Milesight recently launched the new DS3604 E-ink Display. We have been busy testing this new device, as we do with everything we sell. We’ve compiled a short blog covering everything you can expect from this new device and how you can set it up to work best for your use case.
What is the Milesight DS3604?
The DS3604 is a configurable display device from Milesight. This device can be used when booking your meeting rooms, but it goes a bit beyond that. You can remotely set it to display that it is reserved, display your room names, dates, the period the room is booked for, it is completely customisable! This means when you look at this handy little sign outside the meeting room door, you have all the details you need to know whether it’s worth loitering for that one person who’s always busy or quickly grab a coffee!
The payload
First, let’s go over the different parts of the payload.
Let’s look at the example above from Milesight’s user guide: FB01000474657374FF3D02
We’re going to split this up to make it easier to read:
FB
01
00
04
74657374
FF3D02
FB is the channel we’re sending to and 01 just says we’re updating text or QR code content. We’re going to focus on the “value” as this is the part we will be changing.
00 04 74657374
As you can see there are 3 parts to the value, we’re going to label them A, B and C
A:00 B:04 C:74657374
Payload Part A: Using Toolbox
A: 00, this indicates we’re changing template 1, module 1. But We want to change anything or at least know which module 00 is. To do this we can use the Milesight app, Toolbox, to find the module numbers. Toolbox is useful for a variety of Milesight’s products, so if you are using any of their products I recommend checking it out.
You need to scan the device making sure you have NFC turned on, then navigate to “Setting > “E-ink Display Settings” this will display a template for your device. When you select a module, you will see a little red number that tells you what the module number is. The display counts up from 1, where as the payload is from 0, this means the module is whatever the little number is minus 1. In this case to change module 1 we need to set it to 0.
I advise noting down the different parts for your chosen template so you can send downlinks from wherever you want. This is accurate for all module numbers apart from the QR code, to change the QR code you change A to “0A”.
Payload Part B and C: The actual content
B: 04, this is the size of the text you’re sending in hexidecimal. B = 04 because “test” is 4 characters. You have to convert messages that are 10+ characters, symbols or spaces to the correct format, “AllIoT Rules!” for instance would be 0D instead of 13.
C: 74657374, This is the text you want to display, or the value you want the QR code to show when scanned, to get this value you need to get whatever text you have and convert it from ASCII to hexadecimal. There are plenty of websites which offer this, just go to your search browser and type “Ascii to hex converter”. P.s. To get to “AllIoT Rules!” use 416C6C496F542052756C657321.
The last bit of our payload is FF3D02, this refreshes the screen so you can see your changes, you should leave this as it is.
Once you’ve got everything ready, all you need to do is send it as a payload to your device at port 85.
And that is it, you can now configure and send your own payloads to change your Milesight DS3604!
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