Game Show Displays

[SweepingDeveloper]

Hello!  A while back, I started working on a project to make an eggcrate display using incandescent Christmas lights.  (I chose incandescent instead of LED because I wanted to go with authenticity; I didn't want the lights to "drown out" in any studio light, says Jay Lewis when talking about LEDs on game show displays)

So far, I've been looking up how to wire it all, and thought that the incandescent lights could be used in place of the LEDs, in which you have to get the polarity right or else it won't work.  Then I thought, "there must be a reason why the polarity has to be right in these specific projects; incandescent displays must not work that way."

So, does anyone have any idea of how one would wire an incandescent eggcrate display, as seen on the old Price Is Right showcase podiums?  Or, if I'm stuck with using LEDs, is it possible to buy certain ones that don't drown out if a light is shined on it?

[Chief-O]

I'd have to think LEDs have improved to the point that they could be used without being drowned out by studio lighting. Polarity could or could not be an issue, depending on which lights you use. There are LED replacement bulbs out there these days that do run on AC; they have electronics in them to A) drop the voltage to levels the LEDs can handle, and B) convert the AC to DC so the LEDs can work (without, I would assume, any significant flicker).

[clemon79]

Polarity has to be right in an incandescent bulb too; it's just that it's a little more foolproofed because one pole is the collar of the light bulb and the other is the contact at the base so you can't fark it up. And note that a Christmas light will only let you plug it into the socket one way, for the same reason.

In theory the setup should be the same regardless of light source: one pole of the sockets is connected to ground, the other to power; all of the grounds are linked together and connected to the ground of the power source, and the other poles are connected individually to some kind of controller (I'm gonna guess you could use something like an Arduino or Raspberry Pi to do it, but you're gonna be doing a LOT of conversion via resistors and such to go from "this GPIO pin is set high" to "send sufficient power to bulb X") that is programmed to light up the correct lamps according to which digit it's being told to produce.

You'd have a far easier time (at least in terms of powering) with LED lighting and light diffusers (which I think is how you get around the drownout issues), I suspect. If you're really finding the polarity issues that daunting, then I suggest asking yourself if electrical projects are really for you, because polarity issues are about as basic as it gets.

[MSTieScott]

I'm no electrician, but I know that LEDs don't drown out on game show sets under the right conditions. The current TPIR set is crawling with LEDs -- all of the color-changing strips have red, green, and blue LEDs underneath, and the giant video display behind the audience is made up of LEDs.

Camera technology is plenty advanced enough now that a studio no longer has to be flooded with light in order for the image to be picked up.

[SweepingDeveloper]

Hey, thanks for the advice!  Yeah, I have no problem with the polarity issues; I mainly just don't want to put the lights I already have to waste.

Then again, I should probably invest in more LEDs.  Still, I could make use of my incandescents.