I work in the sports industry providing protective padding for athletic facilities and I’m interested in integrating lights into the vinyl covering. Specifically, I’d like to develop a clock/countdown timer. I’m somewhat intelligent and excited about the idea, but I have no experience with anything like this, so I’m curious where to get started.
Can you show a photo or rendering of a facility and position you have in mind? It’s hard to tell if you mean an MLB pitch clock that needs to be 30 inches tall & visible for 2000 feet vs a tabletop chess timer (some of us have a broad interpretation of athletics) vs televised gameshow, etc. Ambient light, viewing angles, latency* will need to be accounted for. In particular, show what’s to be gained by integrating a clock into padding over traditional safe height, high or low, mounting.
For basic four digit numbers like a clock or scoreboard, I’d use an LED video mesh set into the padding foam. You see household versions in people’s picture windows for holiday decorations with spooky pumpkins and Cupid’s hearts. I think I’ve seen some longer ones that go in front of doorways and are sturdy enough for people to push through like those old bead curtains. But they also used for bigger commercial jobs like whole building wraps like shown here:
*Re: Latency. This clock will need to be integrated into the rest of the scorekeeping apparatus and, to me, that’s the far more interesting challenge.
Attached is a picture of a pitch clock that we had to make custom pads in the field for. The clocks themselves are very hard and there is currently no way to protect them entirely, just around the perimeter. I feel like with a flexible LED fabric, or mesh as you’ve suggested, we could reimagine pitch clocks so they are simply integrated into the vinyl covering of the pad. Then the micro controller/other parts can be buried inside of the pad, which consists of 3" of dense foam and a 3/4" plywood backer board with vinyl covering stapled over it to protect it from the elements. To my knowledge, there are currently no specifications for the size/brightness of the clock, it just needs to be very visible in the daylight. I don’t believe I’ve seen one 30"h; they’re typically smaller with 18"-24" digits. I have a spec sheet for a popular model that I can send over as well.
Pitch clocks are usually installed somewhere in the backstop or around the dugout guardrails. In my experience, the team will hire an electrician to stub up/rough in the supply, then we would install the board and make pads to fit around. I am interested in a wireless/battery operated unit, but many stadiums will already have the power installed at location, so we could potentially utilize that. I’m interested in hearing your thoughts.
With regard to the controls, my understanding is that the clock is manually controlled by a ‘Field Timing Coordinator (FTC)’, so I think it would just need to count down from 30sec and have manual controls for starting/stopping/resetting.
Please let me know if you have any further questions. I’m looking forward to exploring this further!
It seems like a better question to ask would be about a flexible version of a specific thing so your respondents don’t get distracted again.
Of course we need to see the spec sheet of that thing.
And all available literature of that thing.
Make sure the manufacturer doesn’t already have a version of that thing you imagine, perhaps an existing product from their NFL Play Clock catalog.
And of course there are specs, stats, industry standards, unspoken expectations (red on white is no good for UMich) for long distance scoreboards & clocks (& roadside video billboards, Vegas Spheres, vehicle brake lights, traffic signals, airliner Fasten Seatbelts signs, blimp-carried scrolling message boards & a million other display applications). You need to immerse yourself in pitch clocks if you want to invent a flexible pitch clock from scratch.
Light emitter heat is probably going to be an issue with something that large and running steady for hours. Flexible and transparent solids tend to insulate heat and electricity so that will take some care. Given your application and flat screen, consider high angle edge projection. Hmm, maybe you could weave or overlay LED mesh into the foul ball netting? Or hockey goal web?
You know, in the nearterm future, displays like this will probably be drone carried if not carried-out by drones, themselves the pixels or segments. The overhead cameras are already getting there, synchronized automation-wise. Huge outdoor drone swarm shows are already been-done so specialized, smaller venue projects are a natural next.
You can use an ESP32 (wireless, cheap) or a small MCU (Arduino) for simple start/stop/reset.