New Life Games Tech Forums

 Decisions, decisions.

 I ordered 2 scrolling displays from EBay. The price was about the same for either one. One is blue and small, one is red and larger. They are designed to be placed in the rear window of your car and plug into you car's 12v cigarette lighter. I found an old dead cordless phone around the house which had a 12v power supply attached. I took the power supply off and threw the phone away.

Now before I start pulling the scrolling displays apart and cutting up the player tracking cover I have a decision to make. Size ? or Color ?  Whatcha think ??

I am thinking of cutting the hole a little oversized and placing some sort of gasket around the hole and then pasting the LEDs in with that clear goop in a tube. The gasket has me baffled though. I am thinking of a small black hose that is slit it's entire length to form a "U". I am open to better suggestions though.

 - Dorothy

My initial impression is that the red one fills the space better. Which one can display more text?

 Brichter

 They both have the same number of LED panels. Both will display 9 different lines, each line with up to 250 characters.

 The difference is in the size of the LED panels and the color of the panels.

 - Dorothy

I like the larger one if it doesn't distract to much.

Then the larger one would be my choice...

Bigger is always better. :30- :30-

Ron (r273)

UHHHHHHHHH   Are you sure ??????        :103- :103- :103- :103- :103-

Not when it comes to electronic components. :200-   But in this case I agree. Go with the bigger sign.

Dorothy,
Are you putting the display behind the player tracking panel or in front of it?
If behind, take the faceplate off the display so it is flush against the player tracking plate.
Tape some darker auto tint vinyl or some sort of hobbyists tinted plastic sheet
in between the faceplate and the LEDs and you should end up with a very sharp looking display!

 
Decision made. I guess I should have unscrewed before posting.

I pulled the large red one apart to see how it would fit and found out that it is not red LEDs, but a red lens. Now all I have to do is find a blue piece of plastic ... or perhaps some green plastic.

Yes Bunker putting the display behind the player tracking is exactly what I was planning. A piece of colored plastic set into the tracking formica is exactly what I hope to do. I still need to figure out a way to finish the edge between the colored plastic and the tracking's formica.

 - Dorothy

TAP Plastics, there's one up around your neck of the woods somewhere:

http://www.tapplastics.com/shop/locations.php?lid=1 (http://www.tapplastics.com/shop/locations.php?lid=1)

Automotive vacuum line should work for your gasket...