Window sized Programmable led sign

September 27, 2024 7:31 AM

I want to place a large (window-sized) led sign near a high traffic area. I want it to be programmable with large amounts of text or cycling specific short messages and images. How?

I see a lot of stuff that let's you choose from a list of cutesy/edgy images or sayings and with limits on how much text you can put. Imagine something more Jenny Holzer-ish. What am I looking to buy and what would I need to do to program this?

Thanks.

posted by history is a weapon to Media & Arts (7 answers total)

Have you considered using a... projector? Or does it have to be visible during the day time? Would this be code-compliant with your local ordinance?
posted by kschang at 7:36 AM on September 27

I think what you're looking for is more of a LED 'display' -- essentially a TV -- which has a HDMI input which you can connect to some sort of video player, which plays a series of videos with your images and text. It's really not much more complicated than hooking up a monitor to a computer -- I was amused recently when I was working a sporting event at a large, expensive venue and one of the big screens showing ads above the sport field had the Windows mouse pointer sitting over part of the ads the whole weekend. The most complicated part will be making the video slideshows, but there's lots of software out there for this. How expensive the display is depends on how big a "window-sized" display is.

(in another technical snafu I experienced recently, a restaurant with their menu on a big screen cycled through the screens and on a repeating schedule hit a "media not found" screen commonly seen in Adobe video software -- you can get very specialized equipment for it but at the base it's just a TV with a player, playing what you want to show)
posted by AzraelBrown at 7:38 AM on September 27 [1 favorite]

So... it may be pricey, but this place has things that are more traditionally LED matrix than, say, OLED TV displays, and says "You can write and store hundreds of different rotating messages..." and "We do offer computer programming as an available option."

Going back in time nearly 4 decades, my high school lunch room had a sign like these, and in the days of 64k being a lot of memory it could store a remarkable number of little text sayings and was programmed via an RS-232 port. My guess is that there's only been minimal update of the hardware in the intervening years...
posted by straw at 8:02 AM on September 27

If you're handy, you can buy an ESP32 and an LED matrix, and then flash the microcontroller with the free WLED software to do so by following this tutorial: https://youtu.be/ZlYSjxx5IRc. This will work well for just scrolling text, if you don't mind the learning curve.

If those words don't make sense to you, I would buy a cheap projector or a big computer display, plus a thumb drive, and then put a few images onto the thumb drive which the projector can show as a slide show. You can probably also buy a low-end TV and do this, too. These displays will handle graphics well, but cost more money.
posted by wenestvedt at 8:08 AM on September 27 [1 favorite]

Is this sign going to be located indoors or outdoors? There's a difference in how the signs are engineered, not only to weatherproof the enclosure, but how the electronics are designed to withstand repeated environmental heating/cooling cycles and the thermal expansion & contraction that can result. A lot of people learn the hard way that you can place an indoor electronic sign outdoors, it just won't last very long.

Amazon has some listings for the older dot matrix style displays and for higher-resolution image-capable displays. You can also get outdoor-grade LED, OLED etc. TVs, but those start to get very expensive. The displays specifically designed as displays will usually have an Ethernet port or WiFi (or both) to enable them to be remotely managed and controlled. Consumer Smart TVs often also have Ethernet and/or WiFi for accessing content, but usually are not designed to be remotely managed.

If the display will be located indoors, perhaps placed inside a window facing out, pretty much any "Smart TV" will do. I have bought 50-inch and 32-inch TCL Roku TVs, and both will run a playlist of videos or images from a USB stick.

It would also be easy to use something like a Raspberry Pi to output images or videos to a display via HDMI, and also remotely manage the Pi via its wired or wireless network interface.

Just make sure you secure any device, change all passwords from default, change the device name if you can (so it doesn't say, for example, "TCL Roku Smart TV" on the network) as an extra barrier to people looking for exploits. Disable Airplay capability, etc. Cover up the IR receiver for the remote control.

As mentioned above, do check your local ordinances, or consult your local zoning office first. Where I live, the regulations are pretty strict on this sort of thing, even spaces zoned commercial.
posted by xedrik at 8:18 AM on September 27 [3 favorites]

High Brightness Outdoor Displays work like regular HDMI displays except they're aggressively bright, have built-in heat management by necessity, and have always been above my pay grade.
posted by scruss at 8:29 AM on September 27 [1 favorite]

... this place has things that are more traditionally LED matrix than, say, OLED TV displays, and says "You can write and store hundreds of different rotating messages..." Going back in time nearly 4 decades, my high school lunch room had a sign like these, and in the days of 64k being a lot of memory it could store a remarkable number of little text sayings and was programmed via an RS-232 port. My guess is that there's only been minimal update of the hardware in the intervening years...

That looks closest to what I think the OP is looking for. Here's the link without all the Google tracking bits appended:

https://www.tvliquidator.com/
posted by intermod at 3:33 PM on September 27