Alpha 220 LED Sign
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Revision as of 02:34, 24 August 2007
| You can find one of these signs for less than $100. |
|
| 220 Full Matrix, (Case 37.7" x 3.8" x 2.9 ") Tricolor[1] |
Contents |
Install a Serial Port Interface
In this case a KuroBoxPro was used however any Linkstation could be used by accessing the serial port interface.
First, install a serial port interface. There are two physical serial ports on the KuroBoxPro. One serial port on the bottom[2] which is the same as the port on the Linkstation Pro and one on the daughterboard accessible from the front. Both are addressed as /dev/ttyS0. Consider soldering in a pinheader rather than the pressure connector used in the LSPRO method.
| The cheapest TTL/RS232 converter found was from futurelec, however the order is shipped from thailand so it takes 2-3 weeks to get it.
http://www.futurlec.com/Mini_RS232_TTL_3V.shtml
| The sign uses a 6 conductor RJ-12 Jack. A snap in RJ-12 jack is used to interface the sign to the serial port converter
| The serial port board/connector are then enclosed in a 2 port surface mount housing
|
Interface Sign to Serial Port Interface
A standard 6 wire telephone cable meant for a two line phone is used (a 4 wire one will not work) Plug one end into the sign, and one end into the Quick port RJ-12 Jack. Wire the jack into the serial port board as such[3]
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Setup the serial port
Adjust the serial port settings, below is a script to do this. This information comes from a FAQ on using the Alpha sign with Linux[4].
Basically this
- Links /dev/ttyS0 to /dev/alpha
- Gives everyone read/write access to your sign (/dev/alpha)
- Provides a 9600,E,7,1 connection to the sign (/dev/alpha)
setledsign
# /usr/local/bin/setledsign #!/bin/sh rm /dev/alpha ln -s /dev/ttyS0 /dev/alpha chmod a+rw /dev/alpha stty 9600 -opost -ocrnl -onlcr cs7 parenb -parodd < /dev/alpha
Wake up the sign and display something on it
alphamon.pl
# alphamon.pl # #!/usr/bin/perl # # Script will display the contents of /tmp/textfile to the ALPHA 220C LED # Display # # Usage # # alphamon.pl [MODE TAG] [COLORTAG] # Get the attention of the sign print "\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0"; # Tell the sign to print the message $message = `cat /tmp/textfile` ; print "\001" . "Z" . "00" . "\002" . "AA" . "\x1B" . " $ARGV[0]" . "\x1C" . "$ARGV[1]" . $message . "\004";
Alpha Sign Syntax
| "\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0" | "\001" | "Z" | "00" | "\002" | "AA" | "\x1B" | "t" | "\x1C" | "1" | Hello World | "\004" |
|---|
| Value | Meaning | Code Type |
|---|---|---|
| \0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0 | NULL | String of Null packets to get attention of sign |
| \001 | SOH | Start of Header |
| Z | Direct at all Signs | Type Code |
| 00 | All Signs Should Listen | Sign Address |
| \002 | Start of Text Character | Start Type |
| A | Text File | Write File Type |
| A | A | File Label |
| \x1B | ESC | Start of Mode Field |
| t | compressed text | MODE TAG (see below) |
| \x1C | color control code | Control Code |
| 1 | red | COLORTAG (see below) |
| Hello World | Text Message | |
| \004 | EOT | End of Transmission |
MODE TAG and COLORTAG
The key parts of this are the MODE TAG and COLORTAG, there is full documentation available for this[5][6]but here are the pertinent parts.
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Stock Ticker
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The sign can be used for a number of purposes (to display weather forecasts from an RSS feed, to display news feeds as a news ticker) As a proof of concept the following script uses the sign to display a stock ticker that gets it's data from Yahoo! it then colors the prices GREEN if they are positive/up and RED if they are negative/down for the day. |
Here it is in action: (clip from a cell phone so quality is somewhat poor) |
First install perl and make
apt-get install perl make
Then install the quote package [7]
wget http://www.circlemud.org/pub/jelson/quote/quote-0.05.tar.gz tar -xvzf quote-0.05.tar.gz cd quote-0.05 ./configure ./make ./make install
install curl and lynx so that they can be used later to get content from the web.
apt-get install curl lynx
Lastly here is a shell script to display the ticker
leddisplay
# /usr/local/bin/leddisplay
#!/bin/sh
# Stock ticker symbols
#
PTE=/usr/local/bin
stocks=" ^DJI ^IXIC ^GSPC "
quote $stocks | cut -d"(" -f1 |sed 's/^/\x1C9 \x7F \x1C3 /' | sed '/ -/s/:/\x1C1/g' | sed '/ +/s/:/\x1C2/g' > /tmp/textfile
$PTE/alphamon.pl t A > /dev/alpha
References
- ↑ 220 brochure (Pdf)
- ↑ Add a Serial port to the ARM9 Linkstation
- ↑ Building a Data Cable for Alpha LED Scrolling Signs
- ↑ Using the Alpha 215C with Linux
- ↑ Alpha Sign Communications Protocol (pn 9708-8061)
- ↑ Alpha® Sign Communications Protocol Revision F
- ↑ quote -- command-line stock quote display
