Decal Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting

If you're running the original GEN 1's ... the GEN 2 will solve all the following.
Updated: 17/9/24




General Issues Black Screen
(Un-Powered)
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Scenerio 1: Power Saving mode
Power saving mode may be activated via your Beer Crawl account. When activated, the decals take your opening / closing hours and turn the screen on 2 hours before you open / turn the screens off 2 hours after your close.
These hours are taken form the venues ‘Profile tab’
This can be bypassed by clicking the ‘Tell decals to ignore venue opening hours’ tick box.
NOTE: The Decals restart daily 15 minutes either side of 9am.





General Issues Black Screen
(Powered)
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To establish if there is power to the screen, cup your hands over the decal, although black, you should see some emanating light from the LCD panel. Scenerio 1: General Fault
This may be a temporary fault. Please power cycle decal by either remote reboot – or removing then reapplying power source (to just this decal.) If this becomes a common occurrence, please contact us to organise a replacement device





General Issues No Change after update on Beer Crawl
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Scenerio 1: No internet
The decals require internet to update content / change operating hours etc.
Please ensure the decals have internet by going to the ‘Digital Decals’ tab in your Beer Crawl’s venue account .
If they are showing as offline, please use the Crawl Connect app. See more click here.
NOTE: "OFFLINE NO INTERNET" will discreetly display in the bottom left hand corner of the decals to advise changes are not possible.

Scenerio 2: Temporary Communication error
In rare circumstance, if content has not updated on the decal, you can ‘trigger’ an update by simply clicking on ‘Show QR code’. If after 2 minutes the QR code does not show, please power cycle the decal.

Scenerio 3: No Licence
The Digital Decals require a licence to update content.
If you only require static constant content displayed on the decal (image / video / advertisement), there is no licencing required.
Licencing for the Digital Decals SaaS system is based per tap / month. The monthly licensing fee is only required if you want change content and access other features. NOTE: "NO LIC" will discreetly display in the bottom right hand corner of the decals.





Wi-Fi Related Issues
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See notes click here.





gen 1 Code Displayed on Screen
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If after boot up, the screen is filled with code, it has likely encountered a 110 Error (Wi-Fi related)
Please manually power cycle.
If the problem persists, the decal will require replacing. See notes to replace the decal click here.





gen 1 Code Constant Clear Cache
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If you see 'Clear cache' constantly on the screen (and If it has not been manually triggered), please power cycle.
If the problem persists, the decal will require replacing. See notes to replace the decal click here.





gen 1 Stuck on Loading Screen
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If after 5 minutes, the decal is stuck on the loading screen, the SD card is likely corrupt and the Decal requires replacing.
Please ensure that the decal has not power cycled in this 5 minutes and that it is actually stuck on this page.
See notes to replace the decal click here.





gen 1 Power Related Issues
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Updated: 29/5/24

If you are experiencing power related issues with your decals, the USB-c cable & USB power hub likely need replacing. These have an estimated life span of 1-2 years.
Please check when they were installed.
Since 2020, the majority of the issues with the decals is essentially they suffer from not getting enough power (brown own / power sag).

This is a result of:

  1. The original electronics engineer designed the USB-C power to be power and date when it should have been power only.
  2. Degradation of the ferrites in the electronics.
  3. Degradation of the copper in the USB cable.
  4. Degradation of the USB wall power adapters - which inhibits power delivery to the decals.
  5. If decals have issues connecting to your Wi-Fi - they will use more power to try to establish connection / keep connected.

When there is a slight voltage drop (especially when the decal is booting) it can prevent the Wi-Fi chip or the HDMI controller from initiating correctly, this results in either the decal not being able to connect to the internet – or  - a black powered screen.
How to tell if the decal is not getting enough power - or if there is a hardware fault?

  1. The first thing to do is to plug a new USB-C cable into the decal. If possible, do this on a separate or new USB charger.
    IF you have gen 1 rear decals with the 'y-cables' , remove the y cable and run a separate USB cable for both the front and rear decal.
  2. If using the new USB cable fixes the issue, you may need to replace all your USB cables
  3. If noting comes up on the screen, there is a good chance there is damage to the screen.
    Contact us and we will remotely perform some tests / organise replacement.
    Please note to check the maintenance manual how to inspect for wear




gen 1 USB Power Hub Issues
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If you are still running the 'Comsol' branded power hub, it likely needs replacing
These have an estimated life span of 1-2 years - and - we have since learned that this model / brand was only ever intended to charge and remove > not to allow 24/7 charging of devices.
Replacing the Power hub: We now only recommend the Belkin 10 port charger (B2B139au).
click here





gen 1 USB Cable Issues
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If you are still running the original USB cables, they likely needs replacing
These have an estimated life span of 1-2 years and depending on environmental factors, the contacts could have suffered oxidation with can cuase less power to get to the decals.

Replacing the USB-C cables: We ONLY recommend replacing with 18AWG (USB3.2 gen 2).
These have thicker, lower resistance copper.

Purchase a replacement 3 meter version here     or 2 meter version here

A standard USB-A to USB-C will still work, but only under perfect scenarios (perfect running power hub etc)

NOTE: The smaller AWG number the better..18 AWG uses 1.027mm / 20 AWG uses 0.812mm / 24 AWG uses 0.511mm.





gen 1 Other Issues
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Other than power related issues, we know of:

  1. Internal SD card may have become damaged. Symptom  = not loading / stuck on boot screen.
  2. Rarely, the screens need to be replaced (this is very rare) - we are happy to provide you a complimentary replacement screen (after we have established that it is indeed a fault with the screen over above mentioned power issues)
  3. Problimatatic Wi-Fi causes a higher power draw on the decals... SEE HOW TO ENSURE YOUR SETUP IS CORRECT




What have we been doing to rectify it?
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  1. V2 decals electronics:
    • After 7 months of being let down by a new supplier, we have found new electronics engineer to carry on the work for the V2 decal schematics.
    • V2 Decals will have an optional ‘2 screen in one’ – which will also alleviate the need for a secondary rear decal / another Wi-Fi connected device in close proximity.
    • Will have better power delivery mechanism to alleviate oxidisation issues .
    • 2.4 ∓ 5Ghz Wi-Fi for better mesh network integration.
  2. Firmware updates
    • The decal will display the cached beer quicker after boot.
    • We are making the ‘offline’ smaller.
    • Standard and full screen models.
    • Tick box to hide pricing on decals.

See an up-to-date list of where we are at with these changes and release date HERE