentage. If

the ‘from price’ and ‘sell price’ fields are equal or set to ‘0’, then the discount percentage isn’t

calculated. Currency Symbol: Holds the currency symbol. Used by the image generator to add the currency

in front of the price. (Must be specified in the image template using %C%, see chapter 8)

Decimal Symbol: Holds the decimal symbol for prices, which can be either a dot or comma. If the user accidently types in a comma instead of a dot (or vice versa) in a price field, then the CSVparser will automatically correct this.

Display leading zero: Specifies the price formatting when the price is smaller than one standard currency (i.e. 0.75). The CSV-parser can automatically format prices in any of the following three formats: 0.75, -.75 or .75.

7.2. SQL Data base configuration

The ESL server supports MS-SQL, MySQL, SQLite, PostgreSQL, Oracle and DB2, which need to be installed besides the ESL server application in order to use it.

 MS-SQL Express Server 2012 (with tools) is available at Microsoft.com.  MySQL can be installed separately or using XAMPP (see chapter 11)  Oracle Express can be downloaded from ORACLE.com  PostgreSQL can be downloaded from postgresql.org  SQLite is file based and does not require any installation or configuration.  DB2 Express-C can be downloaded from IBM.com

The ESL server application will generate most SQL tables automatically, except for the product tables, which contain the product database.

The ESL Server installation contains example queries to quickly set-up a demo for each database format. The example queries can be found in the following folder of your installation

 ‘/Examples/’ The demo configuration for MySQL can be found in ‘Appendix B: My-SQL demo configuration’ The demo configuration for MS-SQL can be found in ‘Appendix C: MS-SQL demo configuration’ The demo configuration for Oracle can be found in ‘Appendix D: Oracle demo configuration’ The demo configuration for PgSQL can be found in ‘Appendix E: PostgreSQL demo configuration’

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The demo configuration for SQLite can be found in ‘Appendix F: SQLite demo configuration’ The demo configuration for DB2 can be found in ‘Appendix G: DB2 demo configuration’ Note: make sure the SQL-account, that is to be used by the ESL server, has sufficient rights to

read, write and create these tables. Also makes sure that the used login doesn’t require periodic password changes.

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7.2.1. Tables

When using SQL, the ESL server uses 10 SQL-tables in order to work properly, which have a couple of restrictions.

 A product table containing the product information, which allows the image content on the

ESLs to be automatically generated.

 A product staging table. Used to serve as the interface to add, modify and removes

products from the product table

 Link table This table is automatically generated and is used to containing the links

between products and links

 Link staging table. This table is automatically generated and is used as the interface to

create and remove links from the link table

 LabelStatus table. This table is automatically generated and is used to store all

information about each ESL in the server. This table is described in chapter 7.2.1.5.

 BaseStationStatus table. This table is automatically generated and is used to store all

information about each base station in the server. This table is described in chapter

7.2.1.6.

 Logging table. This table is automatically generated and is used to store events and

alerts and exceptions to help trouble shooting in case of problems.

 Users table. This table holds the users, encrypted passwords and access rights

 Change log table. This table is used to log user activity.

 (Optional) Product look-up table containing just bar codes and their related product ID.

It’s not actually used by the ESL server application, but it’s used by the included Web-app to link products to ESLs by scanning the barcode of a product followed by the barcode on

the ESL. This table is described in chapter 7.2.1.7. The following chapters will describe these tables in more details. (The ESL server also creates 3 ‘action’ tables, which are created to allow remote control over the

ESL server using SQL queries. See Appendix I: Using the SQL API.

7.2.1.1 Link table

Important note: Only the ESL server is allowed to modify this table directly. A link staging table is used for changing the content of this table, which is described in the following chapter.

The ESL server requires a link table that contains the links between the products and ESLs.

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If no Link-Table is supplied, then one will be automatically created (called "links") in the following format:

CREATE TABLE links

(

[ID] VARCHAR(40), [Variant] VARCHAR(1), [MAC] VARCHAR(16) NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY

)

If you wish to name the table or columns differently, this is allowed. You can do so by creating a table with the same format, but different table and column names.

The 1st column (ID) should contain the unique product code. The 2nd column (Variant) should contain the ESL software variant (‘H’=EE200/201, ‘I’=EE201) The 3rd column (MAC) should contain the MAC (or IEEE) addresses of the ESLs.

It is allowed to link the same product to multiple ESLs.

7.2.1.2 Link staging table

Staging tables are the interface tables between the remote database from the back office and the local SQL databases used by the ESL server.

If no Link staging-Table is supplied, then one will be automatically created (called "Links_Staging") in the following format:

CREATE TABLE links_staging

(

[ID] VARCHAR(40), [Variant] VARCHAR(1), [MAC] VARCHAR(16) NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY, [DELETE] VARCHAR(1)

)

Changed links should be inserted in the link staging table and the ESL server will automatically detect and process this data and insert the data into the Link table. If the processed data requires an ESL to be updated, it will automatically generate a new image and sent it to the ESL.

The link staging table must have the same formatting as the link table, but should also contain a

‘DELETE’ column. The ‘DELETE’ column makes it possible to remove a link from the link table, by

placing an ‘X’ in this column*.

* Oracle requires the column ‘DEL’ instead of ‘DELETE’

7.2.1.3 Product table

The product table should at least contain all the product information, which should be shown on the automatically generated image of ESLs.

Example queries for each SQL database format and matching configurations can be found in:

 Appendix B: My-SQL demo configuration

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 Appendix C: MS-SQL demo configuration  Appendix D: Oracle demo configuration  Appendix E: PostgreSQL demo configuration  Appendix F: SQLite demo configuration  Appendix G: DB2 demo configuration

The only mandatory column in the product table is the (product) ID column. If no additional barcode column is used, this column should be a VARCHAR string and marked as the PRIMARY KEY.

Always make sure to configure the ‘Unique ID’ field in the ‘Data’-tab as well.

It is recommended to name the [ID] column of the link table the same as the [ID] column of the product table.

The names and formats can be changed as desired. An example of a product table is shown below.

CREATE TABLE products (

[ID] VARCHAR(20) PRIMARY KEY, [Description] VARCHAR(60), [Group] VARCHAR(10), [Std. Price] VARCHAR(10), [Sell Price] VARCHAR(10), [Content] VARCHAR(20), [Unit] VARCHAR(10))

If barcodes, like EAN/UPC, are used for linking, then be aware that multiple EAN/UPC barcodes can exist for the same product(!) making them unsuitable as ‘Unique ID’.

In this situation the barcode column would be the ‘PRIMARY KEY’, but the product ID- column must be configured as ‘Unique ID’.

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An example of a product table with barcodes is shown below.

CREATE TABLE products

(

[Barcode] VARCHAR(20) PRIMARY KEY, [ID] VARCHAR(20), [Description] VARCHAR(60), [Group] VARCHAR(10), [Std. Price] VARCHAR(10), [Sell Price] VARCHAR(10), [Content] VARCHAR(20), [Unit] VARCHAR(10))

The configuration in the ‘Data’-tab would then become:

7.2.1.4 Product staging table

Changed product information should be inserted in the product staging table and the ESL server will automatically detect and process this data and insert the data into the Product table. If the processed data requires an ESL to be updated, it will automatically generate a new image and sent it to the ESL.

The product staging table must have the exact same formatting as the product table, but should

also contain a ‘DELETE’ column. The ‘DELETE’ column makes it possible to remove a product

from the link table, by placing an ‘X’ in this column. *

The product staging table that match the previous product table examples are shown below.

CREATE TABLE products_staging

(

[ID] VARCHAR(20) PRIMARY KEY, [Description] VARCHAR(60), [Group] VARCHAR(10), [Std. Price] VARCHAR(10), [Sell Price] VARCHAR(10), [Content] VARCHAR(20), [Unit] VARCHAR(10), [DELETE] VARCHAR(1))

Or with barcode column:

CREATE TABLE products_staging

(

[Barcode] VARCHAR(20) PRIMARY KEY, [ID] VARCHAR(20), ... )

* Oracle requires the column ‘DEL’ instead of ‘DELETE’

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7.2.1.5 ESL status and configuration table

When using SQL, the ESL server automatically creates a table called ‘labelstatus’. This table is used to store all information about each ESL in the server and has the following table design.

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Below an overview is given of the different fields in the ‘labelstatus’ table.

Unique article ID to which the ESL is linked. <Null> or empty if the ESL is/was present in the ESL system, but not linked.

MAC

16-digit hexadecimal IEEE (MAC) address of the ESL.

GROUP

If a group field is configured in the Data-tab, this field will contain the group of the product linked to the ESL

DESCRIPTION

If the ESL is linked, this field will contain the configured product description. <Null> if not linked or unknown

IMAGE_FILE

If the ESL is linked, this field will contain the file name of the automatically generated image content. <Null> if not linked.

