flipdot

A Rust library for interacting with Luminator flip-dot and LED signs over RS-485.

Provides a way to connect to a sign, define messages spanning one or more pages, send those pages to the sign, then switch between them. No special graphics or text functionality is provided; you are responsible for setting the pixels on the pages yourself.

Tested with a MAX3000 90 × 7 side sign. Should work with any flip-dot or LED sign that uses the 7-pin circular connector, but no guarantees.

Intended only for hobbyist and educational purposes. Not affiliated with Luminator in any way.

Usage

Here's a full example of connecting to a sign over serial, sending pages, and showing them:

use std::cell::RefCell;
use std::rc::Rc;
use flipdot::{Address, PageFlipStyle, PageId, Sign, SignType, SerialSignBus};

// Set up bus. Because the bus can be shared among
// multiple signs, it must be wrapped in an Rc<RefCell>.
let port = serial::open("/dev/ttyUSB0")?;
let bus = SerialSignBus::try_new(port)?;
let bus = Rc::new(RefCell::new(bus));

// Create a sign with the appropriate address and type.
let sign = Sign::new(bus.clone(), Address(3), SignType::Max3000Side90x7);

// First, the configuration data must be sent to the sign.
sign.configure()?;

// Next, we can create some pages, turn on pixels, and send them to the sign.
let mut page1 = sign.create_page(PageId(0));
page1.set_pixel(0, 0, true);
let mut page2 = sign.create_page(PageId(1));
page2.set_pixel(1, 1, true);

// We only need to explicitly flip pages if PageFlipStyle::Manual is returned,
// otherwise the sign will automatically show and flip pages.
if sign.send_pages(&[page1, page2])? == PageFlipStyle::Manual {
    // The first page is now loaded in the sign's memory and can be shown.
    sign.show_loaded_page()?;

    // Load the second page into memory, then show it.
    sign.load_next_page()?;
    sign.show_loaded_page()?;
}

Sub-crates

In addition to the high-level API of Sign, several lower-level components are provided that can be combined for more specialized use-cases.

• flipdot-core (re-exported as core) contains the basic types describing the protocol, and is useful if you want to implement a custom SignBus or otherwise operate at the level of the raw protocol.
• flipdot-serial (re-exported as serial) contains functions for configuring the serial port, as well as the implementation of SerialSignBus.
• flipdot-testing contains tools not directly related to communicating with signs, but useful for testing and debugging.

License

Distributed under the MIT license.