WO1993005456A1 - Localizing power faults in an electronic pricing display system - Google Patents

Localizing power faults in an electronic pricing display system Download PDF

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Publication number
WO1993005456A1
WO1993005456A1 PCT/US1992/007319 US9207319W WO9305456A1 WO 1993005456 A1 WO1993005456 A1 WO 1993005456A1 US 9207319 W US9207319 W US 9207319W WO 9305456 A1 WO9305456 A1 WO 9305456A1
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WO
WIPO (PCT)
Prior art keywords
power
electronic price
limiting device
powered
displays
Prior art date
Application number
PCT/US1992/007319
Other languages
French (fr)
Inventor
Vincent Berluti
Terrell Poland
Steven Waldron
Original Assignee
Electronic Retailing Systems International
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Electronic Retailing Systems International filed Critical Electronic Retailing Systems International
Publication of WO1993005456A1 publication Critical patent/WO1993005456A1/en

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Classifications

    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04L12/00—Data switching networks
    • H04L12/28—Data switching networks characterised by path configuration, e.g. LAN [Local Area Networks] or WAN [Wide Area Networks]
    • H04L12/40—Bus networks
    • H04L12/40006—Architecture of a communication node
    • H04L12/40032—Details regarding a bus interface enhancer
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
    • G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
    • G06F11/00—Error detection; Error correction; Monitoring
    • G06F11/07—Responding to the occurrence of a fault, e.g. fault tolerance
    • G06F11/0703—Error or fault processing not based on redundancy, i.e. by taking additional measures to deal with the error or fault not making use of redundancy in operation, in hardware, or in data representation
    • G06F11/0751—Error or fault detection not based on redundancy
    • G06F11/0763—Error or fault detection not based on redundancy by bit configuration check, e.g. of formats or tags
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04L12/00—Data switching networks
    • H04L12/28—Data switching networks characterised by path configuration, e.g. LAN [Local Area Networks] or WAN [Wide Area Networks]
    • H04L12/40—Bus networks
    • H04L12/403—Bus networks with centralised control, e.g. polling
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
    • G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
    • G06F11/00—Error detection; Error correction; Monitoring
    • G06F11/07—Responding to the occurrence of a fault, e.g. fault tolerance
    • G06F11/0796—Safety measures, i.e. ensuring safe condition in the event of error, e.g. for controlling element