POLL_INTERVAL

If the ESL is physically present, this field will contain the poll interval of the ESL. <Null> if the poll interval is unknown

POLL_TIMEOUT

If the ESL is physically present, this field will contain the poll timeout of the ESL. <Null> if the poll timeout is unknown

SCAN_INTERVAL

If the ESL is physically present, this field will contain the scan/associate interval of the ESL. <Null> if the interval is unknown.

BATTERY_STATUS

If the ESL is physically present, this field will contain the battery status of the ESL. 1=OK, 0=Low, <Null> = Unknown

VARIANT

If the ESL is physically present or linked, this field will contain the software variant of the ESL. ‘H’=EE200/EE201 and ‘I’=EE201. <Null> = Unknown

FIRMWARE_ VERSION

This field will contain the software version of the ESL. Typically in the format: IBxVyyyy. <Null> = Unknown

FIRMWARE_ SUBVERSION

This field will contain the software subversion of the ESL. Typically not used by e-paper based ESLs. <Null> = Unknown

IMAGE_ID

This field will contain the image ID of the image shown on the ESL. 0=default image; 1=custom Image; <Null> = Unknown. In the future the ESLs can contain multiple images.

BACKLIGHT

If the ESL is physically present, this field will contain the back light setting (ranging from 5-100(%), <Null> = unknown). Only used by TFT based ESLs

DISPLAY_OPTIONS

If the ESL is physically present, this field will contain the image orientation. 0=Normal, 1=Upside-down, <Null> = unknown

LQI

This field will contain the last received Link-Quality-Index, indicating the connection strength with the base station.

o -1 Unknown / not connected o 0-3 Link quality is poor and high packet loss (>40%) o 4-7 Link quality is poor and significant packet loss (>20%) o 8-10 Link quality is poor, but no significant packet loss (<20%) o >10 Link quality is good and no significant packet loss

LQI_RX

This field will contain the last received Link-Quality-Index measured by the ESL, indicating the connection strength with the base station. Ranges from 1-255 is fine, 0 is poor, <Null>=unknown.

LAST_POLL

This field will contain the UTC time of the last received poll for data. <Null> means unknown / never received. (This field is

currently not updated on each poll to reduce the amount of SQL queries executed by the ESL server).

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LAST_INFO

This field will contain the UTC time of the last reported status by the ESL. <Null> means unknown / never received.

LAST_IMAGE

This field will contain the UTC time of the last successful image update. <Null> means unknown or hasn’t been updated.

BASE_STATION

If the ESL is/was connected to a base station, this field will contain the IP address of the last base station it was connected to. String format is xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx (i.e. 192.168.0.12). <Null> = unknown or never connected. Use the ‘STATUS’ field to verify if the ESL is currently connected or not.

SCAN_CHANNELS

This field contains an integer value of which each bit represents an RF-channel on which the ESL will or will not search for base stations (when not connected). Example: 101746688 would represent a binary value of ‘110000100001000100000000000’. Counting from right to left this means, channels 11, 15, 20, 25 and 26 will be searched. <Null> = unknown.

STATUS

This field contains an integer value representing the last reported status of the ESL.

<NULL> = Unknown 0 = ASSOCIATED 1 = POLLING 2 = INFO RECEIVED 3 = DISASSOCIATED 4 = COMMAND COMPLETED 5 = COMMAND NOT_ACCEPTED / DISGARDED 6 = POLL TIMEOUT 7 = COMMAND_TIMEOUT

8 = ADDRESS CHANGED (factory status only)

9 = DEACTIVATED 10 = IMAGE_UPDATE_COMPLETED 11 = IMAGE_UPDATE_FAILED 12 = FIRMWARE_UPDATE_COMPLETED 13 = FIRMWARE_UPDATE_STARTED 14 = FIRMWARE_UPDATE_FAILED

15 = REACTIVATED

FIRMWARE_STATUS

This field contains an integer value representing the last reported status of the ESL.

<NULL> = Unknown 0 = Idle 1 = Firmware update pending 2 = Firmware update queud 3 = <not used for firmware updates> 4 = Firmware update failed 5 = <not used for firmware updates> 6 = <not used for firmware updates> 7 = <not used for firmware updates> 8 = Firmware update succesfully completed

IMAGE_STATUS

This field contains an integer value representing the last reported image status of the ESL.

<NULL> = Unknown 0 = Idle 1 = Image update pending

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2 = Image update queued 3 = Image update queued and next already pending 4 = Image update failed 5 = Image update failed, waiting for retry 6 = Image update failed, busy retrying 7 = Image update failed, busy retrying, next pending 8 = Image updated succesfully 16 = Image error (image could not be opened, found or generated)

X, Y

If the ESL is linked, these fields contain an integer value of the X-, Y-offset of the generated image on the ESL. Generally these values will be ‘0’. <Null> = Unknown or not linked

WIDTH, HEIGHT

If the ESL is linked, these fields contain an integer value of the width and height (in pixels) of the generated image on the ESL. Generally these values will be 200 x 96 for the EE201. <Null> = Unknown or not linked

IMG_IX

This field will generally be ‘0’. Only if multiple products will be shown on a single large ESL, then IMG_IX will be different for each image that is displayed on the ESL. <Null> = Unknown or not linked

IMG_FORMAT

If an e-paper ESL is linked, this field will generally be set to ‘1’ indicating that the image is transmitted compressed to the ESL. If

the data is sent uncompressed it would be ‘0’. Other values are

reserved for TFT based ESLs (TIFF=2, JPG=3, GIF=4, FIRMARE=5). <Null> = Unknown or not linked

BOOT_COUNT

Shows how many time the firmware of the ESL was reset

TEMPERATURE

Shows the temperature range on which the ESL is supposed to run on (0=default; higher values are to compensate for low temperatures). Please note that low temperatures and values > 0 will increase power consumption!

LANID

LANID = 0000 means ESL will associate to all base stations. LANID <> 0000 means ESLs will only associate to base stations with the same LANID or with LANID 0000

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7.2.1.6 Base station Status table

When using SQL, the ESL server automatically creates a table called ‘basestationstatus’. This table is used to store all information about each base station in the server application and has the following table design

MAC

12-digit hexadecimal MAC address of the base station

IP_ADDRESS

Current IP address of the base station

PORT

Current IP port number of the base station

MODEL

Current hardware model of the base station (EBS30/EBS31/EBS40)

NAME

Current local name f the base station

PAN_ID

Current PAN-Id on which this base station operates

CHANNEL

Current RF-channel on which this base station operates

VERSION

Firmware version of the base station

STATUS

Current connection status (Connected or Disconnected)

ESLS

Current number of associated ESLs to this base station

MIN_LOAD

RFU (for load balancing)

MAX_LOAD

RFU (for load balancing)

LAN_ID

LANID = 0000 (default) means all ESL will associate with this base station. LANID <> 0000 means only ESLs with the same LANID or with LANID=0 will associate with this base stations

7.2.1.7 Logging table

When using SQL, the ESL server automatically creates a table called ‘esllog. This table is used to store all alerts and events, except user activity. This table has the following table design

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7.2.1.8 Change log table

When using SQL, the ESL server automatically creates a table called ‘changelog. This table is

used to store user activity. This table has the following table design

This table is used for by the ESL server and the Web application.

7.2.1.9 User table

When using SQL, the ESL server automatically creates a table called ‘user. This table is used to

store usernames, encrypted password and access rights.

This table is used for user access control by the ESL server and the Web application. Users can only be added, removed or altered in the ESL server application.

7.2.1.10 (deprecated) Product look-up table

This table is only required when the ‘Web-application for linking’ is used and no barcode column has been added to the ‘Product’ tables.

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A product look-up table can be added for easy linking of products to ESLs by scanning the barcode of a product followed by the address barcode on the ESL. This table should only contain the bar codes and related unique product IDs and a short description of the product.

A typical product look-up table would be created using the following query. The use of the barcode column as primary key makes it possible to have products with multiple barcodes.

CREATE TABLE barcodes

(

[Barcode] VARCHAR(40) NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY, [ProductID] VARCHAR(40) NOT NULL, [Description] VARCHAR(50),

)

Important notes: Please make sure that the barcodes in this table are in the same format as output format of the handheld barcode reader. Databases often strip any leading zeros and/or checksums, while barcode readers DO output them. This can cause barcodes of products not to be recognized.

When using the supplied WebApp or using a barcode terminal to link ESLs, ALL barcodes in the look-up table should NOT have any leading zeros.

7.2.2. Connection

To configure the connection with the SQL database,first select which type of SQL database is used. This can be MySQL, MS-SQL, SQLite, Oracle and PostgreSQL.

Alternatively an ODBC data source can be used to connect to a SQL based database. See chapter 7.3 for more information.

Next, fill in the SQL Server address, login, password and database name and press ‘Test’ to verify the connection with the SQL server is configured correctly.

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7.2.3. Tables configuration

After a successful connection to the SQL server select the two product tables and two link tables. The other tables will be generated automatically, but can be renamed if desired.

