Dock guidance system shows SKF drivers the way
In 2020, Q-lite delivered a dock reference system with message boards to SKF. Above the loading gates, 32 digital signs are used that display route information and departure times for each truck.
Challenge of this project
The various tickers must receive hexadecimal data before they can display predefined text. An external tool was used for this. It generates the information for the news tickers and places the text files via ftp on a mini computer, the Raspberry PI, and thus does the preparatory work.
The Raspberry PI retrieves these files and converts them for the news tickers, spread over two different buildings. In the first building, 21 signs are connected behind a serial port, while in the second building, 11 news tickers are connected in the same way.
The two-line tickers are easily readable up to 40 meters and resistant to a dusty and damp workspace.
Message boards as a solution for the industry
Q-lite has often supplied dock reference systems as an industrial solution, where trucks are assigned to specific loading docks. For the solution at SKF, this principle is reversed, by linking it to the internal software package, for example, the order and destination can be displayed above the assigned loading port.