Home

Programming the BetaBrite® LED electronic sign

image

Contents

1. 140 OPE N COM1 2400 E 7 2 CS DS CD AS 1 FOR A 1 TO 10 PRINT 1 CHRS 0 NEXT A PRINT 1 CHRS 1 PRINT 1 Z00 PRINT 1 CHRS 2 PRINT 1 AA PRINT 1 CHRS 27 PRINT 1 b PRINT 1 CHRS 28 2 PRINT 1 TIME PRINT 1 CHRS 28 1 PRINT 1 TIMES PRINT 1 CHRS 4 INS INKEYS IF INS CHR 27 THEN 200 ZEPEP DW iM OPEN COM PORT EM DETERMINE BAUD RATE EM SOH EM BROADCAST TO ALL ADDRESS 0 EM STX EM WRITE AND DISPLAY MESSAGE A EM DISPLAY LINE CENTER EM DISPLAY MODE HOLD EM COLOR GREEN OPTIONAL EM PART OF MESSAG EM COLOR RED OPTIONAL M REST OF MESSAGE IS PC S TIME iM EOT iM EXIT IF ESCAPE KEY HIT 150 TS RIGHTS TIMES 1 REM GET CURRENT SECOND 160 IF TS RIGHTS TIMES 1 THEN 160 EM WAIT FOR NEXT SECOND 170 GOTO 20 200 CLOSE zy Connecting a BetaBrite to your microcontroller The cable that comes with the BetaBrite is designed to easily connect it to the serial port of an IBM PC compatible It has an RJ11 style connector to plug into the BetaBrite and a DB9F connector for the PC serial port The BetaBrite requires only that the transmit receive and ground signals are connected to work properly even if you include the commands that tell i
2. file separator and the number 1 49 decimal 31 hex red lt FS gt 2 file separator and the number 2 50 decimal 32 hex green lt FS gt 3 file separator and the number 3 51 decimal 33 hex amber lt FS gt 4 file separator and the number 4 52 decimal 34 hex dim red lt FS gt 5 file separator and the number 5 53 decimal 35 hex dim green lt FS gt 6 file separator and the number 6 54 decimal 36 hex brown lt FS gt 7 file separator and the number 7 55 decimal 37 hex orange lt FS gt 8 file separator and the number 8 56 decimal 38 hex yellow lt FS gt 9 file separator and the number 9 57 decimal 39 hex rainbow 1 lt FS gt A_ file separator and the letter A 65 decimal 41 hex rainbow 2 lt FS gt B file separator and the letter B 66 decimal 42 hex mixed lt FS gt C file separator and the letter C 67 decimal 43 hex auto There are many types of control sequences besides the color changes See the Alpha protocol document for an explanation of all of the control modes and sequences The message command Now that we have identified a way to represent the individual characters and control sequences in a message command we can show the entire command A command for displaying a message will contain the following lt NUL gt lt NUL gt lt NUL gt lt NUL gt lt NUL gt lt SOH gt Z 00 lt STX gt A A lt ESC gt lt SP gt lt DM gt lt MSG gt lt ETX gt 5 to 20 nul
3. uses an 80 by 7 array of bi color LED s allowing a number of colors to be displayed It is reasonably priced considering its large size and numerous features and it can be purchased locally in many cases But most importantly it has an RS 232 serial port So what s the catch you ask Well the BetaBrite uses a special proprietary protocol with its serial port to display messages This protocol is not terribly difficult to decipher but it is definitely more difficult than connecting a serial LCD display to your microcontroller or PC About the BetaBrite The BetaBrite electronic message display is manufactured by Adaptive Micro Systems Inc www adaptivemicro com in Milwaukee Wisconsin The BetaBrite comes complete with a cable to connect it to your PC serial port an AC power supply and Windows software that allows you to easily display your messages It also comes with a handheld remote control unit to program messages into the display without a computer The Programming Manual that comes with the BetaBrite does not describe the serial protocol It s simply a user manual that tells you how to hook it up and program it with the handheld remote control The BetaBrite can be purchased directly www BetaBrite com for 199 and is also available at Sams Club item number 78029 for 169 Adaptive Micro Systems also manufactures a full line of industrial displays called the Alpha Series which is oriented toward distributorship a
4. Programming the BetaBrite LED electronic sign by Gary Peek It seems like nearly every microcontroller project needs some kind of user display The LCD is one of the most common types of small displays microcontroller designers use for a number of reasons LCD s are inexpensive use very little power and have many sources Many LCD s have backlighting systems to allow viewing in a wide range of lighting conditions Plus a number of companies make interface boards to convert the parallel interface of an LCD into a much simpler serial port connection and protocol So it would seem like the LCD is the ideal display to use and often it is But what do you use when your microcontroller or even your PC needs a really large and bright display that can be seen from across the room At that point you may need to consider an LED display But large LED displays are not as common as LCD s and most are expensive industrial units The BetaBrite electronic message display Fortunately there is a large LED display that is not so expensive and that is the BetaBrite electronic message display You may have already seen BetaBrite displays in operation because many businesses use them for promotional messages The Missouri Lottery for example uses these displays on top of their lottery ticket vending machines and many bars and taverns use them to announce specials as well The BetaBrite has a large display area 24 inches wide by 2 inches tall and
5. cation parameters for the BetaBrite are 1200 2400 4800 or 9600 baud 1 start bit 7 data bits 1 stop bit and even parity The reason that a number of baud rates can be used is that the first part of a command is to send a number of null characters so that the display can lock on to the baud rate Once the BetaBrite begins receiving characters it must continue to receive characters at least once per second or the command will timeout and be ignored While the display is receiving characters the display will blank and when the command is complete the new message will be displayed The Alpha protocol includes command options for addressing multiple displays connected in a network and displays that have more than one line so some of the command options in this simplified protocol are set to default selections or selections that have no effect And lastly BetaBrite displays can contain multiple messages in its memory This simplified protocol uses only Message A meaning the other messages can be entered and saved using the handheld remote control unit The BetaBrite displays the last message to be entered or selected so the two methods of entering and displaying messages can co exist to some degree Some control characters defined Since a BetaBrite message command includes ASCII control characters that cannot be printed we must represent them in another manner The following is a list of the control codes used and how we will rep
