Hardware
The hardware is being designed. Everything on this page is a design target and may change. Nothing is certified yet.
Labels
There are two label sizes, both built around industry-standard e-paper panels so they stay affordable and easy to source.
| Strip | Tile | |
|---|---|---|
| Panel | 2.9", 296 × 128 | 4.2", 400 × 300 |
| Colours | Black and white, or black, white, red and yellow | Black, white, red and yellow |
| Typical use | SMD magazines, bins, shelf edges | Kitting boxes, carts, stations |
| Redraw | about 3 s (black and white), about 16 s (colour) | about 20 s |
| Battery | Coin cell (CR2450) | Two CR2450 coin cells in parallel |
Both have:
- An RGB LED behind a light pipe on the top edge. It blinks within about two seconds of a request.
- One button on the side. Presses are reported to the control center and on to your ERP.
- NFC for pairing: tap the label with a phone to register it.
- A Bluetooth 5.4 radio module that is already certified, which keeps the label's own certification simple.
Why Bluetooth
Labels use the Electronic Shelf Label profile of Bluetooth 5.4. The access point sends a short broadcast about once a second and every label listens briefly, so the LED reacts quickly while the battery still lasts years. It is an open standard with encryption built in, supported by several chip makers.
Battery life
The target is five years or more with about four content updates and ten blink requests per day. The LED and display refreshes are the main consumers; the radio itself needs a few microamps on average.
Access points
- Ceiling or wall mount, powered over Ethernet (802.3af).
- One Bluetooth radio for the labels and a network processor with wired Ethernet.
- Connects to the bridge over MQTT in your local network.
- Three or four access points cover about 1,500 m² of factory floor with racks, with overlap so a label can move to a neighbouring access point.
Open hardware
The hardware will be published under CERN-OHL-W-2.0 and the firmware under Apache-2.0 once the first version is stable. Components from third parties keep their own licences.