assignedcatboyatcheckout

[assignedcatboyatcheckout]

currently 5am rn and I just realized yall are saying boymoding and not boymodding

what

[assignedcatboyatcheckout]

I decided to take a look at that adapter.

Now despite how much I would have liked to insert a wiring diagram, I don't know much about circuitry despite tinkering with it as a child. So images are all you're getting.

A Nexperia 74HC132D Quad 2-input NAND Schmitt trigger chip.

A Texas Instruments LM2937 500-mA Low Dropout Regulator.

And a Maxim Instruments MAX3232 Multichannel RS-232 Line Driver and Receiver, along with a Maxim MAX3491E RS-485/RS-422 Transceivers.

Just based off the chips' positions alone all this adapter seems to be doing is converting RS485 into RS232 and vice versa.

So I have a few electronic marquee signs laying around, I know more now that I did then, lets see if I can get it working

[assignedcatboyatcheckout]

So I can bypass it by using serial, however the only computer with a serial port is old and without a drive.

I also don't have a serial to RJ-11 adapter, however...

This doesn't look too hard.

So I have a few electronic marquee signs laying around, I know more now that I did then, lets see if I can get it working

[assignedcatboyatcheckout]

So it turns out that the adapter normally comes bundled with some software, specifically Alpha Ethernet, which (I'm making a shot in the dark here) is the very thing I'm missing to make this thing work.

Fun :)

So I have a few electronic marquee signs laying around, I know more now that I did then, lets see if I can get it working

[assignedcatboyatcheckout]

Only enough Alpha still has a demo of AlphaNet on their website which lead to me installing software with a about popup date of 2003.

This software is confusing to say in the least.

Good news however, if I can actually managed to get a connection someone has made software to control these things. Here's hoping that is supports EZKey II or Alpha 1.0...

So I have a few electronic marquee signs laying around, I know more now that I did then, lets see if I can get it working

[assignedcatboyatcheckout]

Bad news, try as I might I am unable to get my Windws computer to connect with over Ethernet, maybe the adaptor is just putting serial over it not sure. In the mean time I'm going to attempt connecting to my Pi. Some things I've learned while going through the protocol specification.

The model line is either older or start in 1991

The sign uses a veriable baud rate, if you connect to it with one of the support rates it'll use that for communication, weird.

Said adaptive baud system is powered by 5 nul bytes

The C in Alpha 7160C means it has tricolor LEDs, the 7160R model only had red ones

So I have a few electronic marquee signs laying around, I know more now that I did then, lets see if I can get it working

[assignedcatboyatcheckout]

Good news, she works, and has 128kb of ram! Nice.

Thankfully the sellers webpage is still up giving me much more information on the thing.

As it turns out Alpha-American Programmable Signs is just the distributor and Adaptive Micro Systems (the company I found that had the Ethernet to RS485 adaptor) is the actual manufacturer.

Sadly Adaptive has since discontinued the 7000s series of signs, thankfully the Wayback Machine had a brochure.

As well as a suspicious amount of captures in 2005, I wonder what happened there.

So I have a few electronic marquee signs laying around, I know more now that I did then, lets see if I can get it working

[assignedcatboyatcheckout]

Alright this one is a Aspect CustomVew TeleCaster.

Which has not 1 but 2 RJ-11 ports!

Here's the model sticker if you're curious.

So I have a few electronic marquee signs laying around, I know more now that I did then, lets see if I can get it working

[assignedcatboyatcheckout]

I also have a Ethernet to RS485 converter that came second hand with the sign.

Turns out the thing costs 329$ according to the manufacturers website, though that might be because its an old piece.

I found others on Amazon for ~30$...

Anyway, sadly the sign port side of the adaptor takes RJ-11 while the sign its self has RJ-45...

Guess I'm going to have to get the other sign.

So I have a few electronic marquee signs laying around, I know more now that I did then, lets see if I can get it working

[assignedcatboyatcheckout]

Thankfully it has some information on the back.

Uses RS485, now TIA-485 or EIA-485, a low but reliable long range communication standard.

At least it told me the baud rate (4800), the model number (A V 64), and the software version (2.13), though I don't think the last two will help me much.

Its also got dip switches, love me some dip switches. They seem to be the control software, Agent View Aurora 64, with I don't currently have a copy of.

So I have a few electronic marquee signs laying around, I know more now that I did then, lets see if I can get it working

[assignedcatboyatcheckout]

Its a AAC Corporation AgentView.

AAC Corporation seems to be a Canadian business according a business opportunities directory. I havent found much else on them other than some Indeed profiles.

So I have a few electronic marquee signs laying around, I know more now that I did then, lets see if I can get it working

[assignedcatboyatcheckout]

So I have a few electronic marquee signs laying around, I know more now that I did then, lets see if I can get it working

[assignedcatboyatcheckout]

catboy count olaf