Does anyone know of any simple designs for a rotating, scrolling LED display?

I'm looking to control up to four displays with the same message, remotely from a controller so that I can change the message without stopping and reprogramming the unit.

There are several challenges that will need to be overcome.

Firstly, the control system to enable the message to be changed, preferably with a display of its own so that I can see what is being programmed, (I may not be able to see the output on the rotating displays).

Then there is the comms link between the controller and the four rotating displays, I'm thinking a wireless link for two reasons, a) there will be no direct line between the displays, b) they will be rotating! There will be no direct line of sight either, so radio might be the only option.

Also the rotating display will need to know how fast it is spinning to be able to hold the message 'still'. Since the displays will be vertical, some kind of accelerometer could be used to determine when the sensor reaches the top and bottom of each cycle. (Because of this the comms link may have to be bi-directional!)

The whole control of the display could be from a serial port on a computer, but I would eventually like some remote control type device, maybe using bluetooth or similar technology.

Does anyone have experience in any of these fields that would be able to help me design such a thing?

I am thinking of making just one display initially, this will have some inbuilt memory to scroll a message on the display. This will then be altered from the controller and uploaded to the display when it is needed to be changed.

Any help or ideas on this will be most welcome.

Thanks in advance.

Paul

 

The first thing that springs to mind is Bob Blick's famous 'Propellor Clock', you can see it at http://www.bobblick.com/techref/proj...propclock.html - perhaps that will give you some ideas (I presume that's the sort of thing you are talking about?).

 

Yes, That idea uses the same principle, although the version I am planning will be a little more complicated!

Cheers,

P

 

I've had a go at making one of these displays in the past, the electronics were working ok, just the mechanical side of things was a bit heavy duty and span itself to bits.

Anyway, when I did it I used a hall effect sensor on the spinning part with a magnet in a fixed position on the base so that as it span round it would always show the output in the same place on each rotation. I was quite surprised at how well it worked (until bits started flying off :lol: ). For your wireless comms between each unit, have you looked at those rfPICs that Microchip do now? I've not read anything about them so they maybe useless in this application but probably worth a look.

 

I was working on something similar as a simple desktop novelty, i used the IR receiver on the spinning part of the circuit for communication.