7.2.4. Fields configuration

The Fields-tab configures which fields of the product table are the ‘Barcode’, ‘Unique ID’, ‘Group’ and ‘Description’ field. (The sell and standard price are used only by the web application)

7.2.5. Web Application

Configuration of the Web application is described in Chapter 11.

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7.2.6. Advanced Settings

7.2.6.1 Currency

The selected currency is used only by the Template editor in case a ‘Currency’ field is added in a template.

7.2.6.2 Culture info

The culture info setting must match the culture settings of the SQL database to avoid issues with notation differences of decimal separators (dot or comma).

7.2.6.3 Process staging tables interval

The ‘process staging tables’ setting specifies how often staging tables are processed (in seconds)

7.2.6.4 Update status tables interval

The ‘update status tables’ setting specifies how often the ESL server updates the status of the

ESLs and base stations in the database.

7.2.6.5 Generate column for layering support

Only use this option when multiple products must be displayed on a single ESL!

Adds an extra column to the link-tables to support multiple products on a single ESL

7.2.6.6 Load only linked products in memory

Enable this option when the product table is extremely large (i.e. more than 1 million items) or when the product table is ‘read only’ for the ESL server. Create and select an extra product table in which the ESL server can store the product

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information of all the products that are linked to an ESL. The structure of this table must be identical to the structure of the selected ‘Product Table’.

Note: Finding products that are not linked to an ESL and altering products in the Data-tab is not possible when this option is enabled.

7.2.6.7 Field separator (for CSV-import)

When using SQL it is still allowed to input CSV-files (product and link files) into the configured Input-folder as long as the format of the number of columns and the sequence of the columns in the CSV-file matches the product and/or link table. The field separator option configures the field separator that is used in the CSV-files.

7.2.7. Apply and reset

Press ‘Apply’ to finish the configuration. After a successful configuration, it is now possible to start adding products to the product staging

table using standard SQL queries. An example of a query to add a product to the product staging table would look like this:

CREATE TABLE products_staging

(

[ID] VARCHAR(20) PRIMARY KEY, [Description] VARCHAR(60), [Group] VARCHAR(10), [Std. Price] VARCHAR(10), [Sell Price] VARCHAR(10), [Content] VARCHAR(20), [Unit] VARCHAR(10), [DELETE] VARCHAR(1)

)

INSERT INTO [products_staging] (

[ID], [Description], [Group], [Std. Price], [Sell Price], [Content], [Unit], [DELETE] )

VALUES

('031',

'HOUSE WINE RED', '30', '3,00', '3,00', '2', 'LT', ''

)

To delete a product use ‘X’ as value for the [DELETE] field.* An example of a query to add a new link to the link staging table would look like this:

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INSERT INTO Links_Staging ([ID], [Variant], [MAC], [DELETE])

VALUES ('008', 'H', '3889DC00010DA031', '');

To delete a link, use ‘X’ as value for the [DELETE] field and [ID] and [Variant] can be left empty.

INSERT INTO Links_Staging ([ID], [Variant], [MAC], [DELETE])

VALUES (NULL, NULL, '3889DC00010DA031', 'X');

* Oracle requires the column ‘DEL’ instead of ‘DELETE’

Links can also be added manually, which is described in the following chapters. It’s also possible to create links by using the supplied web application for Wifi barcode terminals

like the H22, which allows quick linking by scanning the barcode on a products and the barcode on the ESL. This requires a web-server running the web-app and a barcode field to be present in the product table or otherwise a separate product look-up table to be present. See chapter 11 for more information.

7.3. Open DataBase Connectivity (ODBC) configuration

ODBC support makes it possible to connect to the following SQL-based data sources:

 MS-SQL  SQLite  PostgreSQL  MySQL  Oracle  DB2

Connecting to an ODBC data source only requires a Data source name (DSN), username and password, which makes the configuration in the ESL server easier.

Before configuring the ESL server, first make sure the ODBC data source has been created using the ODBC data source control panel as System DSN and that the required ODBC driver has been installed. Make sure that the 32-bit or 64-bit architecture of the ODBC connection matches that of the ESL server (and, if used, of the HTTP-server of the web application).

Below you’ll find a few example configurations for various ODBC data sources.

ODBC DSN configuration to a SQLite database

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ODBC DSN configuration to a MySQL database

ODBC DSN configuration to an Oracle database

ODBC DSN configuration to a PostgreSQL database

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ODBC DSN configuration to a MS-SQL express database

ODBC DSN configuration to a DB2 database

7.4. CSV / SQL Hybrid configuration

When using a CSV / SQL hybrid solution the product databases and ESL-product links are provided by CSV-files, but all ESL and Base station status information are logged into an SQL database. This makes it easier to link the back-office to the ESL server using simple CSV-files and all status information is logged into an SQL database for external monitoring and trouble shooting. Also the start-up time of the ESL server will be significantly faster when a large

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number of ESLs are linked compared to using CSV only. To make such a configuration, start by configuring the ESL server with a standard CSV

configuration as described in chapter 7.1. When done, go to the ‘Settings’-tab and change the ‘database format’ for logging to the desired

SQL database format as shown below.

After that, go back to the ‘Data’-tab and temporarily change the ‘Database format’ to the desired SQL format as shown below.

Configure all SQL options as described in the previous chapter, but clear the product and link table fields.

When done, the SQL table configuration should look like this:

To test the SQL configuration, press the ‘Test’ button. If the connection is OK, then press ‘Apply’ to save the SQL configuration.

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The various SQL tables will be automatically created. After that, change back the ‘Database format’ to ‘CSV’ and press ‘Apply’ again to finish the

configuration.

7.5. External content management configuration

When using the external content management solution the 3rd party content management system handles the generation of the images and the linking of products to ESLs.

The ESL server application monitors an input folder for new images and distributes them to the corresponding base stations / ESLs.

The only main database configurations for this set-up in the ESL server are the ‘Input’ and

‘Output’ folder (select CSV-database format). The other configurations will be ignored.

If the ‘Output’ folder already contains the files ‘dbase.csv’ or ‘linked.csv’ then these files should be

removed, so the system won’t use them as product or link database

Optionally, status information can be logged into a SQL database using the same configuration as described in chapter 7.4

If desired, remote control over the base stations and ESLs can be achieved using SQL queries as described in ‘Appendix I: Using the SQL API’

When the images for ESLs are generated and supplied by the content management system, then they must meet the following criteria:

 The image format must be either .bmp, .gif or .png  The images must be monochrome or black/white/red (so no gray scale or anti-aliasing

allowed!).

 Each image file must be uniquely named for each ESL (it's not allowed to use the same

image file for multiple ESLs)

In order to process image files automatically the ESL server they should be placed in the configured 'Input'-folder, accompanied by a matching xml-info file.

The xml-info file provides the ESL server application with information on which image should be shown on which ESL and some other optional information which is displayed in the ESL server application.

The file name of the xml-info file is predetermined to:

<MAC address>.XML (i.e. 3889DC0000002345.xml)

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Example of an xml-info file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <EslImageInfo xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"> <ImageFile>3889DC0000003441.bmp</ImageFile> <ID>001</ID> <X>0</X> <Y>0</Y> <HOffset>0</HOffset> <VOffset>0</VOffset> <Variant>H</Variant> <Group>Vegetables</Group> <Note>YELLOW CARROTS</Note> <Label>3889DC0000003441</Label> <Width>200</Width> <Height>96</Height> <Ix>1</Ix> <Format>1</Format> </EslImageInfo>

The variable fields are marked in bold and the functions of these fields are described on the next page.

<ImageFile> : Must match the image file name for this ESL (.bmp, .gif or .png) <ID> : Unique product ID to which the ESL is linked <Variant> : The 3rd digit of the firmware version of the ESL <Group> : Group field is intended to supply additional information to the user on the product group in the 'ESL'-tab (useful for sorting or searching) <Note> : Note field is intended to supply additional information to the user about the product in the 'ESL'-tab (useful for sorting or searching) <Label> : 16-digit MAC of the ESL for which the image is intended <Width> / : Display resolution (i.e. the EE201 image size is 200 x 96 pixels) <Height> <Ix> : Used by the ESL server to keep track which image is currently displayed on the ESL. It should increment from 1 to 255, 1 to 255, etc. 0=reserved for the default image. Not incrementing the image index can lead to incorrect images on the ESL display if a new image update for the same ESL starts before the previous update was finished. <Format> : Determines the image transfer protocol, for the EE201 it should be fixed to '1'. (It’s not related to using bmp, png or gif)

To unlink an ESL, place an XML-file into the ‘Input’-folder with following name format:

<MAC address>.XML

To indicate this ESL should be unlinked leave the ImageFile-field empty: <ImageFile></ImageFile>

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7.6. Manual editing of the product database

Using the ‘Data’-tab of the ESL server application it is possible to quickly view and edit the content of the current product database. To do this, select the field that you wish to change and edit the value.

After editing, press the ‘Save Changes’ button in the lower-left corner to apply the changes. The changes will be automatically processed and send to the ESLs if the resulting image is altered. To undo any unsaved changes, press the ‘Reload’ button to reload to the original database.

7.7. Editing the Links-table

The ‘Links’ table tells the system which product should be shown on which ESL by linking the

MAC address of the ESL to a unique product ID.

The unique ID can be anything: an EAN code, article number, location, room number, etc. As long as it’s a unique identifier, it can be linked to an ESL.

Chapter 4 provides more information on how to link products to ESLs.

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8. Designing the ESL image layout

Probably the most important step in the customization process of the ESL system is specifying the images that should be displayed on the ESLs.

The template editing consists of 2 parts:

 Template selection Determines which template should be shown on which ESL variant

(i.e. EE201 or EE440) and under which conditions (i.e. discount or no discount)

 Template editing Determines the layout of the image that will be shown on the ESL Both aspects will be described in the following chapters. When designing the layout of an e-paper ESL, it’s important to know the limitations of what can

and what can’t be displayed on an ESL. The main characteristics are:

 Fixed resolution (i.e. 200x96 pixels for the EE20x)  Monochrome images (for black & white ESLs) or Black/white/red images (for BWR ESLs)  No anti-aliasing can be used on fonts (limiting the amount of available fonts)  Black / white (/red) company logos or other images can be added to the layout.  1D- and 2D-Barcodes can be added using information from the database  Texts, images and barcodes can be rotated in steps of 90°  Dynamic texts, using information from the database, can be added and aligned as desired.

The ‘Templates’-tab contains the following configurations:

 Template Folder Folder in which all templates are stored. The default location of the

templates is "/Templates".

 Images Folder All automatically generated images will be placed in this folder. Once

these images have been sent to ESLs they will be moved to the sub-folder: ‘/Completed’

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8.1. Template Selection

Template selection determines which image template is used under which conditions.

The template selection area lists all the found templates in the specified ‘Template folder’ and shows if the template is currently enabled and, if so, under which condition it must be used.

Example of the template selection area

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8.1.1. Conditions

To make it possible to use different templates under different conditions, a template can be configured as:

 ‘Default’- template Used if an ESL is linked to an known product  ‘Not found’-template Used if an ESL is linked to an unknown product  Conditional-template Used when the specified condition is TRUE

Conditional templates can be configured by selecting ‘<Conditional>’ in the dropdown-list or edited by pressing the ‘Condition editor’ icon.

The condition editor allows you to specify up to 4 conditions under which the template should be used.

Press OK to apply the condition for this template.

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Hints and tips:

 Only 1 ‘Default’-template can be enabled at a time

 Only 1 ‘Not found’-template can be enabled at a time

 ‘Conditional’-templates must be listed first, because the first template with a matching condition

will be used.

 Use the - button to change the template sequence.

 Use the -button to preview a template

 Use the -button to edit a template

 Use the -button to permanently delete a template

When done editing the template selection, press the ‘Apply’ button to save the template selection and apply the templates to any linked ESLs.

Use ‘Reset’ to revert all changes in the template selection (deleted templates can’t be reverted!)

To create a new template, press the button, after which the ‘Create New Template’dialog will appear to create a new template for a specific type of ESL.

After pressing the ‘OK’-button a new template is created, which you can start editing immediate.

Please note that this new template is still disabled to prevent accidentally sending an unfinished template to linked ESLs.

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8.2. Using the Template editor

Image templates can be create and edited to design your own label layout.

To edit an image layout template, press the button next an existing template or press the

- button to create a new template.

The opened template will be displayed on the right.

Click on an object in the template to edit its properties

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Image templates currently support 7 types of objects that can be added to design the ESL layout:

Text (fixed and dynamic)

Lines

Rectangles (filled / non-filled)

Ellipses (filled / non-filled)

Barcodes

Images (monochrome or black/white/red; fixed and dynamic)

Time stamp (of the last image update)

To add an object to the template, select the type of the object that you want to add, by pressing the corresponding button and draw a rectangle on the image to indicate the position of the new object. After drawing the object its properties can be changed as desired.

To edit an existing object, press the button and left-click on the object that you want to edit. Objects can also be moved by dragging and resized by selecting an object and dragging its

borders.

Note: The arrow keys can also be used to move a selected object.

To preview the template enable to get a realistic view on the end result.

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8.2.1. Static and dynamic Content

Static content of barcodes, images and text can be added by typing in the content-box:

Dynamic content is added by specifying a column from your product database using the dropdown-list of the content-box:

It’s also allowed to combine static context and/or multiple dynamic contents. To add a certain column of a database record to your template, add the column number between

two ‘%’-characters in the content field of the object. Example:

8.2.2. Conditional objects

Any type of object can be made conditional, meaning that it is only shown in the resulting image if specified condition is matched (i.e. a certain column contains a certain value).

This is can be done by pressing the -button next to the ‘Condition’-textbox to open the condition editor.

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8.3. Saving and exporting a template

When done editing, press the -button to save the template.

To save an existing under a different name, press the -button.

To undo all unsaved changes press the -button To apply/export a template to all linked ESLs, press the -button.

(Note: Make sure the applied template is enabled in the template selection area)

8.4. Using Example data

The ‘Example data’ area next to the Template selection provides the possibility to preview the image template with actual product data.

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If you leave these ‘Example data’ fields empty, then the preview of the Image template will show

its text ‘as is’ in the previewer. You can either change the ‘Example data’ manually or you can select one product from the

product database by pressing the -button. This way you can be sure the generated image will be correct.

Image preview with example data

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9. Connecting the back office using CSV-files

The back office triggers the ESL server application by placing a file, containing either only product modifications or a complete product database, in the ‘Input’ folder (see chapter 7.1).

Only one file may reside in this folder to enforce sequential handling. This means that the Back office may only store another file, when the current file has been processed and moved to a different folder.

To avoid read/write conflicts the database files should first be copied into the specified folder under a temporary name (i.e. *.tmp) and renamed to the correct name afterwards.

The placing and processing of incoming CSV-files should be done 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 the complete file has been moved or copied, the file will be renamed to its final name, i.e. ‘productdata_1.csv’, ‘productdata_2.csv’, etc.

 The server application will pick up the CSV-file as soon as it detects this rename file event.  The file will be processed instantly, as the records contain no start/end date.  Once a file is processed, it will be moved to the configurable ‘Processed’ folder and the Back office is

able to put another file in the folder.  When errors occur, they will be reported in an error log in the ‘Log’ folder. The data file will not be moved in case of errors.  The ESL server application will call the middleware applications to parse the incoming CSV-file into a combined database file. After that the ESL server application will generates the information and image files that are used to update the ESLs.

9.1. Product database format

Currently the only supported database format is CSV (comma separated values) with the following properties:

 UTF-8, UTF-7, ANSI or Unicode encoding (other encoding formats on request)  Allowed field separator(s): 1) semi-colons  Methods: 1) modification database (add, replace, delete) and 2) complete database  Each product in the database must contain a unique product ID field to allow linking of an ESL to a

product.

 If there’s 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.

 The adding of a product barcode field to the database isn’t mandatory. However it is recommended,

since it adds the possibility to quickly link ESLs to a product by simply scanning the barcodes on the product and the ESL using the barcode terminal.

 If any, a column header line should start with ‘#’.

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When using a modification database, the modification field should be located at the beginning of each line. As modification code the characters ‘I’ (Insert), ‘R’ (replace) and ‘D’ (delete) should be used.

The typical record format of a product modification database would be:

<Modification code>;<Unique ID>;<Barcode>;<Description>;<Field 4>;<Field 5>;etc.

When a complete database is used (meaning any new database file replaces the previous one), the first (modification) field of each line must be left empty.

The typical record format of a complete product database would be:

;<Unique ID>;<Barcode>;<Description>;<Field 4>;<Field 5>;etc.

Any field that should be displayed on the ESL should be in the same formatting as it should be displayed on the ESL, because the image generator uses the exact field data to render the images.

Note: Database formats other than CSV can be supported, but require modifications to the existing middleware application. Please contact Opticon for more information on supporting different database formats.

9.2. Product-ESL link database format

The link between an ESL label and a product is made by linking the unique MAC address of the ESL label to the unique product ID.

To create, modify or delete the product-ESL links various methods can be used:

 Using an Opticon barcode terminal (see chapter 10)  Using the ‘Data’-tab of the ESL server application (see chapter 7.7).  Using the web application for linking (see chapter 11)  Using a custom method (i.e. using an existing cash-register or terminal).

All of the above methods work by placing the product-ESL link database in the configured ‘Input’ folder, which is then automatically processed by the ESL Server application.

This link database is a CSV-file that must contain the word ‘link’ in its filename and has the extension ‘.csv’ (i.e. ‘Product_links1.csv’).