Definitions

  • 15 computer communicates with one or more price displays among many thousands.
  • the displays are snapped into place on rails which are generally placed along each store shelf.
  • Each rail has several conductors running along its length, so that a display may be placed at
  • the rails are tied together and communicate with a processor.
  • a host communicates with electronic price displays via a serial data communications bus, with power limiting devices located on the bus so that each power limiting device transmits power to a subset of all the displays. Record is kept of the bus addresses of the displays and of the groups of displays powered by a given power limiting device.
  • Fig. 1 is a functional block diagram of an electronic pricing system capable of localizing power faults, showing host computer, communications bus, rail portions of the bus, power limiting devices, and electronic pricing displays; and '
  • Fig. 2 is a diagram showing the structure of a communications bus such as that of Fig. 1 containing data, power, and ground lines.
  • Fig. 1 an electronic pricing display system.
  • the electronic price displays (EPD's) 10, 10', and 10 are visible to customers, each having a liquid-crystal display showing the price for the items which they are associated with.
  • the EPD's are located on a communications bus 11 which typically runs to all the shelves of a store. Shelf rails 12, 12', and 12" attached to the shelves contain bus conductors and provide a secure mechanical and electrical connection point for the EPD's.
  • Each rail is associated with a particular power limiting device (PLD) 5, 5', and 5" so that all of the EPD's of a particular rail are powered through the same PLD.
  • PLD power limiting device
  • Fig. 2 shows a known bus and hardware of a known EPD in greater detail.
  • Power, data, and ground lines 20, 21, and 22 respectively run along the entire path of the bus (e.g. to all EPD locations on a given rail) , and spring-loaded contacts 23, 24, and 25 on the EPD permit contact therewith.
  • the power, data, and ground lines are typically conductors running in parallel along the length of the shelf rails, so that electrically and mechanically any point on a rail is indistinguishable from any other point on the rail.
  • Each of the EPD's contains a microprocessor that runs a stored program.
  • the power and ground lines of the bus maintain the microprocessor and display function.
  • a backup battery may or may not be provided within the EPD.
  • the microprocessor is chosen from the set of inexpensive microprocessors having built-in RAM and ROM so as to minimize the parts count inside the EPD.
  • Programming in each EPD permits the EPD to receive a bitstream from the data line. Preferably the bit stream is received in its entirety, and a checksum is evaluated. If the checksum is successful, the bit stream, which preferably contains both address and data, is inspected to see if the address is one to which the EPD is to respond. If so, then the data are received and acted upon accordingly, such as to update the displayed price.
  • Some data items are in the nature of commands to the EPD, asking the EPD to respond on the bus in some predefined way such as to acknowledge receipt of a message, to provide the contents of internal registers or memories, or to confirm proper function.
  • Each of the EPD's has a particular bus address.
  • Each of the PLD's is associated with a particular group of EPD's. To communicate with a particular EPD, it is necessary to send a message with the relevant address through the associated PLD.
  • a power limiting device such as a fuse, circuit breaker or preferably a positive temperature coefficient resistor is placed on each of the rails in a location so that all of the displays on a particular rail are powered through the same device.
  • the increase in temperature activates the positive temperature coefficient resistor so that the resistance it provides is increased proportionately.
  • the increase in the resistance reduces the current that flows through the device and thus effectively isolates the displays located on the associated rail from all of the other displays in the system. The result is that the power fault is localized to the rail to which the faulty display is connected and the rest of the system remains operative.
  • the displays draw 250 microamperes most of the time.
  • a light-emitting diode in the display if switched on, causes current drain to rise to 1.8 milliamperes.
  • the current limited device used is a positive temperature coefficient resistor, selected to support a steady-state low-resistance condition with a current flow of 300 milliamperes.
  • the PTC resistors are disposed one for each display rail. With this arrangement, a given rail could supply over a hundred displays in ongoing use.
  • shorts and near-shorts drawing over 300 milliamperes will cause the resistor to heat up, going to a high- resistance state.
  • a message is sent to a first display to evoke a response. If no response is evoked, a second message is sent to a second electronic pricing display which is powered through the same power limiting device as the first display. If a second response is not evoked, a message is sent to a human operator indicative of a possible limiting of the power by the power limiting device.

Abstract

Methods and apparatus are dislocsed for localizing power faults occuring in an electronic pricing display system. A host communicates with electronic price displays (10) via serial data communications bus (11), with power limiting devices (5) located on the bus so that a first one of the elctronic price displays is powered through a first power limiting device and a second one of the power limiting devices is not powered through the first power limiting device. By sending messages to particular electronic price displays that are powered through the same power limiting device, it can be established whether the particular electronic price displays and their associated portions of the communications bus are functioning properly. By removing power to the portion of a communications bus powered through a particular power liminting device when the associated electronic price display draws excessive power, the power fault can be localized.

Description

Description
Localizing Power Faults in an Electronic Pricing Display System
Background of the Invention
Much attention has been given in recent years to systems for use in retail environments to show the prices of items of merchandise. While historically, the common way of displaying prices has been by 5 manually marking them at the specific item locations, or on the items themselves, some recent systems have attempted to accomplish this task through electronic means. Especially in food retailing, such systems offer a highly reliable relationship between the prices
10 shown at the location of the items and the prices charged at the checkout counter.
Some electronic pricing systems have been shown to function in testing environments. Typically such systems have one or more data buses whereby a central
15 computer communicates with one or more price displays among many thousands. The displays are snapped into place on rails which are generally placed along each store shelf. Each rail has several conductors running along its length, so that a display may be placed at
20 almost any arbitrary location along a rail. The rails are tied together and communicate with a processor.
Most present-day electronic pricing systems have the problem that any one position on a bus is ? electrically and functionally indistinguishable, from
25 the point of view of the central computer, from any of
/
•+ hundreds of thousands of other bus locations.
Furthermore, because the electronic displays placed on a particular bus location are all in parallel, if a power fault occurs in any one of the displays, and if the fault is a full or partial short, all of the displays on the bus will be affected.
This means that if a particular electronic price display were to experience a power fault, every other display on the bus would also experience the power fault effectively making the bus inoperative. Since the central computer cannot distinguish among the different displays on the bus, it is incapable of determining which display is the cause of the problem. The result is that each display must be individually examined before the bus can be made operative again.
There is thus a need for a system that permits the detection of electronic displays with much greater resolution than heretofore available so that when a malfunction exists the responsible display can be more easily identified. There is also a need to separate the distribution of power so that if one particular electronic display experiences a power fault, it will not necessarily affect all of the other displays on the bus.
There is a need for a system that incorporates these improvements but that does not require a parts count appreciably higher than the present systems. There is also a need for such a system that does not require physical bulk appreciably greater than the present systems. Finally, there is a need for such a system that is only moderately more costly than the present systems.
Summary of the Invention
Methods and apparatus are disclosed for localizing power faults occurring in an electronic pricing display system. A host communicates with electronic price displays via a serial data communications bus, with power limiting devices located on the bus so that each power limiting device transmits power to a subset of all the displays. Record is kept of the bus addresses of the displays and of the groups of displays powered by a given power limiting device. By sending messages to a first one of the electronic price displays, and then to a second one of the electronic price displays if a first respective response is not evoked, it can be established whether the particular electronic price displays and their associated portions of the communications bus are functioning properly. By removing power to the portion of a communications bus powered through a particular power limiting device when the associated electronic price display draws excessive power, the power fault can be localized.
Brief Description of the Drawings
Exemplary embodiments of the invention are described with references to drawings, of which: Fig. 1 is a functional block diagram of an electronic pricing system capable of localizing power faults, showing host computer, communications bus, rail portions of the bus, power limiting devices, and electronic pricing displays; and'
Fig. 2 is a diagram showing the structure of a communications bus such as that of Fig. 1 containing data, power, and ground lines.
Detailed Description of the Embodiments
In Fig. 1 is shown an electronic pricing display system. The electronic price displays (EPD's) 10, 10', and 10 are visible to customers, each having a liquid-crystal display showing the price for the items which they are associated with. The EPD's are located on a communications bus 11 which typically runs to all the shelves of a store. Shelf rails 12, 12', and 12" attached to the shelves contain bus conductors and provide a secure mechanical and electrical connection point for the EPD's. Each rail is associated with a particular power limiting device (PLD) 5, 5', and 5" so that all of the EPD's of a particular rail are powered through the same PLD. Although only three rails are shown, typically there are many hundreds or thousands of rails located on a bus. Although only three EPD's are shown, typically there are many thousands of EPD's located on a bus.
Fig. 2 shows a known bus and hardware of a known EPD in greater detail. Power, data, and ground lines 20, 21, and 22 respectively run along the entire path of the bus (e.g. to all EPD locations on a given rail) , and spring-loaded contacts 23, 24, and 25 on the EPD permit contact therewith. The power, data, and ground lines are typically conductors running in parallel along the length of the shelf rails, so that electrically and mechanically any point on a rail is indistinguishable from any other point on the rail.
Each of the EPD's contains a microprocessor that runs a stored program. The power and ground lines of the bus maintain the microprocessor and display function. A backup battery may or may not be provided within the EPD. The microprocessor is chosen from the set of inexpensive microprocessors having built-in RAM and ROM so as to minimize the parts count inside the EPD. Programming in each EPD permits the EPD to receive a bitstream from the data line. Preferably the bit stream is received in its entirety, and a checksum is evaluated. If the checksum is successful, the bit stream, which preferably contains both address and data, is inspected to see if the address is one to which the EPD is to respond. If so, then the data are received and acted upon accordingly, such as to update the displayed price. Some data items are in the nature of commands to the EPD, asking the EPD to respond on the bus in some predefined way such as to acknowledge receipt of a message, to provide the contents of internal registers or memories, or to confirm proper function.
Each of the EPD's has a particular bus address. Each of the PLD's is associated with a particular group of EPD's. To communicate with a particular EPD, it is necessary to send a message with the relevant address through the associated PLD.
Because the electronic price displays are all in parallel, if a power fault occurs in any one of the displays, and if the fault is a full or partial short, all of the displays on the bus will be affected. To prevent this from occurring, in the system according to the invention a power limiting device such as a fuse, circuit breaker or preferably a positive temperature coefficient resistor is placed on each of the rails in a location so that all of the displays on a particular rail are powered through the same device.
When a power fault occurs in one of the displays, the increase in temperature activates the positive temperature coefficient resistor so that the resistance it provides is increased proportionately. The increase in the resistance reduces the current that flows through the device and thus effectively isolates the displays located on the associated rail from all of the other displays in the system. The result is that the power fault is localized to the rail to which the faulty display is connected and the rest of the system remains operative. In an exemplary embodiment, the displays draw 250 microamperes most of the time. A light-emitting diode in the display, if switched on, causes current drain to rise to 1.8 milliamperes. The current limited device used is a positive temperature coefficient resistor, selected to support a steady-state low-resistance condition with a current flow of 300 milliamperes. The PTC resistors are disposed one for each display rail. With this arrangement, a given rail could supply over a hundred displays in ongoing use. Advantageously, shorts and near-shorts drawing over 300 milliamperes will cause the resistor to heat up, going to a high- resistance state.
In order to determine whether or not the various electronic pricing displays and their associated rails are operating properly, a message is sent to a first display to evoke a response. If no response is evoked, a second message is sent to a second electronic pricing display which is powered through the same power limiting device as the first display. If a second response is not evoked, a message is sent to a human operator indicative of a possible limiting of the power by the power limiting device.
While specific preferred embodiments have been described, they are merely exemplary and those skilled in the art will perceive numerous modifications and variations of the embodiments without departure from the spirit and scope of the invention, as defined by the appended claims.

