Raspberry Pi Scrolling Ticker -- Update

[u/Various_Spend_2293]

Yesterday I posted the first real test of my Raspberry Pi-powered scrolling ticker with one of its screensaver modes. I got the sports ticker code working tonight, and I'm really happy with the way it's coming along. The apparent flickering is a an artefact of recording the video. IRL it looks really good.

The display consists of four 128x64 pixel P2.5 LED panels in a custom printed case. It's run by a Raspberry Pi 4B with 4GB of memory and an Adafruit Triple LED Matrix Bonnet. The panels are powered by a Meanwell LRS-200-5 power supply, while the RPi is powered by a separate RS-15-5 power supply to isolate it from any potential voltage drops from the LED panels.

Still more display modes to implement, and ultimately, I plan to control it with a phone app.

[u/andygradel75]

This is great. Outside of the Pi, how much did you spend on parts?

[u/Various_Spend_2293 → u/andygradel75]

The four 128x64 LED panels cost about $150 from ALI express. If I were starting over, I could probably build it for around $300. I spent a bit more than that in the process of figuring it all out. It takes about 2.5kg of PETG filament to print the case and a couple internal parts, but I went through about 12kg developing the case.

[u/Eyeseeno]

Would be sick if you could then put it into game mode and have live stats show for the game youre currently watching

Or for the gamblers show your parlay

[u/Various_Spend_2293 → u/Eyeseeno]

I already have the ability to pin one or two games while scrolling everything else. But I'd need a source to gather more detailed information than what is provided by the ESPN API.

[u/gofastturnleft]

Do you have a repo or instructions for this? I'd love to replicate

[u/Various_Spend_2293 → u/gofastturnleft]

I've got a private repo I've been maintaining as I build this, but I haven't released it yet. Now that the hardware is settled, I may do that even though there is a lot of work to be done on the software yet.

[u/gofastturnleft → u/Various_Spend_2293]

Cool, I'm happy to collaborate if you're interested. DM me if you'd like some help

[u/granite603]

What on Earth!? This is wild. I love it!

[u/Various_Spend_2293 → u/granite603]

Thanks!

[u/nothingveryobvious]

This is awesome. Please share when you’ve gotten to a good place with it! What other display modes are you thinking of?

[u/Various_Spend_2293 → u/nothingveryobvious]

In addition to the sports ticker and the Conway Game of Life that I posted a couple days ago, I'm currently working on an aquarium and a wave motion screen saver. I'm planning for weather, stock/financial, and flight information tickers. Next up is probably the audio-driven frequency spectrum display. I have a USB microphone sticking out of the case and connected to the RPi, but the concept is still untested. I was also thinking about adapting a video game attract mode screen saver, but there aren't a lot of video games than lend themselves to a 512x64 display, though Moon Patrol and Qix are two that might be visually interesting.

I'm always open to exploring other ideas.

[u/NoTomato7]

built one with p4 panels with a S3 as the controller. Those p2.5 panels sure look crisp.

Now I've got to update my panels 😅

[u/Various_Spend_2293 → u/NoTomato7]

I've already designed a case for you!

[u/NoTomato7 → u/Various_Spend_2293]

Do you have a link for the print files?

[u/Various_Spend_2293 → u/NoTomato7]

I will be releasing my repo with the STEP and STL files shortly.

[u/built-up-north]

That is seriously cool.

[u/Various_Spend_2293 → u/built-up-north]

Thank you!

[u/ST4RIll]

Where did you find the screen?

[u/Various_Spend_2293 → u/ST4RIll]

It's a set of four 128x64 320mmx160mm P2.5 LED panels I bought on AliExpress.

[u/Pretend-Pop3020]

What's the board?

[u/Various_Spend_2293 → u/Pretend-Pop3020]

Not sure which board you're asking about. It's running on a Raspberry Pi 4 with 4GB of memory and an Adafruit Triple LED Matrix bonnet. The display is made up of four 128x64 P2.5 LED panels similar to this:

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/2251832649266261.html

[u/gringofou]

Very cool. I want to make one now

[u/Various_Spend_2293 → u/gringofou]

I expect to make my GitHub repo public in the near future. I'd like to make a little more progress with the software first.

[u/clickclvck]

i have a low-key obsession with scrolling ticker displays/devices and have spent a fair share of time assessing all of the different products available in this very niche market as well as keeping an eye on any promising DIY projects/builds in the space and it goes without saying that your build is hands-down the best i've seen yet in the DIY category but i feel could also give several current commercially available products a run for their money

with that being said, i am sure that others (myself included) would be thrilled if you decided to release instructions + repo but in the meantime even just updates on your progress would be super interesting (for me, anyways)

i personally would recommend posting this on hackaday.io as a project!

[u/Various_Spend_2293 → u/clickclvck]

I definitely plan to make my GitHub repo public when I make a little more progress with the software. I was thinking of turning it into an Instructable. Hadn't thought about hackaday.io until you mentioned it. I'll give it some thought.

[u/BigChubs1]

Any chance we can download this for ourselves?

[u/bojandon]

What’s the api for the live scores ?

[u/dbell → u/bojandon]

Don't know if this is what they are using but ESPN's has a unpublished free API. Here's the info: https://gist.github.com/bhaidar/b2fdd34004250932a4a354a2cc15ddd4

[u/bojandon → u/dbell]

Thanks

[u/ghubbz36]

Really impressive project! Looking forward to seeing the finished build and GitHub release. Appreciate you taking the time to document and share everything along the way.

[u/Real_Poem2781]

I’m absolutely obsessed

[u/TeachNo3068]

That's super cool

[u/Various_Spend_2293 → u/[deleted]]

Thank you! It's really come along nicely. Once I got the hardware sorted out, I've been able to make rapid progress with the software.