Led Sign Board Build Project:

[ReeceyBurger123]

Im planning on building an Led sign board which can display basic text. Im currently in the consideration stage of the project and gathering what I need.
I plan to drive the Leds through either a 12 or 16 channel shift register Ic's which is best as it means I can load each Led individually and write and image to the board. I have found several ones on ebay. I will then use an Epprom to convert codes sent from a signal source from the computer, I have not yet decided how and what port I will use to send the codes.

I have not decided on what color Leds I will use and I wont be using multicolor bulbs as that will be very hard to design and drive each color.

I will also have to find or create software and firmware for this project and codes for the Epproms to drive the Ics.

Its not going to be easy but will be fun to build/design. More on this project soon any suggestions for it are much appreciated. Cheers

[mariushm]

Re: Led Sign Board Build Project:

Use proper led driver ICs like TLC5928, which has 16 separate channels, and allows you to configure the current with just one resistor : http://uk.farnell.com/texas-instrume...sop/dp/2437439

You can make your sign board 16 pixels high or 8 pixels high (and use driver to light up 2x8 columns at a time).
You won't need one driver IC per column (or two columns), you can further do multiplexing and use one driver IC for each 4-8 x 16 or 8-16 x 8 , just connect several columns to each channel and turn on/off power to those columns you want lit.

[ReeceyBurger123]

Re: Led Sign Board Build Project:

Nice one ! Cheers Look at it you are correct it would be too much work to do that and would look a mess and might not end up working property.

[stj]

Re: Led Sign Board Build Project:

how big will this be?

i was just thinking about how feasable it would be to make a big propeler-style display using vision persistance.

like the propeler clocks - only bigger and maybe with rgb-leds

[ReeceyBurger123]

Re: Led Sign Board Build Project:

how big will this be?

i was just thinking about how feasable it would be to make a big propeler-style display using vision persistance.

like the propeler clocks - only bigger and maybe with rgb-leds

Only small just for now but might end up building bigger ones depending on how this turns out. You want to know what inspired me to do this, I ride on alot on Arriva busses lately to get to college etc. I noticed that all the newer Wright 3781 chassis buses alot of them the control signs on the front seem to fail and display weird things, they work in a similar way to this project. After seeing a glimpse at one of the technicians taking one apart to fix I was able to see the boards and was fascinated. Too bad I cant find anything on the sign boards used in them buses would be useful to see how they are designed.

[stj]

Re: Led Sign Board Build Project:

there is a forum for bus engineers.
http://www.busandcoachforum.net/

if it's like the INNOSIGN computerised rollerblinds insisted on in london by clown johnson then they will be overpriced and run by a monopoly that charges through the roof to program them!

[ReeceyBurger123]

Re: Led Sign Board Build Project:

there is a forum for bus engineers.
http://www.busandcoachforum.net/

if it's like the INNOSIGN computerised rollerblinds insisted on in london by clown johnson then they will be overpriced and run by a monopoly that charges through the roof to program them!

Cheers Stj

[mariushm]

Re: Led Sign Board Build Project:

You should check out Mike's electric stuff , a Youtube channel.

The guy designs and makes signage, billboards, led art installations etc but also has some videos where he tears down and explains how more obscure/hard to find electronics work.

BTW, he uses a lot (and recommends) Macroblock MBI5031 (and similar) led driver ICs, apparently they're cheaper than TI chips : https://www.google.ro/search?q=MBI50...j8EcikUcmPjKAO

He did this led cube with such driver chips : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcRsYQj1Cvk

Here's a couple of videos of his with LEDs

* Outdoor LED Screen teardown (+how to drive LEDs with video) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iHTbGsnI8Q

* Driving LEDs with FPGAs (but shows several other methods of driving lots of leds in the video ) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sq8SxVDO5wE

and bonus, teardown of Sony Jumbotron ( using CRT technology but still awesome) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AclwH64eAkU

[stj]

Re: Led Sign Board Build Project:

http://www.hanoverdisplays.com/
http://www.innosign.dk/index_gb.html

[tom66]

Re: Led Sign Board Build Project:

If you're making a display that's not too large, consider WS2812B LEDs.

