Ponzi and I hit the local Office supply store to pick up a few home office odds and ends. As we walked through the “You Don’t Need These Things” aisle, I spotted something I haven’t had since I parted company with TechTV: a programmable LED sign. I left my old LED sign at my cubicle and never really cared to get it back (largely, because it wasn’t networkable).

I picked up the TruColorII box – it was at least $100 cheaper than my first scrolling LED sign was. Moreover, this one boasts several notable features:

• Programmable through any PC in the LAN
• Send Messages through Internet e-mail
• Over 50 Trivia Questions and Answers Built In
• Built-In User Programmable Graphics
• 10 Year Warranty on the LED with 160 Degree viewing angle

Yeah, I’m using the TruColorII in conjunction with my live video efforts. It’s sitting on the top of my hutch at the moment, not always visible to the viewer. I wasn’t doing much with it at first because the interface is serial (9-pin), so I had to purchase a Serial-to-USB adapter before I could connect it to my computer. Easy enough.

The software is absolute crap (it hasn’t been updated since long before Y2k). Not sure how they can get away with selling it? No matter, kizmut figured out how to send strings to the unit without really touching the software. The TruColorII is mapped to a COM port – so ECHO’ing a command to it is a snap:

ECHO ^<ID01^>^<PA^> live.pirillo.com - join the fun! > COM3

Bear’s thinking about how to make it Internet-writable – which will really be exciting. The wicket bot now responds to “what is ticker” with the following text:

What is that scrolling ticker? A Pro-Lite TruColorII LED Display – and it’s up to the community to determine what content scrolls on the sign. Download the editor and documentation – then email the .SGN file you create to chris@pirillo.com and he’ll add it to the ticker ASAP!

Scrolling LED signs aren’t just for businesses – they’re fun. :)