Multi-Language LED/TFT Sign for Confessional Booths With Custom Switch Panel Control

Hello all, as you can see I am new here, I hope someone can direct me to the right direction;

I need to find a solution or a company that makes this type of solutions. I am not sure where to start explaining. This is a two component LED sign, something like what is used in the DMV around the US. This is a sign that is to be used in a bunch of confessionals at a Catholic shrine.

I will try to explain what we need;

There is a booth that has a simple switching panel with in the booth with say 4-8
buttons that would switch what the display (30x20cm or close to that) shows outside the booth.

i.e. When switch 1 is clicked display shows ENGLISH for the language that he speaks
that is shown to the faithful, so English speaking people are welcome to go to confession
to this booth.

Since some priests speak several languages, this solution needs to be capable of activating
more than one display message; i.e. If he presses switch 1, 3 and 4 the display shows ENGLISH (1) GERMAN (3) and FRENCH (4).

Another thing that needs to be programmed on a separate set of switches GREEN and RED switch that makes the lettering GREEN that symbolizes AVAILABLE and RED for OCCUPIED.

I hope the above makes sense.


THANKS A MILLION FOR ALL AND ANY HELP.

Some questions:

1. Do you need all selected languages displayed at once, or can they either scroll by or cycle. The reason is, this could be a smaller, cheaper sign if only one language need display at once. Something like a 30cm x 7cm sign could be achieved rather than 30x20. Example: if English, German and French are selected, the sign would display English for 2 seconds, then German, then French -- or, English would scroll on from the right, pause for half a second, and then scroll off while German scrolls on...etc.
2. Is power readily available at the place where this sign will be installed--either near the switches, or near the sign? Or will power need to be run to the sign? If so, how far away is the source of power. An LED sign typically needs more power than can be conveniently supplied by battery. Unless there's some way to keep the battery charged with some other source of power, such as solar, wind, or otherwise.
3. What will the minimum and maximum distances be between the switches and the sign?
4. How many signs are needed?

I did some quick Googling on this and found the following:

http://www.pro-lite.com/indoor-singleline-plm20.htm

Not sure if it can be set up to trigger "cases" (e.g. add or remove language names from a scrolling list, or change the color of the lettering from red to green and vice-versa), but if you talk to someone at tech support, no doubt they can tell you if it's possible.

I imagine a switch panel could be made that sends serial commands to an LED sign, to program it to display the configured list of languages. Each time a switch is flipped, there would be a microcontroller that would read the switch states and reprogram the sign to show the corresponding list of languages (or change the color of the letters). But, I don't know of an "off the shelf" solution for that. But, I'm sure that's something that I could make (assuming a sign can be found that has that capability).

Hi, so sorry for the delay, I was out for a few days. :)

1. The scrolling option would work as well if that is cheaper but I figured those units could be more difficult to enable in such a way to have a simple panel for the language and color (green for free/vacant and red for occupied)?

2. Power is not a problem, I can run it there through the wall and that should be a smiple task.

3. The distance is the same on all locations aprox. 3-4 meters.

4. up to 40 for the first batch.

I sent a note to the people you googled, no reply as of yet. I did some google searches of my own and sent some emials but not much luck. :(

Thank you for all of your help and effort.

How about a simpler approach:

Make what could be called a sectional light box. Each section would have it's own two LED light strips, one red and one green. Each of these light strips would be connected to a switch pair, one to supply power to both strips (thus to select it) and one to select red (for occupied) or green.

The whole thing would be covered with a white translucent plexiglass (or other such material) sheet and on top of that, either written with an erasable marker, or covered with clear panel with the language name printed on it (or an opaque card with the language routed out of it (i.e. stencil style), such that the LED light would show through and indicate the language.

Attached is a circuit that should be easy to implement. Just mount the switches in a box and via a cable, wire then to the sign. I showed just one LED in the diagram, but that can represent a series of LEDs -- in fact, the LED and the resistor can represent the whole LED strip which will have it's own arrangement of LEDs and resistor(s). Adjust the voltage according to the specified light strip supply voltage. And make sure the power source (such as a wall transformer or "wall-wart") can handle the sum of the current of however many languages can be represented at once (in the case of a priest that has the language skills that require ALL the LED strips to glow).

You could probably find a carpenter or sign maker who could bang out the signs (or perhaps one of the "faithful").