LED Sign Applet - 4 Sizes

This is a very flexible sign, with a great neon look, used on my main page.  It allows several different colors of text, and 4 different sizes.  One warning - Yellow and Green are the most easily readable, whereas Blue and Red are less visible.  Orange is kind of in between.

Instructions are listed below - click Here to download the LED Sign JAVA and sample HTML file.

 

Sample of LED Sign  -  Size 3

Note the sudden speedup that occurs - I started the scroll at speed 20 (delay=20) and changed it to 5

 

Screenshot of All 4 Sizes

I have not been able to get more than one LED sign to load concurrently on the same page (works with Netscape but not IE) - so here are static images of the 4 sizes.  The corresponding code for each size is listed in the LED.htm file included with the download.  Just make sure to use only one of the 4 LED signs on any given web page !!!


The HTML File

You should be able to double-click on "LED.htm" and your browser should view it properly !! NO MATTER WHERE YOU PLACE IT ON YOUR HARD DRIVE - SO LONG AS THE FOLDER NAME IS "LED" !!! However, once it is copied to a web you will ned to adjust the path of the codebas, since you HTML file will probably not be in the same folder as the JAVA files. YOU ONLY NEED THE 19 FILES IN THIS FOLDER - NOT ANYTHING IN THE EXTRA STUFF FOLDER !!! The other stuff in the subfolder is just for extra info. This LED sign, as is - worked fine on my site and on my hard drive. To set it up:

1) copy the LED folder to FrontPage.

2) open up "LED.html" and copy the code to your web page.

3) adjust the Path - you only need to set one path - the codebase. After that the applet knows where to find it's files. Remember, that Internet web paths use the forward slash as a separator between directories (DOS and Windows use a backslash).

4) Testing - with your Web browser - make sure to refresh the web page each time you test - you may need to actually restart your browser.

4) edit the Message File, lifeson.led - the file is already set up for use. Just edit the text

IMPORTANT - the "Codebase=" statement declares the path where the JAVA files reside. Therefore the browser then knows where to find all the JAVA files and the code= statement does not require a path (in fact it will fail if you put in a path). However, the other two files - the led and font files - are a core part of the JAVA applet but are not "JAVA" files. They are parameters, and therefore must include a path so that they can be located.

The HTML Code

Here is the code that has the applet working on my Hard Drive, where the HTML file and the two parameter files are in the same folder (the folder is named "LED") as the JAVA files :

<applet codebase="../LED/" code="LED.class" width=500 height=48 align=center>
OR, since the HTML file is in the same folder as the JAVA files:
<applet codebase="" code="LED.class" width=500 height=48 align=center>
<param name="script" value="../LED/sign.led">
<param name="border" value="2">
<param name="bordercolor" value="100,130,130">
<param name="spacewidth" value="3">
<param name="wth" value="122">
<param name="ht" value="9">
<param name="font" value="../LED/default.font">
<param name="ledsize" value="3">
</applet>


Troubleshooting

You may have tinker with the paths. IF ALL ELSE FAILS, INCLUDE THE ENTIRE HTTP URL PATH !!!  A common mistake I made was to not include a path, since ,my files were all in one folder.  But for whatever reason, you need a path - and the paths I used were "../LED"  which takes you up one level, and then right back down to your current folder.  Silly, but it must be done that way.


The LED File

The LED file, "sign.led" is the message file. The applet refers to it for the message and how that message will be displayed. There are various features for special displays other than the standard scroll, such as blinking, drop-downs, and fades. Use  !!  for comments.  Here is a working LED file - we discuss it below:

!! my script
Do
ScrollDown delay=30 center=true text=\rInFo \oC\ye\gLL\ba\yr
Sleep delay=1500
ScrollLeft delay=20 startspace=20 endspace=20 text=\yTime is \{tt} on \{mn}-\{dn}-\{yy}.
ScrollLeft delay=20 startspace=1 endspace=100 text=\gWelcome . . . let's get started - here is your main text message and it can be as long as you like ! ! ! 
Appear center=true URL=http://www.mindspring.com text=\y*\b*\g* \oI\yN\gF\bO \yC\bE\gL\oL\gA\yR\g*\b*\y*
Sleep URL=http://www.mindspring.com delay=500
Blink times=3 delay=500 URL=http://www.infocellar.com
ScrollDown delay=70 center=true text=\y*** \gC\yO\rM\yP\oU\gT\yE\yR \oU \y***
Sleep delay=2000
Pixel delay=10 pixels=15 clear=true
Sleep delay=1000
Repeat times=10

Explanations: