Frequently Asked Questions

Integrating products from different manufacturers and making them all work together properly can be a retailer's nightmare. This is a very common problem. IEE offers Universal Emulation Products with "Switch Selectable" data interfaces which can emulate AEDEX, Epson, EMAX, Logic Controls, and Ultimate Technologies (UTC) system products. Currently available are IEE's P330, 2x20-11mm, PC322, 2x20-9mm and PC305, 2x20-5mm VF displays. The data interface may be set to either an IEE standard or to emulate the above mentioned interface personalities.

Contact us IEE at 800-422-0867. Most of the data is available in a pdf format and can be emailed to you.

IEE offers several USB models which can be viewed in the Pole Display section.

IEE has a series of customer pole displays that support the JavaPOS 1.6 standard. Because the standard is mapped exactly to the existing OPOS specification, transition to the new Java technology standard should be smooth. Supported IEE models are the P324 (4x20-9mm), P330/P530 (2x20-11mm), PC305/PC505 (2x20-5mm), PC322/PC522 (2x20-9mm), and PM300 (4x20-5mm). IEE's Java Service may be downloaded without charge from our web site.

If wireless, it is infrastructure. Otherwise, peer-to-peer.

The easiest way to use "SPACE" characters as you generate the text. The more elegant way is to define a TIB using modeset or the "INI" file that defines exactly where the characters will start. The default TIB is the whole screen. Character positioning is defined under the mode commands and the Mixed Mode application note in the user guide.

To send text, you only need to open the SLOPPI port on the unit and send the text. It will display for the length of time specified by POSTimeout in the "ini" file. However, if you want to replace the message with one of your own, simply place the graphics or text you want to show in a file and push it to /usr/bin/logo.txt. You can put linefeeds at the end of lines (but not the last line!), or you can put up to 79 characters (blank filling lines.)

The "push.exe" is used to copy files from host to the price verifier. For example, "push 10.0.0.227 c:\dump.txt /usr/root/bin/dump.txt" will copy the file dump.txt from host to /usr/bin/ directory in PriceVerifier at IP address 10.0.0.227.

No you cannot do that at the moment. All texts have to be in one color. However, work is in progress to do precisely what you are trying to do.

For example I send out the following:

Name: name1
Price: 5.50$
Description: description1 & description2 & description3 & description4

The PriceVerifier screen only shows & description3 & description4 in two centered lines. Can you shed me any light on how to solve this issue?

By default the number of characters to be displayed are 7x20. In order to display more, you need to change your font size. The font files are in the font folder in POS folder. The scanvue.ini or realscan.ini file in POS folder need to be modified with a different font file.

For a slideshow, there are two or three main components involved depending on the purpose of a slideshow. The main file is scanvue.ini or realscan.ini found in your POS folder. This file usage and creation is outlined in the appendix of the user manual. Basically, this is the file where you specify what slideshow or group of slideshow to run (each PriceVerifier can be for different department or aisle). An example is provided in the appendix. Creation of a slideshow is explained in Appendix C of the user guide. In nutshell, these are the sequences that you can follow to understand the basic process.

1. In scanvue.ini or realscan.ini, make note of the SlideshowFile = shows/clock.sho. The slides to show are in the file clock.sho.
2. Go to POS/shows and open clock.sho with Wordpad/notepad. This is the file where one enters the sequence of slides to be displayed on PriceVerifier. Here the path to get all the GIF files is Graphics/clock in POS folder.
3. You can create your own GIF files (must be quarter VGA format).

Check and make sure your PriceVerifier is setup correctly. Especially, make note that windowsServ parameter should match your server/computer NAME. Use UnitConfig to read and modify any parameters.

The multiple colors within a text and different font size are only supported on PriceVerifier firmware revision 6.12 and above. All other firmware revisions do not support these features.

PriceVerifier can only accommodate one connection at a time for configuration. Trying to use a second connection will make the second program hang (for a while). In addition, if you leave UnitConfig connected but idle for a long time, Windows will break the connection, which will hang UnitConfig and possibly the unit as well (or, at least, prevent further connections).

Rename the WindowServ and WinServerIP to point to the servername and IP of the linux box. You can provide either the host name or IP. Also you need to create a share called pos on that box too. There is one caveat: linux systems have case-sensitive file names; Windows does not. Make sure the case matches for the share, and for all the file names and paths within the INI and show files.

The mode ShowLongPoll determines how often (in seconds) the unit checks for changes to the INI files. The default value is 300 seconds. For an "immediate" change, set the various text modes (fontFile, textRows, textCols, textHPos, textVPos, textForegnd, textBackgnd, TextDisplay, TextTransparent), then set textReset to TRUE. If using UnitConfig, the text Reset button should be done last. It may take several seconds before the new font is loaded; it depends on the network, server, and type of server. Configuring the text this way makes transient changes only; the modes will be reset upon power-cycling, or may be when the INI file is changed (if it has text configuration modes in it).

All of those utilities use port 1283, as registered with IANA as ProductInfo.

On the host side, UnitConfig asks the host for an available port number, so the source port will change each time it's used. It connects to port 1283 on the price checker. There is currently no provision to have UnitConfig restrict the source port to either a specific port, or a range of ports. The sources for UnitConfig and the ProductInfo OCX are available should you need to change this.

PriceVerifier only supports mono-space fonts.