Each record of a complete link-file (to replace the existing link database) should have the following exact format:

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The hardware variant is the 3rd digit of the software version of an ESL. (For black/white/red ESLs a lowercase character must be used, for example use: ‘t’ for the EE150R)

Example:

012;H;3889DC00010DACCD 014;H;3889DC00010DA152 008;H;3889DC00010DD7C5 013;H;3889DC00010DA234 011;D;3889DC00010DAF28 010;D;3889DC00010DB222 009;D;3889DC00010DC9E1 015;H;3889DC000141BB01 016;H;3889DC00010DCF40 017;H;3889DC00010DAF3E

018;H;3889DC000141B84B

Each record of the modification link-file should have the following exact format:

When using a modification link-file, the allowed modification codes are ‘I’ (Insert), ‘R’ (replace) and ‘D’ (delete) should be used.

When deleting a record, only the MAC address field is mandatory. Example:

I;3;H;3889DC000141B633 I;2;H;3889DC000141B632 I;1;H;3889DC000141B634 I;1;K;3889DC000141B631 D;;;3889DC00028000A3 D;;;3889DC00028000B4 D;;;3889DC000141B57A I;6;H;3889DC000141B635 I;7;H;3889DC000141B631

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9.3. Middleware application (CSV-files only)

Note: By default the use of a middleware application is disabled (‘CSV-parser’ field in the ‘Data’tab is empty).

The ESL server application can use a middleware application to process the CSV-files from the Back office into a combined CSV-file that the ESL server application uses.

The tasks of the CSV-parser are:  Parse product database files (modification or complete databases) into a combined CSV-

database containing all product info.  Parse product-ESL link files (modification or complete databases) into a combined CSVdatabase containing all product-ESL links.

 (Optional) Generate a reduced article database (CSV-format) for the barcode terminal.  (Optional) Verify price formatting and calculate the discount percentage

To process a product database, the ESL server manager will call the CSV-parser with the following parameters as specified in the setup window of the ESL server application:

<CSV-parser>.exe –O<Output folder> -I<Image folder>

-i<Id field> -b<Barcode field> -d<Description field>

-f<From price field> -s<Sell price field>

-p<discount percentage field> -F<Field separator>

-D<Decimal symbol>

-Z<Display leading zero setting> (-Z –Z- or -Z0>

-T<Create barcode terminal file (scan.csv)> <Database file>.csv

So the default call by the ESL server application would be:

EGF3709x.exe -O"Output" -I"Output\Images" -i1 -b2 -d3 -f5 -s6 -p7 -F; -D. -Z0 "Input\ExampleData.csv"

To process a product-ESL link database, the ESL server manager will call the CSV-parser with the following parameters as specified in the setup window of the ESL server application:

<CSV-parser>.exe –O<Output folder> -i<Id field> <*link*>.csv

So the default call by the ESL server application would be:

EGF3709x.exe -O"Output" -i1 "Input\Linked.csv"

If used, the record format of the truncated database file (scan.csv) for the bar code terminal that is generated will have the following format:

If no barcodes are used in your application or when the Unique ID is the barcode, then the ‘Barcode’-field will be the same as the ‘Unique ID’-field.

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10. Barcode terminal application

An Opticon barcode terminal can be used to link an ESL (using its unique MAC address) to products, objects or locations. How to create these links will be described in the following chapter.

The barcode terminals that most suitable for this purpose are the OPH1004, OPH1005, H13, and OPH300x, in combination with a communication cradle or USB cable.

Also the OPN2002/4/5/6 can be used for quick linking only barcodes, but place keep in mind that this terminal does not have a display for detailed feedback or a keyboard for manual editing.

Alternatively, the most common method of linking is using the supplied Web application for linking that can be using on almost any barcode terminal with Wifi and a web browser, like the H21, H22 or H32. This is done by installing a local HTTP-server on the ESL server to the web application for linking and monitoring. See chapter 11 for more information.

10.1. Setting up the barcode terminal

When using the USB cable it’s necessary to install Opticons USB driver pack, which can be selected in the installer. The drivers can also be found in the ‘Tools’ folder of this installation.

If the ‘ESL Linking Application’ is not yet loaded on the terminal or needs to be updated, then the

software can be loaded by using the ‘Update Firmware’ option in the ‘Setup’ window of the ESL

server manager. *

To load the software, open the ‘Setup’-tab of the ESL server application. Make sure you’ve

selected the correct COM port. Then press the ‘Update Firmware’ button and select the correct

firmware file, being:

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 ‘OPH1004_H13_XPA3693x.HEX’ for the OPH1004/H13  ‘OPL9728_LBF3693x.S32’ for the OPL9728  ‘OPL9815_XFO3693x.hex’ for OPL9815  ‘OPN2002_3_RFG3693x.hex’ for the OPN2002 / OPN2003  ‘OPN2004_5_6_RFI3693x.hex’ for the OPN2004 / OPN2005 / OPN2006  ‘OPH3000_XFM3693x.hex’ for OPH3000/CLK3000  ‘OPH1005_XFP3693x.hex’ for OPH1005

These files can be found in the ‘Firmware’ folder of this installation. * Note: Updating the firmware of the barcode terminal can also be done using Appload. Appload

can be installed by selecting ‘Appload’ in the installer or it can be found in the ‘Tools’ folder.

10.2. Loading the database files on the terminal

Before any links can be created, the reduced product database (scan.csv) first has to be loaded on the terminal to allow the reading of the barcodes on product.

To be able to transfer files between the ESL server application and the barcode terminal the serial

port of the PC is used. Make sure you’ve enabled and configured the correct serial port in the

‘Setup’-tab in the server application.

Also verify that the field numbers of the unique ID, barcode and description match your CSVdatabase file (See chapter 7.1). Note that the first field is field number 0; the second is 1, etc.

Loading any files onto the terminal and sending back the resulting link database is done by placing the terminal into its cradle. As soon as the combined article database (scan.csv) or the link database has been changed, the server application will automatically synchronize the barcode terminal with the PC and process any modifications using the OseComm protocol.

When using the OPN200x or OPH300x with USB, then the file exchange has to be started manually

10.3. Creating links between ESLs and products

To create a link between an ESL and a product, the barcode on the back of an ESL needs to be scanned.

If the barcode on the e-paper ESLs is not accessible, it’s also possible to display this same barcode on the e-paper ESLs. To do so, select all ESLs in the ‘ESLs’-tab that have not yet been linked, then select the ‘Show default image’ action and press the ‘Start’ button. All ESLs should now start displaying the (default) barcode image containing the MAC address.

Note: The barcode on the ESL is truncated to fit the display, meaning that the first 6 or 9 digits (‘3889DC or ‘3889DC000’) have been replaced by the letter ‘B’.

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For re-linking and unlinking of ESLs that already show a product, it’s also possible to add the MAC address barcode to your template file, by adding a small bar at the top of the template containing this barcode. See chapter 8.2.1 for more information.

10.3.1. OPH100x, H13, OPH3000, OPL9728 or OPL9815

Make sure the correct firmware version is loaded on the terminal:

 ‘OPH1004_H13_XPA3693x.HEX’ for the OPH1004/H13  ‘OPL9728_LBF3693x.S32’ for the OPL9728  ‘OPL9815_XFO3693x.hex’ for OPL9815  ‘OPH3000_XFM3693x.hex’ for OPH3000/CLK3000  ‘OPH1005_XFP3693x.hex’ for OPH1005

Then press ‘1’ (Link ESLs) to start linking ESLs. To create a link, first scan the MAC address barcode on the ESL followed by entering or scanning

the unique ID or barcode of the product that you want to link to this ESL. After scanning/entering the product the terminal should say that the linking was successful

(‘Linking successful’). If the product wasn’t found in the database it will show a message that the product wasn’t found (‘Product not found’).

If you accidently linked the wrong product to an ESL, then you can correct this by scanning the ESL’s MAC address again and linking it to the correct product.

Settings:

The settings menu of the terminal can be accessed by pressing ‘4’ (‘Settings). This menu contains

2 options:

1. Delete data Deletes all files from the terminal, so also all links that have not yet been sent back to the PC.

2. Barcodes This menu can enable/disable different barcode symbologies, so almost all barcodes can be scanned.

Version:

Shows the version of the terminal application, which can be useful for support purposes.

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10.3.2. OPN2002/3/4/5/6

Make sure the correct firmware version is loaded on the terminal:

 ‘OPN2002_3_RFG3693x.hex’ for the OPN2002 / OPN2003  ‘OPN2004_5_6_RFI3693x.hex’ for the OPN2004 / OPN2005 / OPN2006

To create a link press the trigger button and scan the product barcode.

If the product wasn’t found in the database (or no database was present) it will sound an error beep to indicate the product wasn’t found.

If the product was found, the laser will stay on and will start beeping every second to indicate that you can now scan MAC address of the ESL.

After scanning the MAC address an OK-beep will be given to indicate that the linking was successful.

To delete an existing link, press the small button and scan the MAC address of the ESL. The OPN200x will either sound an OK-beep or an error-beep indicating the unlinking was successful or not.

_+-FORMAT-+_

Format Disk

* Note: Use the format label to erase all data from the OPN200x, in case you wish to start over.

10.4. Sending the link file back to the PC

After all links have been created using the barcode terminal, this information needs to be send back to the PC, so they can be processed by the server application. This can be done by placing the terminal back into its cradle (or connecting it to a USB-cable). The terminal should now automatically send the link database (linked.csv) back to the PC.