Claims

Claims
1. A system for the electronic display of prices comprising: a host for sending and receiving messages and for providing a power signal; a plurality of electronic price displays, each capable of sending messages to the host and receiving messages from the host; a communications bus connecting the host and the electronic price displays over which messages are sent and received and whereby the electronic price displays receive power; and the communications bus further comprising a first power limiting device in series with the power signal located so that a first one of the electronic price displays is powered through the first power limiting device and a second one of the electronic price displays is not powered through the first power limiting device.
2. The system of Claim 1 wherein the power limiting device is a positive temperature coefficient resistor.
3. The system of Claim 1 wherein the power limiting device is a fuse.
4. The system of Claim 1 wherein the power limiting device is a circuit breaker.
5. The system of Claim 1 further comprising a second power limiting device in series with the power signal located so that a second one of the electronic price displays is powered through the second power limiting device and the first one of the electronic price displays is not powered through the second power limiting device.
6. The system of Claim 1 wherein the communications bus is a serial asynchronous bus comprising data, power, and ground lines.
7. The system of Claim 5 wherein each electronic price display is associated with a particular location in a retail store.
8. The system of Claim 6 wherein some of the particular locations are shelves holding merchandise.
9_ The system of Claim 1 wherein the host comprises a personal computer and a serial interface.
10. A method of operating a system for the electronic display of prices, the system having a host for sending and receiving messages and for providing a power signal, a plurality of electronic price displays, each capable of sending messages to the host and receiving messages from the host, a communications bus connecting the host and the electronic price displays over which messages are sent and received and whereby the electronic price displays receive power; the communications bus further comprising power limiting devices in series with the power signal and through which the electronic price displays are powered, each power limiting device located so that a first one of the electronic price displays is powered through a first power limiting device and a second one of the electronic price displays is not powered through the first power limiting device; the method comprising: sending a message to a first one of the electronic price displays and evoking a first respective response when the first electronic price display and its associated portion of the communications bus are functioning properly; sending, if a first respective response from the first one of the electronic price displays is not evoked, a message to a second one of the electronic price displays which is powered through the power limiting device through which the first electronic price display is powered and evoking a second respective response when the second electronic price display and its associated portion of the communications bus are functioning properly; providing, if a second respective response from the second one of the electronic price displays is not evoked, a message to a human operator indicative of a possible limiting of the power by the power limiting device.
11. A method of operating a system for the electronic display of prices, the system having a host for sending and receiving messages and for providing a power signal; a plurality of electronic price displays, each capable of sending messages to the host and receiving messages from the host; a communications bus connecting the host and the electronic price displays over which messages are sent and received and whereby the electronic price displays receive power; the communications bus further comprising power limiting devices in series with the power signal and through which the electronic price displays are powered, each power limiting device located so that a first one of the electronic price displays is powered through a first power limiting device and a second one of the electronic price displays is not powered through the first power limiting device; the method comprising: applying power through the power limiting devices to the electronic price displays; and removing power to the portion of a communications bus powered through a particular power limiting device when the associated electronic price display draws excessive power.
PCT/US1992/007319 1991-09-10 1992-08-28 Localizing power faults in an electronic pricing display system WO1993005456A1 (en)

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US75725991A 1991-09-10 1991-09-10
US07/757,259 1991-09-10

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Cited By (17)

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Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US5348485A (en) * 1993-04-12 1994-09-20 Electronic Retailing Systems Int'l Inc. Electronic price display system with vertical rail
US5374815A (en) * 1993-03-15 1994-12-20 Electronic Retailing Systems Int'l Inc. Technique for locating electronic labels in an electronic price display system
US5448226A (en) * 1994-02-24 1995-09-05 Electronic Retailing Systems International, Inc. Shelf talker management system
US5461561A (en) * 1991-09-10 1995-10-24 Electronic Retailing Systems International Inc. System for recognizing display devices
US5473832A (en) * 1992-10-23 1995-12-12 Electronic Retailing Information Systems Int'l Inc. Non-slidable display label
US5532465A (en) * 1993-03-15 1996-07-02 Electronic Retailing Systems International, Inc. Technique for locating electronic labels in an electronic price display system
US5553412A (en) * 1993-03-25 1996-09-10 Electronic Retailing Systems International, Inc. Information display rail system
US5632010A (en) * 1992-12-22 1997-05-20 Electronic Retailing Systems, Inc. Technique for communicating with electronic labels in an electronic price display system
US5704049A (en) * 1992-12-22 1997-12-30 Electronic Retailing Systems International Inc. Subglobal area addressing for electronic price displays
US5736967A (en) * 1993-09-03 1998-04-07 Kayser Ventures, Ltd. Article-information display system using electronically controlled tags
US5812985A (en) * 1992-04-30 1998-09-22 Electronic Retailing Systems Inc. Space management system
US6108367A (en) * 1995-03-06 2000-08-22 Electronic Retailing Systems, Inc. Low power two-way wireless communication system for electronic shelf labels
US6181299B1 (en) 1993-09-03 2001-01-30 Display Edge Technology, Ltd. Power and communication system for electronic display tags
US6249263B1 (en) 1993-09-03 2001-06-19 Display Edge Technology, Ltd. Article-information display system using electronically controlled tags
US6266052B1 (en) 1993-09-03 2001-07-24 Display Edge Technology, Ltd. Power and information distribution system for article display or storage areas and related method
US8910864B2 (en) 1995-07-31 2014-12-16 Information Planning & Management Service, Inc. Electronic product information display system
US9367851B2 (en) 2009-09-17 2016-06-14 Information Planning & Management Service, Inc. System and method for managing compliance with retail display regulations across a plurality of jurisdictions