GIF images can have as many as 256 colors, each color specified as three eight-bit values for red, green, and blue. This set of colors is called a palette. Each different color in the GIF is recorded as a single 8-bit value that is the index into the palette to determine the actual RGB values. The values in the INI file are just indices into whatever palette is active. When exclusive text is displayed, we use our standard text-colors palette. When you display text over a graphic ("mixed" text), the text colors are base on the palette from whatever image is being displayed. Your images will have to be modified to include the colors you want for text, and in the same palette-index position for each image. It's usually easiest to use 0 and 1, or 254 and 255, as the fore-and back-ground colors, but any two indices will do. For transparent text, only the foreground color need be specified.

Send "/picture.gif" followed by a NUL byte (zero) to indicate the end of-string. Then send "Hello" followed by a NUL byte. Without the NUL byte at the end of the strings, they are concatenated and the unit see "/picture.gifHello" and does nothing. Closing the socket also terminates the string.

Two images can be stored as "wallpaper": one to replace the MsgChecking text and the other to replace the MsgUnavail text. Simply specify the filespec instead of the text message. Other than those, PriceVerifier does not cache images for use in response to ProductInfo queries.

To send the file in-line you first send the file name preceded by the left angle-bracket, and terminated by a NUL. Path information can be included; it is ignored. Next, send a network-order 32-bit value specifying how big the file is. Finally, send the file. To include text over the graphic, do not disconnect, but just send the text, NUL-terminated.

So to send a file named "v1.gif" which is 10 bytes long (consisting of the hex digits 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09), followed by the text "Hello" you would send the following bytes:

3c 76 31 2e 67 69 66 00 (" 00 00 00 0a (10 bytes)
00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 (the data)
48 65 6c 6c 6f 00 (the text message)

The simplest way is to send the path and filename as the response to the query. The form is "/path/file.gif". The leading slash "/" is required, and "path" and "file.gif" are based on your directory. This tells the unit to contact the server and obtain the specified file. A much faster method (i.e., better response time for the customer) is to send the image as the response, on the already-connected socket. Source code for this is the function sendfile in demoserv.c.

MsgUnavail is used when the host cannot be contacted by default. If the host is contacted, and doesn't know what the bar code is, it can send any message (including both text and graphic) it likes. The INI file need to be modified to display other messages/graphics.

Port 1283

Flash: 256 MB; RAM: 256 MB

The data is stored on the customer's host system. ScanVue can store a small amount in its on-board memory for predefined tasks.

ScanVue operates in the current state-of-the-art 802.11b environment; 802.11 is an essentially obsolete standard that is not conducive to displaying large amounts of graphics.

Yes! The ScanVue's ability to display advertising and promotion, interrupted by customer interaction, and then switch back again to advertising/promotion/information is fully protected by United States patents, and pending in many countries outside of the US.

The ScanVue was not designed to display video, but it can display animated gif files. You can also simulate a video with realistic results by increasing the frame rate of the displayed images from between 15 to 30 frames per second. If you use individual images extracted from a video, the results will be a simulation that appears to be a real video. Keep in mind that this is only possible with the AMLCD ScanVue and not with the Vacuum Fluorescent display ScanVue. For more help on this topic, contact us toll free at 800-422-0867.

IEE’s price verifier has a Metrologic IS3480 Quantum scanner installed (exceptions, IEE’s low cost models beginning with TV42, TB42, TM47 and TB47. These models incorporate a linear scanner). ScanVue internally connects to the Quantum Scanner via a RS-232 serial port connection, but will default to USB interface if set to factory defaults. "Enable Scanner RS-232" bar code must be scanned to re-enable the RS-232 mode.

A link to the document containing the bar code follows: Scanner Default Bar Code1.doc

ScanVue will operate on any operating system that supports TCP/IP.

Our business is over 50 years old and we released our first vacuum fluorescent module in 1979. Our focus is to provide operational information for our newest products making the software developers work easier. We archive specifications for products we still support but may not necessarily recommend for new designs. Contact us at the factory at 800-422-0867 and if the data is not in an electronic form we will either mail or fax it to you.

Select "Downloads" from the top Support navigation menu, then look for the section: Vacuum Fluorescent Display Modules - Century Series.

For Vacuum Fluorescent and LCD display modules, it is 4 to 6 weeks ARO (After Receipt of Order). For retail products, is usually 1 to 2 weeks.

A VF “graphic” display is currently in the design phase. We have LCD text displays with graphic functions to display higher resolution, multi-byte characters such as Chinese, Hungul, Angsana, etc.

No, since there is no set standard size and interface for displays, IEE can not directly cross another manufacturer's part with our off-the-shelf displays. We do however offer custom solutions where we can design to a specific application. Please contact sales for details.

Century Vacuum Fluorescent Display Modules support standard LCD data communication per the Hitachi 44780 specification, but differ in "read back" (host system asks for information from the Century). The read back function is accessed from a different pin on the Century, and the data sent is formatted different.

Depends on type of display. "Flip" Vacuum Fluorescent Displays Module can use either 30425-02 USDCM/M, or 26685-0X USDCM, or 32195-01 RDCMM. Depending on the specific model, "No Frills Vacuum Fluorescent Display Modules will use the 31785-XX series. Nova's (LCD's modules) will use the 29749-XX series.