jonstacey1 Posted December 12, 2009 Posted December 12, 2009 I was wondering if anyone used a LED scrolling light sign to inform people of their radio stations and other information they may need to know. I am contemplating on whether to get one.. I am getting kinda tired of painting several signs but they make a nice decoration. IF anyone does, what do you have, and do you like it? I have seen some sign running for 130 +dollars, and wondering if this would be sufficient. If you have one, is it easy to read from 50 to a couple of hundred ft? thanks for the info....Jon
Max-Paul Posted December 13, 2009 Posted December 13, 2009 Jon,Have you been to Planet Christmas site? There usually a few post about those scrolling LED signs in the DIY section.http://forums.planetchristmas.com/forumdisplay.php?f=11You might need to go back some pages to find it again. I am fairly sure where I have seen talk about those kinds of sings, a ??? Bright was one name but as you can see I dont remember the full name right now..Hope that this is of some help.
JBullard Posted December 13, 2009 Posted December 13, 2009 There are also several threads on here about interfacing the Beta-Brite signs with LOR to display the name of the song playing, etc.here are a few I found with just a quick search. There are many more alsohttp://lightorama.mywowbb.com/forum72/http://lightorama.mywowbb.com/forum25/
pdowns Posted December 13, 2009 Posted December 13, 2009 I am very happy with my Betabrite Prism LED message sign. It cost me $230 but I think it is one of the best. Just about any sign will cost $100.Warning - I found that plugging the sign in to a LOR channel destroyed two message sign power supplies. So I'm planning on controlling it with X10. I have it on a simple timer for now.Also, if you want to dynamically update the sign contents with song titles, etc. you will need to give that some thought. It may affect the sign you get and where you put it. For instance, I have the Betabrite Prism which is a USB model and I have no way to dynamically change the sign contents (that I've figured out yet.) But the serial version can be updated on the fly.
Tim Fischer Posted December 13, 2009 Posted December 13, 2009 I also have the BetaBrite Prism. I don't have it interfaced with LOR although that's been on my to-do list for some time... It just displays some static messages about our website, FM station, etc. I have it mounted in a front window and it's VERY visible from the road.The Prism is very nice as it does thousands of colors rather than just the 1-3 many signs do.
Tim Fischer Posted December 13, 2009 Posted December 13, 2009 pdowns wrote:Also, if you want to dynamically update the sign contents with song titles, etc. you will need to give that some thought. It may affect the sign you get and where you put it. For instance, I have the Betabrite Prism which is a USB model and I have no way to dynamically change the sign contents (that I've figured out yet.) But the serial version can be updated on the fly.I'm pretty sure someone here is dynamically updating the Prism. I got as far as finding a program called "Kitchi" that can take any RSS feed and display it on a BetaBrite sign (including the Prism), but this was never high enough priority for me to get it working with the display yet, especially since this year I'm using video to display the song titles/artists...
eldoradoboy Posted December 14, 2009 Posted December 14, 2009 I thought the betabrites could be updated on the fly.. im planning on using one next year and that is one thing i want to do is be able to update it on the fly..I was told that the serial one is going away and only the USB will be offered?-Christopher
ItsMeBobO Posted December 14, 2009 Posted December 14, 2009 Another BetaBrite Prism user here. Its a good sign. I have not tried to update it on the fly yet.
pdowns Posted January 18, 2010 Posted January 18, 2010 So I read that some folks used a program distributed with their Betabrite Prism called "prismcom.exe" that could be used to send messages to the LED message sign. That program was not distributed with my usb Prism sign. However, I found it here (no charge):http://www.industrologic.com/prissoft.htmBe sure to download the .dll file also.It's a little quirky (for instance, {RED} is valid but if you want blue you must specify {RGB 00-00-C0}) but nevertheless, it gets the job done nicely.I downloaded Kitchi as suggested above but got mired down in how to produce RSS feeds. Kitchi is cool but probably not the solution needed by most LOR users who simply want to put a short message on the sign, change it with each song, etc.
Rafter Bar R Posted January 18, 2010 Posted January 18, 2010 stanward wrote: How water resistant is the BetaBrite?"For indoor use only"
Guest guest Posted January 19, 2010 Posted January 19, 2010 stanward wrote: How water resistant is the BetaBrite?Pretty much indoor only, but if you could find an enclosure that would fit it's large rectangular shape, or if you can possibly build a weatherproof enclosure for it and it's power brick, you could get away with using it outdoors.You'd also need to get either get a custom cut rectangualr glass window to fit or a piece of plexiglass you could cut down yourself for the rectangualr viewing window.It's the only way I know to make it somewhat weatherproof for use outdoors.
joneslights Posted January 19, 2010 Posted January 19, 2010 I use one, I have it above my door it and it shows through the window. You can see mine from several hundred feet.
terrypowerz Posted January 19, 2010 Posted January 19, 2010 joneslights wrote: I use one, I have it above my door it and it shows through the window. You can see mine from several hundred feet."The snap of a few sparks, a quick whiff of ozone, and the lamp blazed forth in unparalleled glory""the soft glow of electric s_x gleaming in the window"
stanward Posted January 19, 2010 Posted January 19, 2010 A Christmas Story!terrypowerz wrote: "The snap of a few sparks, a quick whiff of ozone, and the lamp blazed forth in unparalleled glory""the soft glow of electric s_x gleaming in the window"
joneslights Posted January 20, 2010 Posted January 20, 2010 stanward wrote: A Christmas Story!terrypowerz wrote: "The snap of a few sparks, a quick whiff of ozone, and the lamp blazed forth in unparalleled glory""the soft glow of electric s_x gleaming in the window"Terry couldn't resist!
tomskillman Posted July 14, 2010 Posted July 14, 2010 I do use the original Betabrite, but there is a similar program available for the Prism as pdowns said. See my post (about 8 down) in this thread:http://lightorama.mywowbb.com/forum79/18482.htmlShould give you an idea how it works. I've since changed mine to use a .bat file instead of the direct command line because I do other stuff now besides update the sign. I log the show to a text file to run statistics on how many times a song played or which songs were requested. The Batch file also watches a queue file to pick up song requests called in by phone or the website....that's a whole other post (and link on my website if you're interested in that....
Greg Posted July 14, 2010 Posted July 14, 2010 I use the next model up from the betabrite series. It is the 4160C series from adaptive. The software I use to update the sign is from kitchi here is a link to their website http://www.kitchi-rss.com/Default.aspx this software is great it will allow you to update variables to the sign and will also allow you to have start times and stop times for different messages.
stanward Posted July 14, 2010 Posted July 14, 2010 Wow, the Adaptive signs are awesome!I am hoping to purchase one of those before this Christmas season.
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