After the barcode terminal has sent back the link database, the ESL server application will parse the product database and link database into image files and update the ESLs if necessary.

Note: When using the OPN200x or OPH300x with USB, then the file exchange has to be started manually by pressing the ‘Start’ button on the ESL server in the ‘Settings’-tab.

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11. Using the Web Application for linking and monitoring

It is also possible to use the H21, H22, H32 or any other Wifi terminal to link ESL to products and monitor the ESL system using a WiFi connection. This is done by installing a local web-server on the ESL server to run a web page to perform the linking.

During installation, make sure you’ve checked the option ‘Install web application’. This will install

the web application into the ‘WebApp-Full’ sub-directory of the ESL server installation. The easiest way to set-up a local HTTP-server is by downloading and installing XAMPP from the

internet and installing the following features:

After installation, start the ‘XAMPP Control panel’ and press the ‘Config’ button next to ‘Apache’

and open the ‘httpd.config’ file.

Change the document root directory to the ‘/WebApp-Full' folder of your ESL server installation by changing both occurrences of ‘Documentroot’:

Example:

#<Directory "C:/xampp/htdocs"> DocumentRoot "C:/Opticon/ESL Server/WebApp-Full" #<Directory "C:/xampp/htdocs"> <Directory "C:/Opticon/ESL Server/WebApp-Full">

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Save the config-file and start the ‘Apache’ process in the ‘XAMPP Control panel’. If you’re running a different HTTP-server than Apache, please refer to the documentation of that

specific HTTP-server on how to change the ‘document root’ directory. The Web application should now be running. Open any web browser and enter ‘localhost’ to see

the web application.

The Web-application should be automatically configured by the ESL server to match the configuration of the ESL server itself. If this is not the cause, please verify that the Source folder of the Web application is correctly configured in the Data-tab.

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11.1. Web application with Oracle, PostgreSQL, SQLite, MS-SQL and DB2

When using the web application with these databases it is recommended to use an ODBC. If the ESL server connects to the database without ODBC, but the web application uses an ODBC

data source, then this DSN can be configured in the ‘Web application’-tab as shown below.

Be aware that it is important that the ODBC data source needs the same architecture as the HTTP-server. This means that a 32-bit HTTP-server requires a 32-bit ODBC driver/data source.

See chapter 7.3 for more information on how to set-up an ODBC connection.

12. Running the ESL server as service

To make sure the ESL server will always run on the background and can‘t be closed accidently, the ESL server can also be configured to run as service.

To run the ESL server as service, run the ESL server as administrator and go to the ‘Settings-tab and enable the option: ‘Run as Service’.

Secondly, the Windows account details on which the ESL server has been installed need to be

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filled in. This makes sure that the ESL service will run under the same Windows account and will use the same configuration file when it’s started manually with GUI (Graphical User Interface)

The shutdown time out of the service can be increased when closing generally takes longer than 15 seconds, i.e. when using a slow PC or when SQL is used in combination with a remote SQL server.

The service will be installed after pressing the ‘Install’ button and will start running as soon as the ESL server application is closed or after the PC has been rebooted.

After that, the ESL service will automatically be stopped (and restarted afterwards) when the ESL server is started with GUI.

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Appendix A: Demo barcodes

The quickest way to setup an ESL demonstration with barcode terminal is to simply use the included sample database and example templates. After installation of the software and hardware, the only configuration steps necessary are finding and adding of the base station and configuring the serial port of the barcode terminal.

The example database file will automatically be send 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 10).

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Appendix B: My-SQL demo configuration

The ESL Server installation contains example queries to quickly set-up a demo with MySQL. The example query can be found in the following folder of your installation.

 ‘/Examples/MySQL’

Use PhpMyAdmin to create a database called ‘esl’ and use the following configuration in the ESL server:

After making the configuration, use the ‘Test’-button to test the connection details.

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If the connection was successful, then press ‘Apply’ to save the settings. To create the product tables, use the Import-button to ‘Import’ the query-file:

 ‘/Examples/MySQL/products_mysql.sql’

The product data should now appear in the Data-tab. Product changes can now be made:

 Manually by editing the products in the Data-tab  By placing a compatible CSV-file in the configured Input-folder, which can be found here:

‘/Examples/CSV/products.csv’

 Using the provided full web application (price changes only)  Automatically by placing product changes into the ‘product staging’ table

See chapter 11 for more information on using the full Web application. See ‘Appendix A: Demo barcodes’ to demonstrate easy linking using EAN/UPC barcodes and a

barcode scanner.

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Appendix C: MS-SQL demo configuration

The ESL Server installation contains example queries to quickly set-up a demo with MS-SQL. The example query can be found in the following folder of your installation.

 ‘/Examples/MS-SQL’

Use SQL Server management studio to create a database called ‘ESL’ and use the following configuration in the ESL server:

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After making the configuration, use the ‘Test’-button to test the connection details. If the connection was successful, then press ‘Apply’ to save the settings. To create the product tables, use the Import-button to ‘Import’ the query-file:

 ‘/Examples/MS-SQL/products_mssql.sql’

The product data should now appear in the Data-tab. Product changes can now be made:

 Manually by editing the products in the Data-tab  By placing a compatible CSV-file in the configured Input-folder, which can be found here:

‘/Examples/CSV/products.csv’

 Automatically by placing product changes into the ‘product staging’ table

See chapter 11 for more information on using the Web application for linking and monitoring. See ‘Appendix A: Demo barcodes’ to demonstrate linking products using EAN/UPC barcodes

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Appendix D: Oracle demo configuration

The ESL Server installation contains example queries to quickly set-up a demo with Oracle. The example query can be found in the following folder of your installation.

 ‘/Examples/Oracle’

Create a database called ESL and Open an SQL Worksheet in Oracle SQL developer and use the following configuration in the ESL server:

After making the configuration, use the ‘Test’-button to test the connection details.

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If the connection was successful, then press ‘Apply’ to save the settings. To create the product tables, use the Import-button to ‘Import’ the query-file:

 ‘/Examples/Oracle/products_oracle.sql’

The product data should now appear in the Data-tab. Product changes can now be made:

 Manually by editing the products in the Data-tab  By placing a compatible CSV-file in the configured Input-folder, which can be found here:

‘/Examples/CSV/products.csv’

 Automatically by placing product changes into the ‘product staging’ table

See chapter 11 for more information on using the Web application for linking and monitoring. See ‘Appendix A: Demo barcodes’ to demonstrate linking products using EAN/UPC barcodes

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Appendix E: PostgreSQL demo configuration

The ESL Server installation contains example queries to quickly set-up a demo with PostgreSQL. The example query can be found in the following folder of your installation.

 ‘/Examples/PostgreSQL’

Create a database called ‘esl’ in a PostgreSQL editor, i.e. pgAdmin, and use the following configuration in the ESL server:

After making the configuration, use the ‘Test’-button to test the connection details.

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If the connection was successful, then press ‘Apply’ to save the settings. To create the product tables, use the Import-button to ‘Import’ the query-file:

 ‘/Examples/PostgreSQL/products_pgsql.sql’

Product changes can now be made:

 Manually by editing the products in the Data-tab  By placing a compatible CSV-file in the configured Input-folder, which can be found here:

‘/Examples/CSV/products.csv’

 Automatically by placing product changes into the ‘product staging’ table

See chapter 11 for more information on using the Web application for linking and monitoring. See ‘Appendix A: Demo barcodes’ to demonstrate linking products using EAN/UPC barcodes

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Appendix F: SQLite demo configuration

When using SQLite, the SQLite database will be automatically generated in the installation folder of the ESL server.

Use the following configuration in the ESL server. (User name and password are ignored)

After making the configuration, use the ‘Test’-button to test the connection details.

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If the connection was successful, then press ‘Apply’ to save the settings. To create the product tables, use the Import-button to ‘Import’ the query-file:

 ‘/Examples/SQLite/products_sqlite.sql’

The product data should now appear in the Data-tab. Since SQLite is file based, accessing the database file from a 3rd party application can result in

locked database errors. Therefor it is recommended to apply changes to the product and link table using CSV-files.

A compatible CSV-file for this demo product table can be found here:

 ‘/Examples/CSV/products.csv’

This file can be imported using the ‘Import’-button or by placing it in the configured Input-folder.

See chapter 11 for more information on using the Web application for linking and monitoring. See ‘Appendix A: Demo barcodes’ to demonstrate linking products using EAN/UPC barcodes

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Appendix G: DB2 demo configuration

When using DB2, it is mandatory to create an ODBC data source (i.e. called DB2_ODBC_ESL) to connect to the DB2 database. See chapter 7.3 for more information on ODBC.

Use the following configuration in the ESL server.

After making the configuration, use the ‘Test’-button to test the connection details.

