Dynamic Marquee

[bismark0610]

Just wanted to share my MAME arcade with dynamic marquee.  If interested, I can post a few other videos.

https://goo.gl/photos/ZwWgAFrbyDLHFpQ6A

[ivwshane]

Alright, that's pretty slick!

Tell me you've got a how-to for that marquee!

[equlizer]

what type of monitor up top?

[big10p]

That's pretty cool, mate. Nice job!

[smass]

LED projector for marquee?  Nice.  Do you have a video on how you set that up? 

[Locke141]

I like the idea of using an LED projector. What model did you use?

[n3wt0n]

Looks cool. I would be interested to see how the hardware was installed. 

[mahuti]

links to the hardware or it didn't happen ;-)

[bismark0610]

Thanks everyone.  I posted another video showing more details about my projector setup.  The projector is Crenova XPE 460 which I got refurbished for 60 bucks.

[ivwshane]

It sounds like a pico projector might be a better way to go.

This one here says it can do a 17" pic width at 1'. Hmmm

[smass]

It sounds like a pico projector might be a better way to go.

This one here says it can do a 17" pic width at 1'. Hmmm

Looks like there are plenty of pico projectors that will work at 1-2 ft throw distance.  The one problem is that they are all fairly low lumens - usually around 80-100 max.  I wonder if that would be powerful enough to make the image bright enough for a marquee?  I am really intrigued by dynamic marquees such as the one used on BLIP and on Mimic cabs - but couldn't justify the price of an ultra widescreen LCD panel.  If a similar, decent looking, and bright enough alternative could be achieved with a $80 projector that would be awesome.  Hell, you can easily spend that much on a nice traditional marquee. 

[bismark0610]

Yeah, my major concern was brightness.  This particular projector is 1000 lumens and while it looks good, brighter would be better.  In my basement, I have fluorescent lights so I removed the bulbs closest to my Arcade setup to make the marquee pop.  The resolution isn't the best, but I still like it.  I wasn't willing to invest more money because the price of projectors only go up.  Plus, I wanted long life so LED was a must.  Combined with the Raspberry Pi and the rear projection material, the cost was around 115 bucks.   I ordered the material from Carl's Place.  The company called me directly thinking I had made a mistake in my order since I wanted one foot wide strip.  My wife tried to explain...  No idea if they understood

[RandyT]

Nice project, but brightness and resolution are always going to be an issue with inexpensive projectors.  By time the image is cut down, there's probably only about 200 vertical pixels available.  I also have my doubts that these projectors are delivering 1000 lumens, unless they are pointing the meter right at the light source with the LCD panel removed.  At that short distance, the image would be much brighter if the claims were accurate.

With the prices of LCD panels having dropped so much, and the support parts becoming smaller, the best bang for the buck is still a standard TV, with a bit of creative obfuscation.  That is, of course, if you don't mind the "BetaBrite Topper" look.

[ivwshane]

Nice project, but brightness and resolution are always going to be an issue with inexpensive projectors.  By time the image is cut down, there's probably only about 200 vertical pixels available.  I also have my doubts that these projectors are delivering 1000 lumens, unless they are pointing the meter right at the light source with the LCD panel removed.  At that short distance, the image would be much brighter if the claims were accurate.

With the prices of LCD panels having dropped so much, and the support parts becoming smaller, the best bang for the buck is still a standard TV, with a bit of creative obfuscation.  That is, of course, if you don't mind the "BetaBrite Topper" look.

Randy, couldn't you use your connections and order in bulk some short widescreen lcds? The markup on those things have to be huge and having a US based distributor sounds like a win win for you and the manufacture.

 

[mahuti]

Put me down for 4.

[markc74]

You'll get far more bang for buck by obscuring a regular widescreen monitor. That's what I'll be doing from now on (invaders cab coming soon!)

That said - if you can get one for £200 I'd be tempted again  . No way I'd spend the beans that i did on my blip cabinet again - even though it's awesome it was definitely a one off.

I'm really surprised no one has made a neogeo dynamic mini marquee as those sized screens would be easy to source.

[RandyT]

Randy, couldn't you use your connections and order in bulk some short widescreen lcds? The markup on those things have to be huge and having a US based distributor sounds like a win win for you and the manufacture.

Maybe a win for the manufacturer when I get stuck holding inventory costing more than my home

No, I don't think I'll be doing that, unless something changes dramatically in the marketplace to allow the demand to bring the prices down to something reasonable.  The only reason regular LCD panels are so cheap, is that everyone wants them.  The niche sizes will always be much more costly.

[mahuti]

Hah hah yeah. I knew that was the answer.

[Laythe]

I believe that niche size panels are also more expensive because of how they're generally made.

If I am correct they aren't manufactured as, say, a 1920x384 panel - they're made out of a 1920x1080 panel by cutting it.  I say this because the controller board generally has phantom limb syndrome, where it thinks it's still 1920x1080.

