Ok thanks. I will update here then.
I had acquired an old LED device from 1996. The only details I had were
LUA Electronics
11 Redwood Drive
Notting Hill VIC 3168
Ph (61 3) 543 3311
I had almost given up interfacing to it when my friend found that old thread from 2007!
I followed the clear instructions from
https://maker.pro/forums/members/cj_elec_tech.10154/ I got it working. Amazing!
The only difference is I had to set the baud rate to 2600. Based on his work I will paste my python code below:
import serial
import time
# constants
ESCAPE_CHAR = '\x1b';
DEVICE_ID_CMD ='@A'
DISPALY_MESSAGE_CMD = '@D_';
FLUSH_CMD = '@F_';
# my device serial number, displayed on startup
DEVICE_SERIAL_NUMBER = '001012';
# the number of characters the display can show
DISPLAY_LENGTH=26;
# pre scoll blank characters
DISPLAY_PRE_SCOLL =' ';
def update_message() :
# the message to display
message = "Welcome to my display. Jess wins GOLD at Karate!"
prepared_message = DISPLAY_PRE_SCOLL + message;
count = 0;
# Create a serial object with the port name and baud rate
ser = serial.Serial('COM3', 2600, parity=serial.PARITY_NONE, bytesize=serial.EIGHTBITS,
stopbits=serial.STOPBITS_ONE)
while count < 100 :
prepared_message = rotate_string(prepared_message)
# construct the string
string_send = ESCAPE_CHAR + DEVICE_ID_CMD + DEVICE_SERIAL_NUMBER + ESCAPE_CHAR + DISPALY_MESSAGE_CMD + prepared_message + ESCAPE_CHAR + FLUSH_CMD;
print(string_send);
# send it to the serial port as binary
ser.write(string_send.encode());
# sleep 500ms for next iteration
time.sleep(0.01)
ser.close()
def rotate_string(string):
"""Rotates the characters of a string by one position.
Args:
string: A string.
Returns:
A new string with the characters rotated by one position.
"""
rotated_string = ""
for i in range(len(string)):
rotated_string += string[(i + 1) % len(string)]
return rotated_string
Hope it helps someone else! Just call the update_message() to get scrolling banner.
