RGB Led-bar

Post by **MindBender** » Sat Mar 01, 2008 10:48 pm

Nice! And fairly cheap too. Too bad it cannot display blue, but I can live with that. Does it have an open protocol, so I can use an embedded RSS reader, instead of yet-another-PC or yet-another-cable?

Some time ago I've got myself an iBall:

http://www.spacewriter.com/Overview.aspx?menuproduct=1
It was meant to show messages of the domotica system and RSS feeds, but unfortunately its protocol is not available so the only thing it's displaying now is a transparent sphere.

Post by **Digit** » Sat Mar 01, 2008 11:00 pm

Tip for those who are going to order one: Visit the Conrad homepage first, for another EUR 5 discount.

Post by **Bwired** » Sat Mar 01, 2008 11:25 pm

It's looks like a Betabrite led bar which I had a while back, that one was giving to much light (to bright) for me. This one you can dim I believe and you sure need that.
So now I have a very small Led Bar

check it out: http://www.bwired.nl/Camoffice.asp
[8D]
Regards Pieter

Post by **Jfn** » Sun Mar 02, 2008 8:47 am

Check out one of my earlier postings in this message. You will find an attachment with a .PDF describing the protocol. The unit is easily programmed through a serial or USB interface.

As my HTML/PHP programming skills improve (I am still a novice in that area), one of the things I intend to do is add an option on my website that allows a visitor to enter a message on the ledbar.

@Bwired: Yes, you can dim this ledbar (25%, 50%, 75% and 100%).

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by MindBender
 Nice! And fairly cheap too. Too bad it cannot display blue, but I can live with that. Does it have an open protocol, so I can use an embedded RSS reader, instead of yet-another-PC or yet-another-cable?
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Post by **Droezel** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 10:28 pm

My ledbar arrived today and works really well! I'm planning to write a homeseer plugin for it, should not be to hard to do. But first I need to finish my DMX plugin or that will never get ready.

Post by **Digit** » Thu Mar 06, 2008 10:30 pm

Mine arrived yesterday. I can control it from within my HA app. Not with all the nice features yet like color, leading, dim, but the basics are there. This weekend i'll try to put a page on my website where you can enter a text to put it on the bar LED-bar.[8D]

Post by **Digit** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 5:27 pm

Small update.
This LED-bar is quite sensitive to how you send the commands.
I discovered i sometimes got ACK's back from the LED-bar, but the command wasn't executed; tried several things to figure what was going on, and finally discovered that sending the bytes 1 by 1 to the LED-bar solved the issue. So much for the reliability of an ACK...i mean, the LED-bar must have received the complete command, since it can calc the same checksum as i did, so why not execute? Beats me. Remember this when you're starting to work with it.

Post by **Jfn** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 6:55 pm

That is what I discovered too when programming my PERL script for this thing. Sending the characters too fast can even result in a reboot of the ledbar.

But when sending the characters one by one (in 1 ms intervals) the unit works perfectly.

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by Digit
 Small update.
This LED-bar is quite sensitive to how you send the commands.
I discovered i sometimes got ACK's back from the LED-bar, but the command wasn't executed; tried several things to figure what was going on, and finally discovered that sending the bytes 1 by 1 to the LED-bar solved the issue. So much for the reliability of an ACK...i mean, the LED-bar must have received the complete command, since it can calc the same checksum as i did, so why not execute? Beats me. Remember this when you're starting to work with it.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">Als het niet kapot is, niet repareren!

Post by **Digit** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 6:58 pm

Yep...
Almost everytime command execution failed, the LED-bar came with the "Thank you blabla" text...

Post by **Digit** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 11:23 pm

Update again...
Since the LED-bar is banned to stay in the office for now, i thought to do something funny with it; it's controllable from the website. http://www.hekkers.net/test/Cam1.aspx [:o)]

Post by **Snelvuur** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 11:53 pm

Well ok, you guys got me going. Mine is ordered now too. Dont know how the misses is going to like it and what to do with it.. but heck, i just like toys.

// Erik (binkey.nl)

Post by **Bwired** » Sun Mar 09, 2008 12:18 am

Jfn should ask a big discount on his next order with www.conrad.nl [:D]
At Conrad they are thinking what the hack is going on with that ledsign, obviously we made it to cheap!

Post by **Snelvuur** » Sun Mar 09, 2008 12:21 am

Just like futuromshop.nl when the oregons where cheap.

// Erik (binkey.nl)

Post by **Noel** » Sun Mar 09, 2008 12:37 am

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by Bwired
 Jfn should ask a big discount on his next order with www.conrad.nl [:D] At Conrad they are thinking what the hack is going on with that ledsign, obviously we made it to cheap!
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">I've been trying to find this LED bar on the Conrad site, but till now with no luck.
Do you/someone have a direct link to it for me?

---
Never start anything you can't fi

Post by **Digit** » Sun Mar 09, 2008 12:38 am

See the start of this topic [:)]