[mahuti]

When I've looked at places that sell marquee-sized LCDs... that is how they make the smaller ones. They cut down an existing one.

[ivwshane]

Randy, couldn't you use your connections and order in bulk some short widescreen lcds? The markup on those things have to be huge and having a US based distributor sounds like a win win for you and the manufacture.

Maybe a win for the manufacturer when I get stuck holding inventory costing more than my home

No, I don't think I'll be doing that, unless something changes dramatically in the marketplace to allow the demand to bring the prices down to something reasonable.  The only reason regular LCD panels are so cheap, is that everyone wants them.  The niche sizes will always be much more costly.

Find out what your cost would be and then see if there is demands on the forums for it and if there is, have people pre-pay for them.

I don't see any reason why you'd need to have these in hand first in order to sell them or to see if there is any demand for it.

You never know until you ask, right?

[Mike A]

That never works. The only true indication of interest is a cash deposit. Everyone will say they want it, but nobody will pony up the cabbage once it is time to actually purchase one.

[mahuti]

...and we all know how good cash deposits work in the arcade niche.   

[Laythe]

Find out what your cost would be and then see if there is demands on the forums for it and if there is, have people pre-pay for them.

I don't see any reason why you'd need to have these in hand first in order to sell them or to see if there is any demand for it.

You never know until you ask, right?

This is guesswork and estimation, based on inquiries I made while building my dynamic marquee dynamic bezel machine. 
I'm going to ballpark that it would go like this:

Randy takes your advice.
Randy does a bunch of legwork and determines his cost would be about $950 if he jumps through a bunch of hoops and picks them up personally in bulk quantity off a Chinese cargo ship dockside at the port.
Randy asks if there is demand on the forums for a dynamic marquee panel. 
Roughly thirty people say YAAAAAYAYAYAYAYA!!!!111!1!!eleventy1!  believing that it will cost roughly two packs of gum and a cracked dust washer, or at most, 1/3 the price of a business surplus PC monitor off ebay cause it's about 1/3 as big, right?
Randy asks if there is demand on the forums for a thousand dollar marquee panel.
Everyone gets real uncomfortable.  A few brave souls wishing to save face from their previous outbursts of overjoyed enthusiasm say "Uh, yeah, I'd totally love one of those... sometime... later.  In the unspecified future.  Yeah..."
A single forlorn tumbleweed rolls by, blown by the wind, the only sign of life henceforth in the thread.
Randy takes a deep breath and attempts to show patience in the face of our antics, as usual.     


Street price from Spanpixel is about $1250 in the continental US.  If you were in the right part of China and could do the entire export process yourself, you could get them for $800, which is the "moon rocks are free, on the moon" price. 

You wouldn't buy one at $800.  I hope I just saved everyone some time.   

[ivwshane]

Two things: one, I'm not sure how you are coming up with the original price. Maybe you are looking at some high end 4k bar LCD but something basic like this is about $300.

https://m.alibaba.com/product/60611798650/20-9-inch-Stretched-Bar-LCD.html?spm=a2706.7843667.1998817009.23.2VPnaB

Second, asking people to put up or shut up its simply good business sense. The only thing lost is time and I can't imagine that it takes a lot of time to get a quote via email. Of course I say this with zero experience so if emailing is indeed too much work and not worth any potential then so be it.

[Laythe]

Nice.  That's a lot cheaper than Spanpixel was quoting me.  I called about ten people chasing down numbers after seeing Blip and got told the same thing by all of them who'd talk to me, which was about half of them; ~$800 in China, ~$1000 at the shipyard, $1250 in town, for quantities <100. 

There might be some people willing to do it at something like $300 in town, but that's 1/4th the price of what I could dig up.  Thanks for the link.



It also belatedly occurs to me I never addressed the original poster despite cluttering up his thread.  Clever mirror rig!  That looks good, and if the brightness isn't overwhelming, arcades were traditionally dimly lit anyway.  Nicely done. 

[ger]

Very slick Bismark.
Btw, did you have allready a solution for turning off your TV?

I Can help you with that.

Greets,

Ger.

[asantora]

Looks amazing, added to my wishlist


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[bismark0610]

Very slick Bismark.
Btw, did you have allready a solution for turning off your TV?

Yeah, I think I showed it in one of those videos.  I ended up modifying my remote with a NPN transistor across the power button.  The remote is under the joystick panel.

However, if you have a better solution, I am all ears.  Since I am a cheap bastard, I am using an old mini stereo for my sound, but it is constantly on.  I would like a way to control that as well.  In the future, I want to wire up another Pi to my other mini stereo for streaming music upstairs.

[Howard_Casto]

I really like how that turned out.  I've been meaning to do something similar but I never seem to have the time.  I've always been on the hunt for a lcd panel the right dimensions to do it that way.  Surely there has to be a relatively inexpensive device that uses ultra wide lcds besides slots.  The way prices are it would be cheaper to cannibalize a unit and steal it's monitor. 

