A quick look and you think they are one and the same. That's not correct. Frank from Pacesetter Signs answered my questions about the models that I asked when I first purchased my sign.
This is an edited version from the BetaBrite Forum on www. Is this the model before the c? The version of the Beta-Brite is model 2 of 3, but that's still pretty much the same protocol. The newest version has a black alum. The Alpha C is the Beta-Brite's "big brother" in that it had RS and RS inputs, RS bridged output, real-time clock rolls over automatically at midnight , addressability, 90 pixel width vs 80, and the internal counters.
Messages stored and displayed 81 Operating Temp. It's also capable of displaying the Day, Time and the date in several different formats. Fonts There are 6 fonts available in the protocol.
Walt has info about making the cable. I originally went by the info on Walts site for building the cable.
To make things a little easier I have the parts I used and where to get them. Like Walt, I also have pictures of the items properly connected. Here are the parts I used. Here are the part 's and the links. Radio Shack seems to change there site every 4ms..
Radio Shack - 6 wire cable - Radio Shack Online - DB9F-RJ12 Adpater - The connector - Wires snapped in place - back view - 1 The connector - Wires snapped in place - back view - 2 Checking the cable plugged into DB-9 cable extension Here's a small test script just to see if you can talk to the sign once your cable is constructed. It loads a message into the first TEXT file on the sign and displays it. The BetaBrite is frequently used as a point of sale display in restaurants, specialty shops, car washes and retail businesses; in waiting rooms to inform patients; and in hotels.
It is often incorporated into casino gaming devices, ticket and postage vending machines. Messages can be entered using a remote control keyboard that is as easy to understand and use as an ordinary calculator. So, armed with the protocol document and a functioning BetaBrite connection, I set out to write an easy to use. We're talking about RS serial communications to a device with a whopping 32 kilobytes of internal memory-- not exactly a supercomputer.
So, as you might expect, the protocol is a little primitive and sometimes confusing. I spent the last week poring over the documentation; here's what I found:.
Anything in the Alpha Protocol Documentation referring to 2. Some of these are obvious, such as multiple line commands-- the BetaBrite only has one line-- and some are less obvious. All of the messages sent to the sign will be in a standard packet format:. Note that file label "0" is a so-called "priority label" and is treated a little differently, but other than that, they're all just named file labels for storing either Text, a String, or a Picture.
I guess I've been spoiled by the automatic memory management and garbage collector of. NET, because this one took me a while to wrap my head around. Any time you program the sign, you must allocate all the memory you'll need in advance.
Any attempt to allocate more memory later will destroy all the existing memory allocations! Be sure to allocate all the memory you'll need before writing anything to the sign. This isn't a big deal in practice, but it cannot be abstracted away, so you must be aware of it.
This is the primary Public interface for the sign. It drives the Protocol and RS classes behind the scenes, so the user is protected from the complexities of both the Alpha Sign Communications Protocol and RS serial communications. Here's a quick glance at it:. When Pacific Bell first started delivering Caller ID data, they were only sending the shorter "calling number" packets, but after about a year they started sending only the more flexible packet format, which can but does not always include a name.
My software hard-codes certain phone numbers to show the names, even if the phone company didn't send their info. The "state" display is just a decoding of the area code
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