6. l characters start of heading character Type Code Z broadcast to all displays 90 decimal 5A hex Address Field does not matter if Type Code is broadcast this is two zero characters 48 decimal 30 hex start of transmission character Command Code A write and display message 65 decimal 41 hex Message number A Message A Display Line on multiline display does not matter on BetaBrite space character middle line display mode character your message including modifying control sequences end of transmission character To clear the display simply send a message command with no characters in lt MSG gt A BASIC program to send messages One way to make sure that you understand how to send message commands to the BetaBrite before connecting it to a microcontroller is to replace the software that is included with the display with your own program The following is a simple BASIC program that can be used with QBasic QuickBasic or GWBasic Connect the cable that is included with the BetaBrite display between the display and a serial port on your PC Com 1 is used in the program but can of course be changed if required With this program you can easily experiment with the many variations in the message command and it can become a good base for when you begin to experiment with other commands listed in the Alpha protocol document 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 130
7. nd the resale of the displays however the closest equivalent Alpha Series display to the BetaBrite has a suggested price of 499 The Alpha Series displays may be the choice of discriminating industrial users but for its low price the BetaBrite is a very useful alternative for microcontroller users Programming the BetaBrite Some years ago Adaptive Micro Systems did not include a serial port cable or software with the BetaBrite but instead sold them as accessories that cost nearly as much as the BetaBrite This prompted a number of curious individuals to hack the BetaBrite protocol which was based on the Alpha Series displays If you search on the web for information on the BetaBrite you will find a number of web sites that were created in the past that contain this information Eventually Adaptive Micro Systems made the Alpha protocol available and it is now on their web site The following information about the BetaBrite Alpha protocol is based on the Alpha protocol document and is a small subset of these commands needed for simple message display After trying some of the simple message display techniques described in this article you may want to take a look at the full protocol and learn to program the BetaBrite in more complex ways Keep in mind however that the Alpha protocol is not exactly the same as the BetaBrite protocol and that some Alpha protocol commands do not work with the BetaBrite The protocol The hardware communi
8. resent them Also included is a representation of options and control sequences that have a number of possible values lt NUL gt is the null character 0 decimal or 00 hexadecimal lt SOH gt is the start of heading character 1 decimal 01 hexadecimal lt STX gt is the start of text character 2 decimal 02 hexadecimal lt ETX gt is the end of text character 3 decimal 03 hexadecimal lt EOT gt is the end of transmission character 4 decimal 04 hexadecimal lt ESC gt is escape 27 decimal 1B hexadecimal lt FS gt is file separator 28 decimal 1C hexadecimal lt SP gt is the space character 32 decimal 20 hexadecimal lt DM gt is the Display Mode option character The following modes are the most likely modes to be used for simple messages See the Alpha protocol document for an explanation of all of the modes a rotate decimal 97 hex 61 b hold decimal 98 hex 62 c flash decimal 99 hex 63 m scroll 109 6D hex o auto 111 decimal 6F hex t compressed rotate 116 decimal 74 hex cTOoO BC Te lt MSG gt is the text message you wish to be displayed and consists of up to 125 normal text characters minus the characters used by special control sequences The following pairs of characters can be inserted anywhere in the message and will change the color of the text following it The message can contain multiple color changes lt FS gt 1
9. t to send information back Connecting it successfully to any other host device with an RS 232 serial connection simply requires that the transmit and receive signals go to the proper signals on the device and are not reversed Making it even simpler For those of you who are interested in making the BetaBrite even easier to program through its serial port Industrologic Inc www industrologic com makes an interface board called the RS51 SPR BETA that takes care of the special protocol for you Instead of sending control characters you can send simple character strings followed by a carriage return Commands exist for changing display colors and other display features but they too are much simpler than the BetaBrite protocol The RS51 SPR BETA also accepts commands at a number of user selectable baud rates at 8 data bits 1 stop bit and no parity which may make interfacing to your host device much easier The RS51 SPR BETA has DB9 connectors and is designed to make it easy to place between a PC and the BetaBrite About the author Gary Peek is the President and co founder of Industrologic Inc a manufacturer of microcontroller based industrial data acquisition and control products He can be contacted at Industrologic at 636 723 4000 or peek industrologic com Other Industrologic products can be found on their web site at www industrologic com

Download Pdf Manuals

image

Related Search

Related Contents

Guía del usuario de la cámara  Bedienungsanleitung Maschinen-Steuer  OWNERS MANUAL SERENA & SOFIA RISER  T。SH ー BA 東芝電球直付器具取扱説明書 保管用  Manual B - Northern Tool + Equipment  HDR 1000 QA Tool  Muse M 265 BT headphone  VPseriesカタログ PDF版  User Manual - Gill Instruments  Filiera Cerealicola: Principali fattori di rischio 1. Introduzione  

Copyright © All rights reserved.
DMCA: DMCA_mwitty#outlook.com.