Pros
) These are LEDs with built in PWM generators (8-bit x 3 for RGB) which can be chained into long serial chains of over 500 LEDs so you only use one "pin" to control them with full intensity control
) They run off 5V DC and just require one decoupling capacitor each (100nF)
) Tiny SMD5050 package but really really bright, 45mA/LED with all three LEDs lit, although 38mA/LED is my target to get even white balance (blue is too bright to give neutral white at 100% on all LEDs)

Cons
) Bit of a pain to solder, very heat sensitive [they are available on pre-manufactured tapes too, but this is more expensive]
) Expensive (£0.10 each in bulk, sounds cheap, but 256 pixel display, 16x16, costs £25.60 in LEDs alone)

These LEDs are the ones I used for my ambilight prototypes (a project likely to be completed at some point in time, lol) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqlvkYdZCNo

The shift register idea is great, but it will likely require an oscilloscope to debug it.
Great project to teach you a lot about engineering stuff!

[ReeceyBurger123]

Re: Led Sign Board Build Project:

You should check out Mike's electric stuff , a Youtube channel.

The guy designs and makes signage, billboards, led art installations etc but also has some videos where he tears down and explains how more obscure/hard to find electronics work.

BTW, he uses a lot (and recommends) Macroblock MBI5031 (and similar) led driver ICs, apparently they're cheaper than TI chips : https://www.google.ro/search?q=MBI50...j8EcikUcmPjKAO

He did this led cube with such driver chips : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcRsYQj1Cvk

Here's a couple of videos of his with LEDs

* Outdoor LED Screen teardown (+how to drive LEDs with video) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iHTbGsnI8Q

* Driving LEDs with FPGAs (but shows several other methods of driving lots of leds in the video ) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sq8SxVDO5wE

and bonus, teardown of Sony Jumbotron ( using CRT technology but still awesome) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AclwH64eAkU

Cheers going to get watching

[ReeceyBurger123]

Re: Led Sign Board Build Project:

http://www.hanoverdisplays.com/
http://www.innosign.dk/index_gb.html

Cheers

[ReeceyBurger123]

Re: Led Sign Board Build Project:

If you're making a display that's not too large, consider WS2812B LEDs.

Pros
) These are LEDs with built in PWM generators (8-bit x 3 for RGB) which can be chained into long serial chains of over 500 LEDs so you only use one "pin" to control them with full intensity control
) They run off 5V DC and just require one decoupling capacitor each (100nF)
) Tiny SMD5050 package but really really bright, 45mA/LED with all three LEDs lit, although 38mA/LED is my target to get even white balance (blue is too bright to give neutral white at 100% on all LEDs)

Cons
) Bit of a pain to solder, very heat sensitive [they are available on pre-manufactured tapes too, but this is more expensive]
) Expensive (£0.10 each in bulk, sounds cheap, but 256 pixel display, 16x16, costs £25.60 in LEDs alone)

These LEDs are the ones I used for my ambilight prototypes (a project likely to be completed at some point in time, lol) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqlvkYdZCNo

The shift register idea is great, but it will likely require an oscilloscope to debug it.
Great project to teach you a lot about engineering stuff!

Thanks Tom for all that honestly really appreciate it Going to get parts list together tomorrow as not well so at home all day, im going to say this is going to cost around £30-£40 and a few hours of time as well as research. Now just to decide what size to build the display lol

Cheers buddy

[ReeceyBurger123]

Re: Led Sign Board Build Project:

Also getting an OS scope for christmas getting the Rigol DS1047Z think same as yours.

[diif]

Re: Led Sign Board Build Project:

Here's one from Hackaday that uses the WS2812 LEDs
http://hackaday.com/2015/10/04/build...g-led-display/

[ReeceyBurger123]

Re: Led Sign Board Build Project:

Here's one from Hackaday that uses the WS2812 LEDs
http://hackaday.com/2015/10/04/build...g-led-display/

Cheers Diif thats looks awesome Cant wait to actually build this

[tom66]

Re: Led Sign Board Build Project:

Also getting an OS scope for christmas getting the Rigol DS1047Z think same as yours.

The DS1054Z is the best value -- the 70MHz DS1074Z isn't worth it given that the 50MHz scope can be upgraded easily to 100MHz. Which is exactly what I did to my 70MHz scope. (I bought this before the 50MHz was available on the market.)

[ReeceyBurger123]

Re: Led Sign Board Build Project:

The DS1054Z is the best value -- the 70MHz DS1074Z isn't worth it given that the 50MHz scope can be upgraded easily to 100MHz. Which is exactly what I did to my 70MHz scope. (I bought this before the 50MHz was available on the market.)

Alright yeah cheers save me some money

[stj]

Re: Led Sign Board Build Project:

i read that one supplier gives a discount to EEVBLOG members.
and i know another gives a free UNI-T meter wih every order over £200
(NO, not the UT-61E )

[ReeceyBurger123]

Re: Led Sign Board Build Project:

Sorry for no reply chaps, been super busy and got soo many other projects to finish up etc. Will get on to this shortly.