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If the connection was successful, then press ‘Apply’ to save the settings. To create the product tables, use the Import-button to ‘Import’ the query-file:

 ‘/Examples/DB2/products_db2.sql’

The product data should now appear in the Data-tab. A compatible CSV-file for this demo product table can be found here:

 ‘/Examples/CSV/products.csv’

This file can be imported using the ‘Import’-button or by placing it in the configured Input-folder.

See chapter 11 for more information on using the Web application for linking and monitoring. See ‘Appendix A: Demo barcodes’ to demonstrate linking products using EAN/UPC barcodes

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Appendix H: Restoring the ESL server back to default (CSV)

The ESL Server can be reverted to factory default by importing a configuration file found in the following folder of your installation.

 ‘/Examples/Default Configuration’

Be aware that any changed configurations, changes to the templates and to the CSV-database will be lost in the process!

Use the Import-button in the ‘Data’-tab to ‘Import’ the config-file:

 ‘/Examples/Default Configuration/ESL Server.config’

After importing the configuration file, the ESL server will be restored back to factory default. Restart the ESL server to apply all changes.

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Appendix I: Using the SQL API

SQL queries can be used as API to create your own application by executing SQL queries to control and monitor the ESL system, while running the ESL server as background service (See chapter 12 on how run the ESL server as service).

See chapter 7.2 for information on how to use the product and link staging tables to update ESLs and status tables to monitor the ESL system remotely.

Besides the SQL tables described in chapter 7.2, the ESL server also automatically creates the following 3 SQL tables to allow control over the ESL server using SQL queries.

 Actions_staging: Staging table used to insert new actions that need to be executed.

 Actions_pending: Actions that involve commands that need to be send to ESLs are moved from the

staging table to this table to indicate that the command is queued and will be sent as soon as the ESL wakes up.

 Actions_results: All actions that have immediate result will be moved from the staging table to this

table. This includes base station commands and failed ESL commands.

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Supported ESL actions

The following list of SQL-commands is currently supported to initiate an ESL action. Valid commands will be moved to the action_pending table. Disgarded commands will be moved to the action_results table

ACTION

MAC

PARAM1

RESET

MAC-Address (16)

INSERT INTO `actions_staging`(`ACTION`, `MAC`) VALUES ('RESET', '3889DC000000A842');

DEFAULT_IMAGE

MAC-Address (16)

INSERT INTO `actions_staging`(`ACTION`, `MAC`) VALUES ('DEFAULT_IMAGE', '3889DC000000A842');

REFRESH_IMAGE

MAC-Address (16)

INSERT INTO `actions_staging`(`ACTION`, `MAC`) VALUES ('REFRESH_IMAGE', '3889DC000000A842');

RESEND_IMAGE

MAC-Address (16)

INSERT INTO `actions_staging`(`ACTION`, `MAC`) VALUES ('RESEND_IMAGE', '3889DC000000A842');

REQUEST_SETTINGS

MAC-Address (16)

INSERT INTO `actions_staging`(`ACTION`, `MAC`) VALUES ('REQUEST_SETTINGS', '3889DC000000A842');

UNLINK

MAC-Address (16)

INSERT INTO `actions_staging`(`ACTION`, `MAC`) VALUES ('UNLINK', '3889DC000000A842');

REASSOCIATE

MAC-Address (16)

INSERT INTO `actions_staging`(`ACTION`, `MAC`) VALUES ('REASSOCIATE', '3889DC000000A842');

KICK_FROM_EBS

MAC-Address (16)

INSERT INTO `actions_staging`(`ACTION`, `MAC`) VALUES ('KICK_FROM_EBS', '3889DC000000A842');

MOVE_TO_EBS

MAC-Address (16)

MAC-Address EBS (12)

INSERT INTO `actions_staging`(`ACTION`, `MAC`, `PARAM1`) VALUES ('MOVE_TO_EBS', '3889DC000000A842', '00126AF5001234');

SET_LANID

MAC-Address (16)

INSERT INTO `actions_staging`(`ACTION`, `MAC`) VALUES ('SET_LANID', '3889DC000000A842');

CLEAR_LANID

MAC-Address (16)

INSERT INTO `actions_staging`(`ACTION`, `MAC`) VALUES ('CLEAR_LANID', '3889DC000000A842');

DEACTIVATE

MAC-Address (16)

INSERT INTO `actions_staging`(`ACTION`, `MAC`) VALUES ('DEACTIVATE', '3889DC000000A842');

FACTORY_DEFAULT

MAC-Address (16)

INSERT INTO `actions_staging`(`ACTION`, `MAC`) VALUES ('FACTORY_DEFAULT', '3889DC000000A842');

CHANGE_MAC_ADDRESS

MAC-Address (16)

MAC-Address (new) (16) (For factory only)

INSERT INTO `actions_staging`(`ACTION`, `MAC`, `PARAM1`) VALUES ('CHANGE_MAC_ADDRESS', '3889DC00049F203D', '3889DC000000A000');

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Supported ESL settings

The following list of SQL-commands is currently supported to change ESL settings. Valid commands will be moved to the action_pending table. Disgarded settings and settings that match the current setting will be moved to the action_results table.

ACTION

MAC

PARAM1 (default; min; max)

POLL_INTERVAL (int)

MAC-Address (16)

Min. poll interval in seconds (20, 5, 200)

INSERT INTO `actions_staging`(`ACTION`, `MAC`, `PARAM1`) VALUES ('POLL_INTERVAL',

'3889DC000000A842', 20);

POLL_TIMEOUT (int)

MAC-Address (16)

Poll timeout in polls (10, 5, 30)

INSERT INTO `actions_staging`(`ACTION`, `MAC`, `PARAM1`) VALUES ('POLL_TIMEOUT',

'3889DC000000A842', 20);

SCAN_INTERVAL (int)

MAC-Address (16)

Associate interval in seconds (60, 60, 300)

INSERT INTO `actions_staging`(`ACTION`, `MAC`, `PARAM1`) VALUES ('SCAN_INTERVAL',

'3889DC000000A842', 60);

DISPLAY_OPTIONS (int)

MAC-Address (16)

0: normal, 1: upside down

INSERT INTO `actions_staging`(`ACTION`, `MAC`, `PARAM1`) VALUES ('DISPLAY_OPTIONS',

'3889DC000000A842', 1);

SCAN_CHANNELS (flags)

MAC-Address (16)

11: 0x00000800

12: 0x00001000 13: 0x00002000 14: 0x00004000

15: 0x00008000

16: 0x00010000 17: 0x00020000 18: 0x00040000

19: 0x00080000

20: 0x00100000

21: 0x00200000 22: 0x00400000 23: 0x00800000 24: 0x01000000

25: 0x02000000 26: 0x04000000

INSERT INTO `actions_staging`(`ACTION`, `MAC`, `PARAM1`) VALUES ('SCAN_CHANNELS',

'3889DC000000A842', '101746688'); (0x06108800 = 11, 15, 20, 25, 26)

TEMPERATURE

MAC-Address (16)

Temperature range. (0=default; 0, 4) (>0 values are to compensate for lower temperatures, but shorten battery life)

INSERT INTO `actions_staging`(`ACTION`, `MAC`, `PARAM1`) VALUES ('TEMPERATURE',

'3889DC000000A842', 0);

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Supported Base station actions

The following list of SQL-commands is currently supported to initiate a base-station-action. Successfully executed and discarded commands will be moved to the action results-table.

ACTION

MAC

PARAM1

REACTIVATE_START

MAC-Address (12)

Timeout in sec (min 30, max 900)

INSERT INTO `actions_staging`(`ACTION`, `MAC`, `PARAM1`) VALUES ('REACTIVATE_START', '00126AF5FFF8', 180);

REACTIVATE_STOP

MAC-Address (12)

INSERT INTO `actions_staging`(`ACTION`, `MAC`) VALUES ('REACTIVATE_STOP', '00126AF5FFF8');

DEACTIVATE

Start range (MAC-Address (16)

End range (MAC-Address 16)

INSERT INTO `actions_staging`(`ACTION`, `MAC`, `PARAM1`) VALUES ('DEACTIVATE', '3889DC0001000000', '3889DC000100FFFF');

DISCOVER

INSERT INTO `actions_staging`(`ACTION`, `MAC`) VALUES ('DISCOVER', '');

BALANCE_ESLS

(Use preferably once a day)

INSERT INTO `actions_staging`(`ACTION`, `MAC`) VALUES ('BALANCE_ESLS', '');

REFRESH_ESLS

(Warning: Refreshing effects battery life!)

INSERT INTO `actions_staging`(`ACTION`, `MAC`) VALUES ('REFRESH_ESLS', '');

RESET

MAC-Address (12)

INSERT INTO `actions_staging`(`ACTION`, `MAC`) VALUES ('RESET', '00126AF5FFF8');

ADD

MAC-Address (12)

INSERT INTO `actions_staging`(`ACTION`, `MAC`) VALUES ('ADD', '00126AF5FFF8');

REMOVE

INSERT INTO `actions_staging`(`ACTION`, `MAC`) VALUES ('REMOVE', '00126AF5FFF8');

FIRMWARE_UPDATE

INSERT INTO `actions_staging`(`ACTION`, `MAC`, `PARAM1`) VALUES ('FIRMWARE_UPDATE', '00126AF5FFF8', 'EBS40-IBUV0052.bin');

Supported Base station settings

The following list of SQL-commands is currently supported to change a base-station-setting. Successfully executed and disgarded commands will be moved to the action results-table.

