LED Sign ROM Chip (alpha/adaptive 320c)

Yes, and no. The sign can do logos. BUT, my sign is 16 pixels high. I think the 213c is only 7-8 pixels high. One good thing is that 213c has more color variations: red, green, amber, light red, light green, brown, orange and yellow (instead of just red, green, yellow). I also have a similar sign - the 320c. It's also 7 pixels high. I'll see if I can resize the logos, but I don't think there is enough room.
 
I played around a little with the logos. The Nintendo definitely can't be resized. Your sign is only 7 dots vertically. If you have one row of dots for the border, that leaves only 5 dots. Assuming 1 dot between the border and the letters, each letter can only by 3 dots high. That just won't work. Maybe without the border, but the border is what makes that logo.

I have a Sega logo, and that won't fit either. The Atari, doesn't work well, and the Taito won't either. I have a Qbert and Mario sprites also and they won't work.

Most of these are hard enough to fit in 16 dots high, so I don't think it will work for the 213c sign. Interestingly, most of the sprites in the 80s games are all 16 pixels high.
 
You can probably do something like the attached for Pacman. I'm juggling my signs around. I'll see if I can work up a small animation. I'm not sure you can even see these here (they are so small). But, they are 7 pixels high. Should fit, but not sure on the quality
 

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Here is a better representation attached. This is for the 215c. It's probably similar to the 213c. I'll have to look at the specs.
 

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Looks better in real life but not bad - considering the sign constraints. I'll work up something more than this test and you should be able to send to your sign - assuming your sign is connected to a PC.
 

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I think there is a pretty inexpensive, relatively easy way to connect a PC to the signs (not the way I'm doing it). I'll post some more info after I finish testing.

Then I can post here the logo files and anyone could send to a sign.
 
I think I've come up with a pretty easy sign connection. The standard Alpha Sign is connectd via a serial connection with a RJ12 cable. You can buy an pre-made cable but it's DB9 serial to RJ12. That means you still have to have a serial port on your PC. You could do a USB->DB9 and then the standard cable.

What I found was a USB->Cisco router cable for about $9. It's a serial cable but it's a RJ45 cable. Since the Cisco cable is readily available and has a known pinout, it just requires an adapter from RJ45 to RJ12 with the correct Alpha sign pinout.

I plugges in the cable to a Windows 10 laptop and it automatically configured as COM3. I then made up the adapter (see the picture - it's the dark blue adapter on the end.). I hooked it up to a one of my signs and sent a test file from the Alpha software. I also tested a saved data stream and copied that to the sign. It works as well. All that is required to send a file is to go to the command prompt and issue the following commands:

MODE COM3:9600,n,8,1
COPY DATAFILE.TXT COM3: /b

I'm busy for the next couple of weeks but if I can get some time I'll save the data streams I've been playing around so anyone else can use them. I'll probably make a thread jsut for that.
 

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You can get the demo Alphanet software from adaptive's website. If you set up a "site" that isn't reachable (bad IP or invalid COM port, etc), you'll get an error when the software tries to transmit the data to the sign (ALT-T from within the editor). It will also show you a Job# for that transmission. When there is an error like this, Alphanet creates a sub directory in the Alphanet directory named the same as the job#. under that will be a file called transmit.ezt. That file is the data stream that is sent to the sign. If you are trying to customize the data stream (with some other variable update - news, scores, etc), you can use Alphanet to test, and create a stream, and then alter it. I "think" it's also including a checksum at the end, but that can be deleted also.

I've played around with the data streams for the demo version. So far, I'm unable to edit out the standard demo garbage. I'm not sure what protocol it's using. Looking at the adaptive sign protocol, I'm able to manually build a data stream to spit out one string of text. Using that knowledge, I'm unable to parse through the transmit.ezt file to find any <STX> or <EOT> codes. I've tried deleting the demo garbage at various points in the file but, nothing displays after transmitting the stream. Anyone have any hack info?
 
I've played around with the data streams for the demo version. So far, I'm unable to edit out the standard demo garbage. I'm not sure what protocol it's using. Looking at the adaptive sign protocol, I'm able to manually build a data stream to spit out one string of text. Using that knowledge, I'm unable to parse through the transmit.ezt file to find any <STX> or <EOT> codes. I've tried deleting the demo garbage at various points in the file but, nothing displays after transmitting the stream. Anyone have any hack info?

When you setup your device I think you have the option of setting up the protocol. Probably either EzII or Alpha 1. Changing that might change the data stream for you. Are you trying to do anything really fancy with graphics or just text? Alpha/Adaptive has free software for the BetaBright signs, but it works for the regular signs as well. It doesn't have the same features as their Alphanet software but it does work. It's text only. I'll have to find the link for it. Worst case if you have a sign image saved you could send it to me and I could send you back a saved data stream - without the demo info.
 
When you setup your device I think you have the option of setting up the protocol. Probably either EzII or Alpha 1. Changing that might change the data stream for you. Are you trying to do anything really fancy with graphics or just text? Alpha/Adaptive has free software for the BetaBright signs, but it works for the regular signs as well. It doesn't have the same features as their Alphanet software but it does work. It's text only. I'll have to find the link for it. Worst case if you have a sign image saved you could send it to me and I could send you back a saved data stream - without the demo info.

No graphics, just text. But, I at least to make it interesting. I do have some text effects (scroll, flash, different colors...). I'll check out the other protocols and the BetaBright software.
The biggest thing is just inputing everything with the remote. Most days, I like to scroll the High Scores for all my games. But, on occasion, I like to change it for special events like birthdays, graduations. Then having to type in all the high scores again is a p.i.t.a. So, I was hoping to have a file that I could store/update the hi scores so when I change the sign for special events, I don't have to use the remote to type it all in again. The Alpha software is easy to use and update, so I was hoping to have a way to get it working. $150+ is a little to much for the software. I'm not a business, so to fork out that much for software that I might use once or twice a year for what's more or less a toy is more than I'm willing to pay right now. Thanks for the info.
 
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