Arduino and other electronics projects info

107 readers

3 users here now

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

Trying to fix a Cresta AS-0216 LED text-scroller / marquee (lemmy.staphup.nl)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

7 comments fedilink hide all child comments

i found this lightbox without keyboard as the second hand store. i thought i'd see what i could do.

There's hardly any info on the Cresta AS-0216.

The websites i found, looking like the same (or similar) device;

a Chilong "Ad-Pro AS-0216" https://www.amazon.com/AD-PRO-AS-0216-PROGRAMMABLE-LED-SIGN/dp/B00UDNDG6O
a Brandless AS-0216 https://www.elektroda.pl/rtvforum/topic1584838.html
This blog https://www.circuitsonline.net/forum/view/30396/1#highlight=cresta in search for AS-0216 material refers to http://www.kingpul.com.tw/ but that domain is no longer active.
"Kingpul" brand website can only be seen via the internet-archive; https://web.archive.org/web/20051214082253/http://www.kingpul.com.tw:80/rh216r.htm lists the type "RH-216R" which seems comparable. But no manual is downloadable
"Sigma ASC 333" is mentioned here https://www.hetlab.tk/artikelen/lichtkrant-protocol and states it is similar to the "Cresta RH-0214CR". This one has software for windows 95 available, and i could download the manual (via https://web.archive.org/web/20160904131325/http://anseyang.myweb.hinet.net/214CR.htm )
https://elektrotanya.com/sigma_asc_333,as226_fenyujsag_software.zip/download.html It refers to this Kingpul site as well (only still internet archive) https://web.archive.org/web/20160904131325/http://anseyang.myweb.hinet.net/214CR.htm
Someone tried some things on an AS-0216 http://www.nerdkits.com/forum/thread/1256/
"HiTech AS-0216" is also one of it's names; https://forum.arduino.cc/t/controlling-a-old-school-led-message-sign-hitech-as-0216-with-a-uno/367646

There's a blog about a repair of a Cresta-0216;

https://www.markgrob.nl/2021/04/cresta-as-0216-repair/comment-page-1/ But that device has a different print than mine.

My device looks like this (pictures can be enlarged by clicking):

i'll be posting some update if i have them

all 8 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Some closeups

top, CPU board bottom
top, LEDS closest to the CPU
top,IC's used
bottom, power side
bottom, middle
bottom, CPU side

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Replaced the original board with Arduino Nano

After having an idea of how the logic worked, i connected the Arduino (impressive size difference!)

Result

At the moment, it's a fixed text dancing over the screen.

The flatcable has the following pins;

+5v --> connected to Arduino nano pin +5v (Not the Vin pin)
Gnd --> connected to Arduino nano pin Gnd
Clock --> connected to Arduino nano pin D2
Data --> connected to Arduino nano pin D3
Horizontal line 1enable(top) --> connected to Arduino nano pin D4
Horizontal line 2 enable --> connected to Arduino nano pin D5
Horizontal line 3 enable --> connected to Arduino nano pin D6
Horizontal line 4 enable --> connected to Arduino nano pin D7
Horizontal line 5 enable --> connected to Arduino nano pin D8
Horizontal line 6 enable --> connected to Arduino nano ping D9
Horizontal line 7 enable(bottom) --> connected to Arduino nano pin D10

The nano is said to be protected for connecting both USB and +5v power source simultaneous (the UNO isn't)

Basically, how the program works;

it slides in all the bits for a single row via the data and clk pin
it enables the appropriate horizontal line and disables it again
goes for the next line
it uses a char[19*5] array which acts as a bitmap which is rendered to the LED screen.
a function renders a text with offset and wiggle to the bitmap. i found the asscii font via this link

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I'm having memory shortage in the Nano, mostly because of the ascii-font table. Also, the cpu power is quite limited. Any extra work immediately affects the scrolling speed. e.g. performing a math.sin() for each column slows down the so much that the display to flicker. Doing a webserver task as well, will not work.

i'm investigating a NodeMCU ESP8266 board, as it also support creating a Wifi Access Point(AP). An AP would allow for configuration by web-browser. But it seems the NodeMCU board doesn't have proper General Purpose I/O-pins. They all seem to be affected at boot.. https://rabbithole.wwwdotorg.org/2017/03/28/esp8266-gpio.html

Here's a picture from that website to remember:

Above: ESP8266 GPIO digital behaviour at boot, when running a simple Arduino application that does nothing except to set all GPIOs to output a low value at boot.