BETABRITE LED SCROLL SIGNS CONNECTIVITY TO PC
 

First.    THE CABLE
Make your interface cable according to the following diagram.

SECOND:    THE SETTINGS
By Default my BETABRITE 1040-4402 sign comes preset with following parameters

Baud:          4800
Data Bits:    7
Parity:         EVEN
Stop Bits:    1

What this means is that for your computer to successfully communicate with your sign the software MUST be set with the same settings.

If you are using your sign in the DOS world you can set COM1 for example by issuing the following command

C:\ MODE COM1:4800,E,7

In the same fashion you would set whatever application you are running DOS or WINDOWS to use these settings

THIRD:    THE PROTOCOL
In order to send messages to the sign, we must do so in a way that it can understand us, BETABRITE signs require require a PREFIX before and SUFFIX after the text to be displayed

From what I can see so far the protocol is exceedingly complicated.

I will provide 2 sample files for download. These files when sent to the com port will display messages

SAMPLE 1:    (Simple STATIC red message)                        (RIGHT CLICK AND SAVE AS)

SAMPLE 2:    (Complex multi color MOTION message)     (RIGHT CLICK AND SAVE AS)

Both of these samples can be edited with the EDIT command

You can replace the "TEXT TO BE DISPLAYED" portion with anything you like.

WARNING: If you use a WINDOWS based editor certain characters will be changed and the text will no longer be acknowledged by your sign.

FOURTH:    TEST IT
Functionality can be tested easily from within HYPERTERM (included with all versions of Windows)

First set you communication settings as shown below

Next send one of the files you downloaded to the sign and see it being displayed

SOFTWARE: Your software must be set with correct com port parameters in order to communicate with sign, I intend to use it with ArcadeOS (DOS based front-end) which currently is HARD-CODED to 8N1 (as opposed to 7E1 Which is what I require)

I am including a link to ArcadeOS Source code HERE

I am including a link to the Authors Webpage as well HERE

LATEST NEWS     LATEST NEWS     LATEST NEWS

After a frustrating couple of hours with LCDGEN trying to make it generate proper characters for BETABRITE sign, I decided to make a little program inspired by LCDGEN and definitely not nearly as cool but functional none the less

BETAGEN generates the appropriate files in the appropriate format

Betagen.exe     (COMPILED VERSION)
could not make it work under true DOS or Windows 98, Worked perfect under Windows XP

Betagen.bas    (QUICK BASIC SOURCE CODE)
I am a sucky programmer I admit it, perhaps someone can use my code and rewrite this in a more WINDOWS FRIENDLY language ??? (Just give me a little credit)

Prog is pretty self explanatory OUTPUT files are stored in an LCD folder, once you have successfully generated them you may test by sending them to your COM port

the following command should do:

C:\ type filename.lcd >com1

ENSURE that your com settings are correct THIS batch file will set them for you automatically

IF ALL ELSE FAIL, DOWNLOAD ALL THE LCD FILES I GENERATED HERE !