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Need Help Programming Scrolling LED's

craving94509

Jul 7, 2011
1
Joined
Jul 7, 2011
Messages
1
Hello all,

My name is Mike and I am new to the forum. I have a project that I am not sure is within my skill set. So I am hoping someone can give me some perspective as to the level of effort?

I purchased a slot machine for our game room that was hooked to a progressive jackpot. This means there are a row of LED lights at the top of the glass, that I presume would have scrolled the current jackpot amount?

I removed the glass to take a look at the back and what kind of circuts were there. I noticed that there were only 3 plugs:
Data In (10 pin)
Data Out (10 pin)
And a power plug (2 pin)

I am wondering what is involved with getting power to this panel and getting some sort of text to display?

I have included pictures below:
Front.jpg

BackofBoard.jpg

Power.jpg

DataOut.jpg

DataIn.jpg



Many thanks for any ideas you may have!!
 

daddles

Jun 10, 2011
443
Joined
Jun 10, 2011
Messages
443
First is to figure out the operating voltage. Good guesses are either 3.3 V or 5 V (I'd bet on the 5 V first).

I'm guessing there's a controller under the hood that takes in 8 bits (8 of the 10 lines) and latches them when there's an appropriate signal on one of the other 2 lines (that's because each column is 8 LEDs). The last line might be a clock line which would control how fast the display scrolls -- maybe everything scrolls to the left one column on a clock pulse. The best way to figure this out would be to have the unit operating and watch the lines with a scope or logic analyzer (the latter preferred). But, if you don't have one, that's like putting salt on a bird's tail.

The other approach is to find the schematic for it, but it's probably OEM'd or manufactured by the manufacturer and they'll almost certainly not be willing to release such IP (intellectual property).
 
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