Does anyone make an E-Dope Card for IOS?

[Dthomas3523]

To be perfectly honest, my handwriting has turned into chicken scratch the less I write it seems.

E-Dope Card is for Android only. Does anyone else make a similar product for IOS?

If the Kestrel HUD goes panoramic view, I’ll be getting that. But it’s going to be a while before it releases.

 

[Dthomas3523]

Or, is there just a cheap and small android tablet I could pick up to use with the E-Dope card?

 

[Stag556]

Find someone with an older android phone that is pretty much garbage to them. Doesn’t need cell service to use the NFC to connect to the card

 

[kombayotch]

No one makes one. The screen E-Dope uses was designed to be used as a merchandise tag in a department or grocery store. E-Dope did not make them, they're off the shelf. The screens are really cheap when a store chain is buying millions of them. More when you buy small quantities, but you still get the cost benefits of mass production.

The issue is with Apple devices. Apple requires every device that tries to talk to one of their devices to have an encryption chip in it that must be bought from Apple. It's a relatively small cost adder (a dollar or two) on an expensive electronic device, but a relatively huge one on of these screens that are probably only a couple dollars in high volume. There is no reason to add that cost and no reason to use an Apple device in the application the screens are made for. So, you will likely never see one for Apple devices. If someone wants to make a dedicated device for iPhones, they can. But the end device is going to cost hundreds more because it won't be made in anywhere close to the volumes the little screens are made in.

https://www.globalsources.com/gsol/I/NFC-tag/p/sm/1164984337.htm#1164984337

 

[mrtoyz]

I believe Apples chip requirement has been lifted for a software requirement. I do know this to be the case on the home automation side of this.

 

[kombayotch]

Maybe, but I can't see the electronic shelf label manufacturers giving a crap about Apple regardless. The stores buying them won't. They're all about the bottom line and getting things as cheap as possible. Plus, they're already invested in price scanners, etc... The label manufacturers are making tens of millions of the labels per year. They probably wouldn't entertain any kind of customization unless you were going to buy 100k or more per year.

 

[comanche91]

No one makes one. The screen E-Dope uses was designed to be used as a merchandise tag in a department or grocery store. E-Dope did not make them, they're off the shelf. The screens are really cheap when a store chain is buying millions of them. More when you buy small quantities, but you still get the cost benefits of mass production.

The issue is with Apple devices. Apple requires every device that tries to talk to one of their devices to have an encryption chip in it that must be bought from Apple. It's a relatively small cost adder (a dollar or two) on an expensive electronic device, but a relatively huge one on of these screens that are probably only a couple dollars in high volume. There is no reason to add that cost and no reason to use an Apple device in the application the screens are made for. So, you will likely never see one for Apple devices. If someone wants to make a dedicated device for iPhones, they can. But the end device is going to cost hundreds more because it won't be made in anywhere close to the volumes the little screens are made in.

https://www.globalsources.com/gsol/I/NFC-tag/p/sm/1164984337.htm#1164984337

It's not a hardware restriction. Apple dosent allow writing from their devices across NFC. if Apple ever allows it to do so it will not require an equipment upgrade. Down Range Systems will just have to develop an IOS application to support it.

 

[kombayotch]

For every other interface, they require you to put their iAP chip on your device in order to talk to them. Doesn't matter if the interface is a standard one like Bluetooth. Try and talk to their device and it will send back an authentication challenge (a key) that you pass to the iAP chip, then send back what the iAP chip spits out. Don't answer, or answer with the wrong code and the Apple device refuses to talk to your device. Hell, they even have it in the power cables...

That is the only reason a Kestrel 4500 can't work with an iPhone. Nothing in the hardware is not compatible, it just doesn't have the iAP chip.

 

[comanche91]

That's only for BT

 

[kombayotch]

It's also in the iLink, which is why third party power cables don't work, or don't work for long. Given that they have them in the only two interfaces the device has that aren't phone, internet (or Apple specific), I doubt they wouldn't add it to any additional ones.