General:

In some cases, using a calendar system such as IBM Notes, Microsoft Exchange, or Google Calendar has caused the batteries of the LANCOM Wireless ePaper Displays to discharge too quickly. The most common cause for this is that the content of the Displays is changed too often, i.e. there are too many updates to the Display content.

With an average of 2 changes of content per day, the battery life is expected to be 5 years.

To extend the life of the Display batteries, you should check the following:

  • If your LANCOM Wireless ePaper Displays are connected to a Microsoft Exchange system, make sure that the interval defined when the Exchange script is invoked (the parameter -i <interval> in exchange_display_updater.py) which sets the time between the individual checks is not set to a value that is too short.

    For more information see chapter 4 of the Exchange integration manual.
  • If your LANCOM Wireless ePaper Displays are connected to an IBM Notes system, the update interval of the agent that calls the function CheckForUpdate from the script library should not be set to a value that is too small.

    For more information see chapter 2 of the Notes integration manual.

If your LANCOM Wireless ePaper Displays are connected to a Google Calendar, make sure that the value for update.interval in the service.properties file is not set to a value that is too small.
For more information see chapter 3.6 of the Google Calendar integration manual.


To check how often the contents of your displays is changing, you can read the label history on the Wireless ePaper Server. The server stores the history of the updates over a period of 3 months:

  • Enter the following URL into a browser:

http://<server-ip>:8001/service/updatestatus/label/<label-id>?page=0&recordsPerPage=20

  • The parameters "recordsPerPage" and "page" are optional, and omitting them with output all of the updates at once.
  • Also optional is the part “/label/<label-id>”, so leaving it out will output the entire history for all of the labels (optionally page by page).

The output is an overview of the display updates that have been performed.

Note on the storage of unused ePaper Displays

If ePaper Displays are not in use and are not connected to a LANCOM ePaper Access Point (e.g. when a new display is purchased or when spare displays are stored), it must be ensured that they are not stored in the immediate vicinity of active ePaper Access Points. The displays will always attempt to connect to an ePaper Access Point at irregular intervals, even if they are not integrated into a system.

If storage outside the range of active ePaper Access Points is not possible, we recommend removing the batteries from the unused displays.

Which criteria influence the discharge of the Display battery?

  • Size of the ePaper Display (the 7.4” Display, for example, uses more energy than smaller Displays)
  • Number of images received via the radio link each day
  • Number of daily Display updates
  • Blink frequency of the integrated LED (1, 2, 4 seconds). Color and duration of blinks (for WDG-3 Displays only)
  • (Daily) use of the quick sync
  • How long the Displays or batteries are stored before being used
  • Ambient temperature
  • Accessibility of an ePaper access point (due to significantly more connection attempts if it cannot be reached)
  • Self-discharge of the batteries (e.g. through the air)
  • Many or constant changes between "standby", "deep sleep" and "active" modes