What makes this LED display panel rather special is its age. It was commonly used in newsagents and tobacconists on their cigarette display shelves in the very early 80's. That was when the very first home computers were first appearing. When LEDs were only really used as power indicators and in some very specialist scrolling message panels.
There were the first microcontrollers available back then (TMS 1000 and Intel 8048), but only aimed at hugely mass produced products with their development systems way out of reach of smaller manufacturers, so this controller is based on cheap and simple logic chips. Now it would be cheaper and simpler to do it with just a base PIC16 microcontroller and a ULN2803 driver.
The LED panel is a single sided board with a white side to reflect the light and the LEDs mounted sideways to bounce the light inside sections of a vacuum formed white plastic channel with each letter having its own light-box with a cut-out section on the front and an overlay with a block outline to translucent coloured letters.
Red and yellow LEDs were used because they were the only bright LED colours available at that time.
The controller has an unregulated 12V supply for the LEDs dropped to 5V via a 220 ohm resistor and zener. The chips are mainly a clock source, binary counter and shift register with some gating and buffering used to control the effects and drive the LEDs. The use of a bilateral switch for speed control is odd and the circuit also appears to be using the other switches as logic gates too.
It's just a very odd and seemingly very reliable sign from an era where it was unusual enough to stick out as being "different".
If you enjoy my videos you can support the channel by lobbing a dollar in my direction for coffee, cookies (but not cigarettes) at https://www.patreon.com/bigclive
There were the first microcontrollers available back then (TMS 1000 and Intel 8048), but only aimed at hugely mass produced products with their development systems way out of reach of smaller manufacturers, so this controller is based on cheap and simple logic chips. Now it would be cheaper and simpler to do it with just a base PIC16 microcontroller and a ULN2803 driver.
The LED panel is a single sided board with a white side to reflect the light and the LEDs mounted sideways to bounce the light inside sections of a vacuum formed white plastic channel with each letter having its own light-box with a cut-out section on the front and an overlay with a block outline to translucent coloured letters.
Red and yellow LEDs were used because they were the only bright LED colours available at that time.
The controller has an unregulated 12V supply for the LEDs dropped to 5V via a 220 ohm resistor and zener. The chips are mainly a clock source, binary counter and shift register with some gating and buffering used to control the effects and drive the LEDs. The use of a bilateral switch for speed control is odd and the circuit also appears to be using the other switches as logic gates too.
It's just a very odd and seemingly very reliable sign from an era where it was unusual enough to stick out as being "different".
If you enjoy my videos you can support the channel by lobbing a dollar in my direction for coffee, cookies (but not cigarettes) at https://www.patreon.com/bigclive
Interesting piece of kit
It's funny how things tweak the memory. A local post office was being renovated. It had an electronic display for the latest currency exchange rates. This thing worked off a computer and it is was all red 7 segment displays. It measured approx. 600mm by 400mm and was very, very heavy. How do I know this? I procured it …. from the skip that was full of the old fittings. After that, and procuring an old meat trolley from the supermarket, then parts of a pharmacy being renovated all this from the same shopping centre, they fitted security fences.
B , and , H are also coupled because it is often shown as B&H…
This is a freaking cool sign!!
You have one of those in your man cave and you wonder why it's so hard for you to quit smoking.
Wow in 1981 i wasn't even planed, check in 81 in my country was communism/socialism.
You never fail to amaze and educate, Clive!
Interesting to see both the flashy nature of the sign itself and the presence of "Special offer" invitation – Both things that'd be outlawed today even if tobacco advertising was still legal at all. It doesn't even carry the Surgeon Generals' health warning! 😮
And on that note, I'm taking a screen break. Can't lawfully say what I'm taking it for in a YT comment, but some of you might understand when I say "Bitten Heroes" is one of my regular brands… :-p 😉
It's funny that I associate the name "Benson & Hedges" not with cigarettes, but the Jordan Formula One team 🙂
Enjoying this while lighting up – a B&H special filter.
Remember these, often in your local paper shop.
My year of birth! Good year, that.
Any chance you could create a new circuit with New LED's and chip technology to compare the old and new together? 🙂
Special Offer-FREE Lung AND Throat Cancer included in EVERY pack! Act quickly.
I was born in 1981 😊😊
It shows how lucrative the tobacco industry used to be if they gave these away in 1981.
I didn't even know there were LEDs back then. Very interesting…