ACTION

MAC

PARAM1

CHANNEL

MAC-Address (12)

RF-Channel (int) (default 11, min 11, max 26)

INSERT INTO `actions_staging`(`ACTION`, `MAC`, `PARAM1`) VALUES ('CHANNEL','00126AF5FFF8',15);

PANID

MAC-Address (12)

PAN-ID (4) (default: last 4 digits of MAC)

INSERT INTO `actions_staging`(`ACTION`, `MAC`, `PARAM1`) VALUES ('PANID','00126AF5FFF8','12AB');

LANID

MAC-Address (12)

LAN-ID (4) (default 0000, min 0000, max FFFE)

INSERT INTO `actions_staging`(`ACTION`, `MAC`, `PARAM1`) VALUES ('LANID','00126AF5FFF8','0003');

LOCAL_NAME

MAC-Address (12)

LAN-ID (4) (default 0000, min 0000, max FFFE)

INSERT INTO `actions_staging`(`ACTION`, `MAC`, `PARAM1`) VALUES ('LOCAL_NAME','00126AF5FFF8','FIRST_FLOOR');

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Supported External Trigger actions

The following list of SQL-commands is currently supported to initiate external actions like calling an SQL script, batch file or 3rd party application on a given event. Successfully executed and discarded commands will be moved to the action results-table.

ACTION

MAC

PARAM1

PARAM2

PARAM3

SQL_SCRIPT

MAC-Address (12 or 16)

Path of script

Arguments of script file

INSERT INTO `actions_staging`(`ACTION`, `MAC`, `PARAM1`, `PARAM2`) VALUES ('SQL_SCRIPT’, '00126AF5FFF8', 'SCRIPTS\\Alert.sql', '00126AF5FFF8 001' );

BATCH_FILE

MAC-Address (12 or 16)

Path of batch file

Arguments of batch file

Process list to kill in advance

INSERT INTO `actions_staging`(`ACTION`, `MAC`, `PARAM1`, `PARAM2`, `PARAM3`) VALUES ('BATCH_FILE', '00126AF5FFF8', 'Batch\Alert.bat', '00126AF5FFF8 001', 'SendAlert.exe' );

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Appendix J: Version history

V0.0.1

First preliminary release

October 11, 2011

V0.0.2 Added following features:

- OPL9728 compatibility (LFD36931)

- 2.7" e-paper compatibility

- Support of alphanumeric product IDs Fixed adding images to image templates Fixed delete database button Updated manual to match Opticon style

November 10, 2011

Fixed cross-references

November 18, 2011

V1.0.0

Fully updated manual to support:

- EBS-30 base station

- New ESL server application

- OPN2002 compatibility

January 3, 2013

V1.0.14

Stability and performance updates Added 4.4” and 7.4” e-paper compatibility Added import settings/templates feature Converted databases to UTF-8 for improved language support Updated base station and ESL firmware for improved stability and performance

June 18, 2013

V1.0.20

Added following features:

- EE201 support, MySQL & MS-SQL support

August 8, 2013

V1.0.21

Added following features:

- Fixes related to MySQL and MS-SQL support

- Enabled use of SQL status table ‘LabelStatus’ to provide feedback on the ESL system

- Improved performance with large link and product databases

- Improved performance with large quantities of ESLs

- Added support of rotated text, barcodes and images to Image templates

August 16, 2013

V1.0.22-V1.0.29

- Fixes related to MySQL, MS-SQL and CSV support

- Improved performance with large link and product databases

- Improved performance with large quantities of ESLs

- Various bug fixes

- Updated firmware for EBS30 and EE200/1

- Fixed Windows explorer crash

- Added multi-language support

- Added 2D barcode support

February 11, 2014 V1.0.30

- Extended UAC and Monitoring

- Added minimize to tray options

- Improved performance with large quantities of ESLs

- Updated firmware for EBS30

- Fixed progress bar on closing application

- Fixed minor language issues

- Update manual

March 27, 2014

V1.0.31

- Updated firmware for EBS30

- Added CSV/SQL hybrid solution

- Added external content management solution

- Minor bug fixes for image updating and CSV-parsing

- Fixed issue of linked ESLs that weren’t listed in the ESL-tab under certain conditions

- Added Web Application to installer and documentation

April 7, 2014

V1.0.32

- Added OPH1005 link application

- Added French language support

- Added Italian language support

- Minor authentication bug fix

April 11, 2014

V1.0.33V1.0.34

- Added protective measures against loosing of templates, links or database files

- Enabled logging of user activity by default

- Prevented double execution of ESL server

- Fixes various rare exceptions

- Fixed issue with image id's not incrementing

- Made SQL status/logging tables configurable

- Fixed not automatically reloading of Product table after using SQL staging tables

- Option to show default image on unlinking

- Automatically change CSV-log file name

April 30, 2014

V1.0.35

- Improvements to CSV-parser

- Added option show default image after unlinking

- Fixed crash on removing USB-cable

May 6, 2014

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100

- Fixed rare image update issues

- Fixed reactivation problems (requires EBS3x firmware IBMV0014a or higher)

V1.0.36

- Fixed issue with image IDs not incrementing on re-linking

- Fixed crash related to OseComm / USB

- Fixed SQL issue with removing products

- Moved processing of Link files from CSV-parser to ESL-server

- Resolved rare exceptions on logging

- Added support of ‘unlink’ option in ESL-tab

- Improved importing of database/link files

- Fixed resending of images to unlinked ESLs

May 9, 2014

V1.0.37

- Fixed issue with disconnected EBS3x

- Fixed SQL logging date/time issue

May 15, 2014

V1.0.38

- Improved 4.4” (EE440) support

- Fixed logging failed pop-up (CSV only)

- Fixed deleting of products (SQL only)

- Improved handling of unreliable / remote SQL connections

- Added preliminary support for running parallel ESL networks

May 27, 2014

V1.0.39-1.0.40

- Improved SQL performance and stability

- Added ‘Find best base station’ action

- Updated EE20x firmware with LAN-ID support and improved searching algorithm to find best base station connection.

- Updated EBS3x firmware with LAN-ID support

- Improved firmware upgrading of EE201 (variant ‘IBIxxxx’)

- Added EE202 support (=EE201 with new display)

June 30, 2014

V1.0.41

- Added option to run and ESL server as Window service.

- Fixed start-up message base station table

- Fixed out-of-sync SQL tables after Ethernet connection issues

July 9, 2014

V1.0.42

- Added graphical template designer

- Lowered CPU usage

- Add (non-filled) rectangles and ellipses to template designer

- Added shrink-to-fit option for texts

July 30, 2014 V1.0.43

- Updated EBS3x firmware (IBMV0016) with stability fixes

- Improvements to graphical template designer

- Improved EBS3x firmware updating

August 5, 2014

V1.0.45

- Added new filter option: ‘Not contain’

- Added automatic / manual load balancing options (see chapter 6.4.2)

- Allow modification databases with no CSV-parser configured

- Improved link quality indication. Packet loss is now included in the calculation of the link quality. (See chapter 6.2)

August 22, 2014

V1.0.46.2

- Improvements to barcode terminal applications (incl. SQL-support, OPH3000 compatibility)

- Fixed issues with ‘Show default image on unlinking’

- Simplified the configuration of SQL

- Added example SQL queries to the Appendixes

- Improved UTF8 support on copying example data to template editor

- Fixed issue with ‘Link to Data’ not working

- Added compatibility with EBS40

October 16, 2014 V1.0.47.0

- Updated SQL solution with Web application with (un)linking, user access control, product reviewing, price editing and monitoring

- Added change-log table to SQL

- Added ‘users’ table to SQL for UAC

- Added support of different e-paper formats (1.5”, 2.9” and 4.2”)

- Added possibility to import CSV-file into an SQL product table

December 24, 2014

V1.0.47.2

- Added support of tab-separated files

- Improved firmware update of EBS3x/EBS4x

- Fixed missing file in new web-application

January 22, 2015

V1.0.48.0

- Added Oracle database support

- Added shop selection interface to web application

- Improved Asian language support for MySQL

- Fixed EAN13 encoding bug

- Fixed issue with link files not being processed

- Improved firmware updating of EBSxx

March 23, 2015

V1.0.48.5

- Added preliminary EE580 support

- Resolved issues with duplicate base station in base station list

- Added check for IP-address change of base station at start-up (still recommended to use static DHCP leases)

- Added field numbers to example data text boxes for easy-of-use

- Automatically configure web application settings on changing database settings in ESL-server

- Added SQL API for executing actions and changing settings in ESL server

- Fixed incorrect value of field separator

May 28, 2015

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