Elder Hall Sign News Ticker

Hardware

The sign in Elder Hall that runs around from the front of the radio broadcast room to the front of the communications departments front entrance. The sign consists of several sections that are approximately 20 inches in length, these sections of sign have a trim piece that cover up the screws above and below each section. The trim just presses into place and can easily be pulled back to expose the screws. 

Each section is held in place by six screws. Once the screws are removed there are two power cables that clip into the board section, as well as a ribbon cable. With these 3 cables removed the section is completely removed from the sign. The third piece of the sign (starting at the end closest to the broadcast room) contains a device that allows the sign to connect to the network.

The device that handles the translation of IP traffic to serial information to the sign is a Lantronix UDS-1100 (pictured below) . The device receives its power from the serial port that also allows it to communicate with the sign.

Software

The software used to connect to the UDS110 to program the sign is called EXLNetPro and can be found in the "Attachments" section below. The software does not need to be "Installed" but can be copied to the computer to control the sign. To launch the program just double click on "EXLNetPro1.exe. 

In addition to this piece of software its a good idea to ensure the computer used to configure the sign also has the Lantronix Device Installer installed. This program is used to detect Lantronix devices on the same segment and the computer you're running the sign from. The program can be found here. If it finds the UDS 1100 along the left side then you know the computer can communicate with the sign.

Setup

In order to install the sign you'll first want to install the Lantronix Device Installer as mentioned in the section above, to ensure that the computer can reach the sign. However, this will only work if the computer is on the wired network in Elder Hall. 

From here you'll need to install the EXLNetPro program by copying the folder from Iron to the "Programs" folder of the client computer. Add a  shortcut to EXLNetPro1.exe (located just inside the EXLNetPro folder) to the desktop. Double click on the newly created shortcut and follow these steps to setup a connection to the sign:

1. Click "Configure" at the top of the window

   

2. Click "Connection and Sign Setup", which will give you this screen:

   

3. Click on "Add Connection" which you'll need to fill out as shown below:

   

4. Click "Save"
5. Click on the connection "ElderHall" and click "Add Sign" at the bottom of the screen
6. Fill out the screen as shown below
   
7. Click Save, then close the "Connection and Sign Configuration" window
8. Close the application, and relaunch and click "Sign" in the upper left corner

   

9. Click on "News Ticker" which should give you this screen

   

10. You have now successfully connected to the news sign in Elder Hall.