Communication device and method for electronic price label systems

摘要

A communication device (24) for an electronic price label (EPL) system which uses EPL components comprising a microcontroller (40) , a first EPL circuit (46) enabled by the microcontroller and which sends a first signal to an EPL computer in response to a first polling signal from the EPL computer indicating that data from the microcontroller (40) is ready for transmission, second EPL circuits (52) which store the data from the microcontroller (40) and which send the data to the EPL computer in response to a second polling signal from the EPL computer, a third EPL circuit (48) which receives a second signal from the EPL computer acknowledging receipt by the EPL computer of the data and which signals the microcontroller (40) of the receipt of the data, a keypad (54) coupled to the microcontroller (40) for recording the data from an operator, and a display (56) for displaying the data as it is recorded and for displaying an indication of the receipt of the data.