RGB LED Matrix Marquee?

[nordemoniac]

Anyone tried making one?

! No longer available

It should give an "OK" resolution, but of course not perfect. But it would be cool if it would be possible to automatically switch Marquees for the games in HyperSpin, and maybe display a static picture/animation on console emulators

[vwalbridge]

Resolution is far too low for anything practical.

FYI...

to embedded YouTube videos, take the letter 's' off off the 'https' of the YouTube link.

[lilshawn]

if you don't mind watching a 96x96 resolution.

you'd probably need a 2x3 matrix of these panels to have a decent enough resolution to see what's going on (totally doable with some small 1206 LED's) you could probably get a smaller sign with a higher resolution.

if this board was WAY bigger with 10x10 matrix of these panels (obviously it would be like 25 feet across)...you'd have a pretty decent resolution you could work with.

an LCD panel is really the way to go to display extra information. tons of people have done it.

[nordemoniac]

Resolution is far too low for anything practical.

Yeah, I was wondering about that... I measured that a typical 5 pixel grid would give me 80x16 in resolution on a 12cmx60cm space 
You're probably right, it's way to close to the viewer to make any sense at all with a resolution that small at close distance 

Original Donkey Kong:


80x16 Donkey Kong:


60 cm stretched Donkey Kong:


What do you mean "low resolution"?

to embedded YouTube videos, take the letter 's' off off the 'https' of the YouTube link.

Thanks! 

[lilshawn]

exactly that.

the information that makes the image has to be mashed into so few pixels, you effectively lose most of what the picture is.

sure, you can tell it's a donkey kong marquee from a distance... maybe at 20 meters away from your screen you might not even tell it's a stretched out 80x16 pixel image. but unless you stand 10 meters from the display, it would just appear as a blob of colored pixels.

a great project for messing around for sure...but I can't see it having a practical purpose in arcade unless you make it a giant display with at least 300x900 pixel resolution that would be on the wall behind the cabinet.

I would go nuts with this as a marquee...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Different-Customize-bar-LCD-Stretched-LCD-screen-digital-advertising-moudle-/291192461563?hash=item43cc6c58fb&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&nma=true&si=gWCItbC568ClO%252F%252BctzKhDvBSNTQ%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

the 32 would be a great size for an upright arcade.

[nordemoniac]

Absolutely! But the price is...yeah...

21:9 monitors could work though

70x33cm, so it might be a bit tall.

I've seen these for less than $200.

[vwalbridge]

Absolutely! But the price is...yeah...

21:9 monitors could work though

70x33cm, so it might be a bit tall.

I've seen these for less than $200.

Original Donkey Kong marquee is about 15cm tall. So this monitor would be twice the height of that. Probably not a good choice ...proportionally speaking.

[nordemoniac]

Well, black frame...? Is there any average size for Marquees?.

[lilshawn]

if you search on alibaba you can find suppliers for the LCD's cheaper than that ebay listing (about 2 to 300 a unit), i just posted it for the sake of convenience. it has a bunch of part numbers you can search for (the various sizes) in the description.


also for the ultrawide you posted nord,

you wouldn't have to use the whole thing... you could put the marquee on the top half and instruction cards or control layout below.

[Titchgamer]

If you could figure out what they used on this expensive thing you would be sorted!

*EDIT BAD LINK* http://www.ebay.com/itm/Jace-Hall-Signature-Series-4-Player-55-LED-Ultimate-Video-Arcade-Game-MAME-TM-/330832696118?hash=item4d072a5336:m:m_bWpMNiCp1qK3jbPQq8kRA

Apparently its a 29" marquee display from LG.....

[nordemoniac]

Control panel layout! That's a great idea!

Hmm...

No, the other half would kill me 

[nordemoniac]

If you could figure out what they used on this expensive thing you would be sorted!

m.ebay.com/itm/330832696118?_mwBanner=1

Apparently its a 29" marquee display from LG.....

Probably this:
LG Rectangular Marquee Display

[Titchgamer]

Something similar yeah.

[Laythe]

Regarding RGB matrix marquees:

I believe Ikeacade used an RGB LED matrix marquee of low resolution.

I think it could be made kind of cool, but I believe the way would not be resampling the actual marquee artwork down - as you proved above, the results aren't too hot.  I think the trick would be making pixel art interpretations of marquees.

I took an idle stab at it out of curiosity a while back when someone else suggested a similar approach.



Something like that at a higher res, wouldn't fool anybody into thinking it was the original article, but could still be kind of neat.



Regarding a 29" LG monitor marquee:

Coincidentally, I used a 29" LG cut LCD monitor for my dynamic marquee in my project, Mimic. 

The 21:9 ratio screens are far too tall - the "ultrawide" 29UM65 is the wrong answer.   I used an LG M2900S-BN 29" 1366x480 - they are about a 26:9 and frankly still a little too tall.  After resizing and adapting a lot of arcade marquees, I estimate they average about 30:9 to 32:9 if you want to use that notation.

[matsadona]

I don't plan to do any marquee (yet), but I am currently building displays with LED panels for other purposes.
Here's an example of 4 x 32*32 pixels P5 (5 mm spacing) with a total resolution of 128*32 pixels. The size of each panel is 160*160 mm (total 64*16) so it would fit in most cabinets.
There are panels with higher density if needed by the way...

But as already stated, the resolution is to low to get a good result for a marquee. And it would be really irritating having this in front of you when playing since the brightness is really high. The preferred viewing distance for these are perhaps about 5-10 meters.

However they can be a nice thing to have in your gaming room playing animated gif's / sprites in 1:1 pixel size. I have that right now, and it is a real eye catcher.

