BetaBrite Library

DESCRIPTION

Provides a Ruby interface to BetaBrite LED signs.

DEPENDENCIES

* ruby-usb[http://raa.ruby-lang.org/project/ruby-usb/]
* ruby-serialport[http://rubyforge.org/projects/ruby-serialport/]

PLEASE NOTE!!!! You must require ‘usb’ or ‘serialport’ depending on which sign you are using!!!!

More Information

The BetaBrite sign has memory that can be configured before any messages are displayed. There are different types of “Files” that can be allocated. “Text Files” are files that are displayed on the sign. To display any other type of file on the sign, that file must be referenced from a Text File. Files must be labeled, and are given a single character file name. The default text file displayed on the sign is labeled ‘A’.

Here is an example of modifying the default sign text:

bb = BetaBrite::USB.new do |sign|
  sign.textfile do
    print ARGV[0]
  end
end
bb.write!

Autotest Support

Here is an example of a .autotest file using the BetaBrite module:

require 'betabrite/autotest'
require 'usb'

Autotest::BetaBrite.hook(BetaBrite::USB) do |failures, erorrs|
  failures.rgb('0000FF') if failures.green?
end

You don’t need to give the hook method a block, but you can if you’d like to customize your messages.

Allocating Memory

The memory in the BetaBrite sign should be configured before anything is written to it. You only have to configure the memory once before writing to it. Subsequent executions of your script do not require allocating memory.

Here is an example of allocating memory on the sign:

bb = BetaBrite::USB.new do |sign|
  sign.allocate do |memory|
    memory.text('A', 4096)
    memory.string('0', 64)
  end
end
bb.write_memory!

For more examples, see the EXAMPLES file.

Different File Types

Text Files

The data stored in a text file is not supposed to change frequently. If the data in a text file is changed, the sign will go blank before anything is displayed. This is not good for applications like a stock ticker which update data quite frequently. This problem can be avoided by having the text file reference more volitile files like String Files.

String Files

String files contain more volitile memory. The contents of a String File can be changed without the screen going blank. String Files, however, cannot be displayed unless referenced from a Text File.

Here is an example of referencing a String File from a Text File:

bb = BetaBrite::USB.new do |sign|
  sign.stringfile('0') do
    print string("cruel").red
  end

  sign.textfile do
    print string("Goodbye ").green
    print stringfile("0")
    print string(" world.").green + sail_boat
  end
end
bb.write!

Once the String file is allocated and displayed, it can be changed at any time and the string will be updated without the screen going blank.

Dots Files

Dots files can contain pictures. Each pixel is set in an array of strings. See dots_file.rb under the script directory for an example. Or see the EXAMPLES file.

Author