Looking for an outdoor timing diplay

[Rallispec]

I am trying to find something like this:
http://farmtek.net/scoreboard.htm

However, most scoreboards like this are designed to be part of timing systems and handle all the timing logic internally and then display the time on the board and can send that time over USB or serial to an exernal laptop.

I want to do the exact opposite - I am calculating times from a custom external system run through a laptop. I want to send the final time TO the display board.. .So i really need something extermely simple that just has an RS232 interface that I can send the display commands to. I really don't want to pay for a display board that has a ton of capability that I don't need and can't use.

Why is this so hard to find????


edit - i think the one linked above does work the way I want, it's just not documented anywhere. had to talk to the company to get the information on it. How a handful of LED's cost $1000 is beyond me though.

 

[DrPizza]

The timing system I run (swim meets) is all done via 20 year old computer system. The score board is just that - it prints out the scores and times via a signal sent to it. Though, we're talking about a much larger system. There are two main brands (that I'm aware of) that do swimming scoring systems. I've noticed that there are templates for our system to do other sports as well from the same system. AFAIK, be prepared to be raped on price. The software is a few hundred. Oh, and if you're running the software on a laptop, then you need the controller for sending the signal - which is JUST MORE SOFTWARE that's not included with the original software. It's the equivalent of Microsoft making Word, and "ohhhh, you want to send it to the printer? It's incompatible with any other software to print it; you need our special print capable software. That's only $200 more." "But, isn't it pointless to have Word if you can't print it or send it somewhere?" "Hey, at least we used lube."

 

[rudeguy]

so you just want the board to display what you output?

 

[Rallispec]

so you just want the board to display what you output?

yep... I just want to plug it in to my laptop and send it a command for the numbers I want displayed. If i had more time I'm sure I could peice some large 7 segment displays and make it myself... but It'd be a lot easier to just buy what i want.

I thought about using those small LED scrolling signs you see in some stores - but you can't see them at all in daylight and it looks like most aren't really designed to be reprogrammed to display a new message on the fly very easily.