Currently I'm building a 5 x 3 (160*128 px) panel display, and my final goal is to have a 320*240 pixels display to play vconsole games on 

[nordemoniac]

Regarding RGB matrix marquees:

I believe Ikeacade used an RGB LED matrix marquee of low resolution.

I think it could be made kind of cool, but I believe the way would not be resampling the actual marquee artwork down - as you proved above, the results aren't too hot.  I think the trick would be making pixel art interpretations of marquees.

I took an idle stab at it out of curiosity a while back when someone else suggested a similar approach.



Something like that at a higher res, wouldn't fool anybody into thinking it was the original article, but could still be kind of neat.

I think it gives a pretty cool effect! But you'd have to re-do all the Marquees for the different games... But it could be pretty cool as an idle-marquee, and dim down when you're close to it, when the screen is the attention.

[nordemoniac]

I don't plan to do any marquee (yet), but I am currently building displays with LED panels for other purposes.
Here's an example of 4 x 32*32 pixels P5 (5 mm spacing) with a total resolution of 128*32 pixels. The size of each panel is 160*160 mm (total 64*16) so it would fit in most cabinets.
There are panels with higher density if needed by the way...

But as already stated, the resolution is to low to get a good result for a marquee. And it would be really irritating having this in front of you when playing since the brightness is really high. The preferred viewing distance for these are perhaps about 5-10 meters.

However they can be a nice thing to have in your gaming room playing animated gif's / sprites in 1:1 pixel size. I have that right now, and it is a real eye catcher.

Currently I'm building a 5 x 3 (160*128 px) panel display, and my final goal is to have a 320*240 pixels display to play vconsole games on 

That's what I'm looking for! Do you have a build thread on this? What price are we talking about? Does it have its own controller, or can it handle input from an external source?
Great project! Thanks for your reply.

[nordemoniac]

Regarding a 29" LG monitor marquee:

Coincidentally, I used a 29" LG cut LCD monitor for my dynamic marquee in my project, Mimic. 

The 21:9 ratio screens are far too tall - the "ultrawide" 29UM65 is the wrong answer.   I used an LG M2900S-BN 29" 1366x480 - they are about a 26:9 and frankly still a little too tall.  After resizing and adapting a lot of arcade marquees, I estimate they average about 30:9 to 32:9 if you want to use that notation.

That is awesome!! What's the price range on these? The LG is out of production, any alternatives?
Are there any good sources for small, stretched LCDs? "Stretched Bar LCD" gives a lot of interesting results, but no prices...

There should've been a place to buy smaller LCD modules, and put them together the same way as with LED matrixes. There would probably be some pixels between the modules, but it could work.

Fully customizable LCDs would be awesome, LED is just not there yet.

[Laythe]

I think it gives a pretty cool effect! But you'd have to re-do all the Marquees for the different games... But it could be pretty cool as an idle-marquee, and dim down when you're close to it, when the screen is the attention.

Oh, you'll have to do a lot of manual work on all the marquees however you do it, trust me.     There does not yet exist a comprehensive collection of marquee art for everything you would want.  There are many sources, and they are all incomplete.  This is not a turnkey undertaking.

(I agree, re: dimming it, if someone went matrix RGB LED marquee.  You might be able to do that just by reducing the brightness of the image you feed it.)

That is awesome!! What's the price range on these? The LG is out of production, any alternatives?
Are there any good sources for small, stretched LCDs? "Stretched Bar LCD" gives a lot of interesting results, but no prices...

Thanks!

That LG M2900S-BN was out of production when I bought it, too.   Here's one for $350.
https://www.amazon.com/LG-M2900S-BN-1366-480-1000/dp/B001F4R2KQ

The absolutely perfect stretched bar LCD is made by Spanpixel, and stateside it costs $1,300 +- $100 depending on distributor.   Blip uses one, and is magnificent.  They don't list the prices because they are ouch.

[matsadona]

That's what I'm looking for! Do you have a build thread on this? What price are we talking about? Does it have its own controller, or can it handle input from an external source?
Great project! Thanks for your reply.

No, no build thread yet.
The panels I have are similar to this one: https://www.adafruit.com/products/2026
Here is a controller that can be used: https://www.adafruit.com/products/1453

There are also simple asynchronous (offline) controllers, that can play simple text, animations and videos - that are much cheaper.
There are also some hats for Raspberry Pi.
The price will be significantly lower if you buy the panels from Aliexpress or similar sites.

I can add some additional information, pictures and videos later.

[nordemoniac]

That definitely sounds interesting!

Going down the Adafruit route will be way to expensive for me, you'd quickly get close to just buying a monitor...

[lilshawn]

it's not always about the destination, it's also about the journey.

learning how to multiplex LED and switch matrixes can come in handy some day right?

[RumblePuff]

I really like the look of the rgb matrix.  Anyone think it's possible to output the score of the game you are playing on mame in real time to an rgb matrix?

[Laythe]

I really like the look of the rgb matrix.  Anyone think it's possible to output the score of the game you are playing on mame in real time to an rgb matrix?

Maybe, but it'd be deep wizardry.

I think you'd have to find the score in game ram, via something like mamehooker, per game you wanted it to work for, and have some custom software polling that and stuffing the results out to your LED driver.  Possibly you might be able to use the highscore.dat as a cheat sheet for those addresses... maybe.

Neat hack if you pull it off!

I looked briefly into changing my trackball color based on the active player for Sente minigolf, and decided it would probably be easier for me to write my own game from scratch.

[nordemoniac]

it's not always about the destination, it's also about the journey.

learning how to multiplex LED and switch matrixes can come in handy some day right?

Absolutely, I've done sone matrix projects with WS2811 and WS2812, but with 5x5 and 10x10 LEDs, and 5CM between the pixels. Light effects only, not a monitor.