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Cited By (25)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US5461561A (en) * 1991-09-10 1995-10-24 Electronic Retailing Systems International Inc. System for recognizing display devices
US5467474A (en) * 1991-09-10 1995-11-14 Electronic Retailing Systems International, Inc. Display system with section addressability
US5583487A (en) * 1991-09-10 1996-12-10 Electronic Retailing Systems International System for locating display devices
US6016481A (en) * 1992-04-30 2000-01-18 Electronic Retailing Systems Space management system
US5812985A (en) * 1992-04-30 1998-09-22 Electronic Retailing Systems Inc. Space management system
US5473832A (en) * 1992-10-23 1995-12-12 Electronic Retailing Information Systems Int'l Inc. Non-slidable display label
US5704049A (en) * 1992-12-22 1997-12-30 Electronic Retailing Systems International Inc. Subglobal area addressing for electronic price displays
US5977998A (en) * 1992-12-22 1999-11-02 Electronic Retailing Systems International, Inc. Technique for communicating with electronic labels in an electronic price display system
US5864325A (en) * 1992-12-22 1999-01-26 Electronic Retailing Systems International, Inc. Technique for communicating with electronic labels in an electronic price display system
US5632010A (en) * 1992-12-22 1997-05-20 Electronic Retailing Systems, Inc. Technique for communicating with electronic labels in an electronic price display system
US5532465A (en) * 1993-03-15 1996-07-02 Electronic Retailing Systems International, Inc. Technique for locating electronic labels in an electronic price display system
US5374815A (en) * 1993-03-15 1994-12-20 Electronic Retailing Systems Int'l Inc. Technique for locating electronic labels in an electronic price display system
US5553412A (en) * 1993-03-25 1996-09-10 Electronic Retailing Systems International, Inc. Information display rail system
US5348485A (en) * 1993-04-12 1994-09-20 Electronic Retailing Systems Int'l Inc. Electronic price display system with vertical rail
US6271807B1 (en) 1993-09-03 2001-08-07 Display Edge Technology, Ltd. Method of initializing, controlling and updating electronic display tags and related controller therefor
US6181299B1 (en) 1993-09-03 2001-01-30 Display Edge Technology, Ltd. Power and communication system for electronic display tags
US6249263B1 (en) 1993-09-03 2001-06-19 Display Edge Technology, Ltd. Article-information display system using electronically controlled tags
US6266052B1 (en) 1993-09-03 2001-07-24 Display Edge Technology, Ltd. Power and information distribution system for article display or storage areas and related method
US5736967A (en) * 1993-09-03 1998-04-07 Kayser Ventures, Ltd. Article-information display system using electronically controlled tags
US5448226A (en) * 1994-02-24 1995-09-05 Electronic Retailing Systems International, Inc. Shelf talker management system
US6108367A (en) * 1995-03-06 2000-08-22 Electronic Retailing Systems, Inc. Low power two-way wireless communication system for electronic shelf labels
US8910864B2 (en) 1995-07-31 2014-12-16 Information Planning & Management Service, Inc. Electronic product information display system
US9367851B2 (en) 2009-09-17 2016-06-14 Information Planning & Management Service, Inc. System and method for managing compliance with retail display regulations across a plurality of jurisdictions
US10699279B2 (en) 2009-09-17 2020-06-30 Information Planning And Management Service Inc. System and method for managing compliance with retail display regulations across a plurality of jurisdictions
US11715115B2 (en) 2009-09-17 2023-08-01 Information Planning & Management Service Inc. System and method for managing compliance with retail display regulations across a plurality of jurisdictions

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