[ger]

Hi bismark,

I am dutch(So cheap, we infented it;-)
I use a China board, with a 220v Power outlet(s) you could use 110v.
The first i use(cheapest)
https://m.aliexpress.com/s/item/32330992623.html?trace=wwwdetail2mobilesitedetail&productId=32330992623&productSubject=32330992623&shortkey=A73qqQBz&addresstype=600

There is also a 5-12v delay board with high tech;-) numeric display (for time setting) its a few bucks more.

So its works like this;
You take a 12volt signal from your pc(here its the yellow wire from pc Power source) that signal go into the pcb board of China. The output is your Power socket(s) So if you turn on the pc. You Can adjust the time setting for Power on.
I needed this, because i hated the Dell brand on my startup.
If you shut down the pc(arcade) the pcb is not getting the 12volt signal, So the Power outlet will not have any Power (your tv is now off)

Sorry for my bad english, i hope you understanding this cheap dutchman;-)

Cheers,

Ger

[RandyT]

Two things: one, I'm not sure how you are coming up with the original price. Maybe you are looking at some high end 4k bar LCD but something basic like this is about $300.

https://m.alibaba.com/product/60611798650/20-9-inch-Stretched-Bar-LCD.html?spm=a2706.7843667.1998817009.23.2VPnaB

Second, asking people to put up or shut up its simply good business sense. The only thing lost is time and I can't imagine that it takes a lot of time to get a quote via email. Of course I say this with zero experience so if emailing is indeed too much work and not worth any potential then so be it.

I am already looking at a different unit, to see if prices have moved on these since the last time I did the exercise.  Not holding my breath, but I have one line of communication open with a manufacturer, and am awaiting pricing.   But even if the FOB price was somewhat reasonable, shipping costs can quickly increase the end price to a level the vast majority wouldn't consider paying.

As for the $295 20.9" unit, I'm skeptical. Those price ranges shown are rarely accurate (i.e. I wonder how many you need to buy for the $1 level of the $1-$295 price range ).  The unit shown is also obviously much smaller than the dimension given.  Just look at the size and spacing of the connectors, relative to the rest of the unit.

I would never solicit advance funds from individuals, to be sent away to an unknown entity on the other side of the planet, on the hopes that they would deliver.  I've seen far too many of those situations go bad to even consider doing that kind of thing.

[Howard_Casto]

Yeah that looks like 20.9 cm to me.

[ivwshane]

I appreciate you at least keeping an eye on this.


These bar lcds would also be great for digital pinball machines as well.

Two things: one, I'm not sure how you are coming up with the original price. Maybe you are looking at some high end 4k bar LCD but something basic like this is about $300.

https://m.alibaba.com/product/60611798650/20-9-inch-Stretched-Bar-LCD.html?spm=a2706.7843667.1998817009.23.2VPnaB

Second, asking people to put up or shut up its simply good business sense. The only thing lost is time and I can't imagine that it takes a lot of time to get a quote via email. Of course I say this with zero experience so if emailing is indeed too much work and not worth any potential then so be it.

I am already looking at a different unit, to see if prices have moved on these since the last time I did the exercise.  Not holding my breath, but I have one line of communication open with a manufacturer, and am awaiting pricing.   But even if the FOB price was somewhat reasonable, shipping costs can quickly increase the end price to a level the vast majority wouldn't consider paying.

As for the $295 20.9" unit, I'm skeptical. Those price ranges shown are rarely accurate (i.e. I wonder how many you need to buy for the $1 level of the $1-$295 price range ).  The unit shown is also obviously much smaller than the dimension given.  Just look at the size and spacing of the connectors, relative to the rest of the unit.

I would never solicit advance funds from individuals, to be sent away to an unknown entity on the other side of the planet, on the hopes that they would deliver.  I've seen far too many of those situations go bad to even consider doing that kind of thing.

[RandyT]

Well, I heard back and little has changed on this front, other than the drop in price relative to the lower cost of the "donor" LCD TV.

They are still cut down from standard units, therefore the price is still based upon the cost of the full monitor, plus labor to cut down the LCD and the cost of the smaller enclosure.

So folks would still be looking at $700 retail, for a unit with screen dimensions of 20.5" x 7.7".  Or well more than twice what folks would pay for one, considering the equivalent 24" TV can be had for about $120.

So we basically learned what we already knew.  Until they start actually manufacturing these at narrow sizes in volume, this situation just isn't going to change much.

[alinke]

Here's an LED dynamic marquee solution (disclaimer, it's my product) https://pixelcade.org/ , have 5 sizes available:

12.5″ x 3.1″ (P2.5)
15″ x 3.8″ (P3)
20″ x 5″ (P4)
25″ x 6.2″ (P5)
30.2″ x 7.5″ (P6)

[Mike A]

Whoring your products posts belong in the retail vendors forum.