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    little LED sign

    Disclaimer: I don't really know anything about this sign, I saw it posted in Engadget and thought it would be a great alternative or addition, if someone could hack it to work.

    http://usb.brando.com.hk/prod_detail.php?prod_id=00575

    Nick

    #2
    I ordered one. I am not all that hopeful that there will be a way to communicate with it, but it is worth trying. At least I can have a little fun with it at work if nothing else.

    Bill

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      #3
      Any luck with this? I am really interested in using this as a cheap display if I can get it to somehow work from HS

      Comment


        #4
        They finally shipped on 8/21, I should get it some time next week.

        Bill

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          #5
          It finally showed up. It does what it says it does. It won't be possible to interface the sign directly to this plug-in, as it appears the sign itself is just a matrix of led's without any local smarts. The PC program must be running to display anything on the sign. The actual data is stored in a text file, and if you shut down the program, edit the text file, and restart the program, it would be possible to change what the sign displays programatically, but it is kind of clumsy and with the problems I've had with the Prism USB interface, I'm reluctant to add another kludge to the plug-in.

          Bill

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            #6
            Any further luck with the dot net version of the plugin.
            it is my last com plugin.

            Thanks

            Thom

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              #7
              For anyone thats interested, I bought one of these little (and they are actually quite small) things today, the makers won't release the protocol but with a little hacking from Bill (wish i'd read the site first instead of spending an hour on google, didn't notice your update on this thread since the last time i've read it) i've got it working, its exactly as Bill says - very ugly to control, involves updating an ini file (which I keep in the HS config folder), ending the program, copying the ini file, re-starting the program and the message appears.

              Heres what i've got so far just for one message;

              Code:
              sub main()
              'this will update the led.ini file
              Dim source
              Dim t1
              t1 = "Hello From HS"
              hs.saveinisetting "MessageInformation", "TextMessageContent1", t1, "LED.ini"
              hs.launch "taskkill.exe", "/F /IM LED.exe" 'ends the LED Panel
              hs.waitsecs (1)
              source = " ""c:\Program Files\HomeSeer\config\LED.ini"" ""C:\Program Files\Dream Cheeky\USB LED Message Board\"" /R /Y"  'copy the ini file
              hs.launch "xcopy.exe", source
              hs.waitsecs (5)
              hs.launch "C:\Program Files\Dream Cheeky\USB LED Message Board\LED.exe"
              end sub
              It works, bitmaps look harder to do, but not impossible...i'll carry on messing with it for now but its a reasonable alternative to an LCD I suppose...

              Comment


                #8
                This looks very interesting....


                How does this interface with HS? Is there some other hardware/sofware hack that needs to been done outside of what you have outlined?

                Comment


                  #9
                  Originally posted by bmora View Post
                  This looks very interesting....


                  How does this interface with HS? Is there some other hardware/sofware hack that needs to been done outside of what you have outlined?
                  That little script i've posted is all you would need to get started with it and HS. There are no other software/hardware modifications that are needed to be done, you can set various effects (flashing, scroll direction, scroll speed) either by editing the INI file manually, writing to it from HS or using the LED panel program that is included on the CD.

                  The only thing different i've had to do is place a copy of the led.ini file that the message board software uses in the config folder, then xcopy will copy it into the LED panel program dir, I don't think you can use hs.saveinisetting to edit things outside the HS directory unless anyone can confirm?

                  At the minute i'm stealing data from Jon00's fantastic scripts ini files and having the weather and news displayed, i'm also going to set up some scripts/events that will give me various updates, say I press B1 on a X10 remote, it will bring the news up first and redisplay the message order...

                  Comment


                    #10
                    You don't have to put the file in the homeseer directory.

                    if you put enough ..\ in front of the file name, you can "back" yourself OUT of the homeseer directory into whatever directory you want.

                    Just keep in mind the commands all "start" in the homeseer directory.

                    Since my Homeseer is in the program files directory, to get into another folder:

                    ..\skype\filename
                    for something else, put two ..\
                    ..\..\windows\system32

                    You might need more ..\ for ini read/writes as I THINK they assume \homeseer\config
                    it just depends on where the command attempts to "start" from.

                    --Dan
                    Tasker, to a person who does Homeautomation...is like walking up to a Crack Treatment facility with a truck full of 3lb bags of crack. Then for each person that walks in and out smack them in the face with an open bag.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Jon

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                        #12

                        I've just been out and bought one from Maplins. Thanks for letting us know.

                        Comment


                          #13
                          There is a 3rd Party interface for the Dream Cheeky LED sign available. This allows Cmd line control and even has client/server facilities, font and graphic editing.

                          I emailed the author and he has now added speed, brightness & other parameters via the command line in the latest version.

                          You can download it from: http://sourceforge.net/project/platf...roup_id=257864

                          These are the command line parameters available:

                          -SetSpeed FLOAT (0.0f to 1.0)
                          -SetBrightness FLOAT (0.0f to 1.0)
                          -SetRepeatCount INT (0 = repeat forever, any other integer means the number of times to repeat the next message)
                          -DeleteMsgAfterRepeat BOOL (0 = don't delete after repeating the message, 1 = delete after repeating the message)
                          -RepeatMsgSequentially BOOL (0 = repeat message interleaved , 1 = repeat each message sequentially)
                          -DoNotAppendGap BOOL (0 = no gap between messages , 1 = add fixed gap between messages)
                          -SendText "TEXT" (sent the given text using any of the previously specified options)
                          -DeleteRegex "REGEX" (delete any messages that matches the given regular expression. Empty string means all messages)
                          Attached Files
                          Jon

                          Comment


                            #14
                            This works well, I've just set this up and can send messsages from HS server to PC with LED panel connected !

                            Just need to find something to use it for now !

                            Thanks
                            Simon

                            Originally posted by jon00 View Post
                            There is a 3rd Party interface for the Dream Cheeky LED sign available. This allows Cmd line control and even has client/server facilities, font and graphic editing.

                            I emailed the author and he has now added speed, brightness & other parameters via the command line in the latest version.

                            You can download it from: http://sourceforge.net/project/platf...roup_id=257864

                            These are the command line parameters available:

                            -SetSpeed FLOAT (0.0f to 1.0)
                            -SetBrightness FLOAT (0.0f to 1.0)
                            -SetRepeatCount INT (0 = repeat forever, any other integer means the number of times to repeat the next message)
                            -DeleteMsgAfterRepeat BOOL (0 = don't delete after repeating the message, 1 = delete after repeating the message)
                            -RepeatMsgSequentially BOOL (0 = repeat message interleaved , 1 = repeat each message sequentially)
                            -DoNotAppendGap BOOL (0 = no gap between messages , 1 = add fixed gap between messages)
                            -SendText "TEXT" (sent the given text using any of the previously specified options)
                            -DeleteRegex "REGEX" (delete any messages that matches the given regular expression. Empty string means all messages)

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Funny you should post that Jon, I set it up the other day on my HS PC after finding it on the net (they have taken the DreamCheeky forum down it appears), after having a slight disagreement with windows (appears it wants XP SP3?) I can launch it from and it loads via command line interface but i'm having difficulty launching it from HS.

                              Just by launching the application from HS (without command line parameters) it brings up the following error, however if I just double click on the exe from windows it loads? Any ideas?
                              Last edited by mrhappy; July 22, 2010, 04:44 PM.

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