Harrys TV

Harry gets all the major network shows!

Harrys TV displays the “new” RCA CTC-15 console Color TV circa 1963-64 – in HO scale of course. The basic electronic setup uses 3 components: an Arduino Pro Mini, a micro SD card reader attached to the Pro Mini, and a 1 inch Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) display, powered by a 9 volt battery.

The “trick” to building Harrys TV was in reworking the code for to speed up the SSD1302 Arduino library, so you could display about 12 small pictures on the display per second (about 83 milliseconds per picture, give or take). For those not quite aware, video is actually transmitted “frame by frame” (picture by picture) and displayed on your screen fast enough that your eyes and brain integrate the pictures into continuous movement. This project set out to try to put pictures on the screen as fast as possible, and as cheap as possible, to render an HO scale video that might be recognizable on the whole.  Large, color TV’s in 1964 had bulky round tubes that were partially masked off to show the “rectangular” video image. Changing channels often skipped over blank channels where video “snow” and “white” noise would be displayed. This is also reproduced.

The basic components are:

Arduino Pro Mini (about $2.25): http://www.ebay.com/itm/230795578198

SD Card reader (about $1.31): http://www.ebay.com/itm/261646897915

1.04" 65K OLED Color Display 96x64 SSD1332 ($13.99) : http://www.ebay.com/itm/160938679586

also a small slide switch and a 9 volt battery. I added a couple of LEDs for the upstairs rooms too.

The other addition was Harrys TV sign. The sign is my first attempt to build a backlit sign using a “stencil” cut out from 0.010 styrene sheet (front) and laminated (glued) to a translucent sheet of 0.005 white styrene. A small “light box” is attached to the back and fitted into the store front. Then five 0603 white LEDs are strategically placed above the letters where the black stencil would block the direct light to the front (LEDs are facing down). A resistor was chosen (about 100 ohms) so that about 18 milliamps total (measured) powered all the LEDs (wired in parallel). Please take note: this yields about 3.6  milliamps per LED). This reduced the amount of light produced so the light “sources” are not very obvious to the viewer. The stencil was cut directly on a KNK Zing Cutter which I recently received as a gift—a fantastic modeling tool!

The Hard Part

The difficulty in animating Harrys TV was not with the hardware, but with the software sketch to do the job, as well as the preparation to get the “video” in place.

Let’s start making pictures. What prevented me from going completely insane with this project was finding three very special tools. The first was the Corel Video Editor ( http://www.videostudiopro.com/en/products/videostudio/pro/default.html ), which enables you to piece together video clips, shorten them, mix and reorder them too. The second was the “Free Video to JPG Converter” from DVDVideoSoft ( http://www.dvdvideosoft.com/) which would take a video and convert it to a series of jpeg still pictures. In doing so it would allow you to skip numbers of frames – I elected to use every second frame. The third tool was ImageMagick^® ( http://www.imagemagick.org/index.php) a free, unbelievably powerful image conversion and manipulation tool that is NOT for the weak of heart! The jpeg images were all placed ALONE in one folder and then resized and cropped with the single command:

Convert *.jpg –resize 28% -crop 38x38+5+1 W%d.bmp

Which translated to English means: take each and all pictures in the current folder with the .jpg extension, reduce their size to 28% of the original (my originals were 176x144 pixels) then crop them to 38 by 38 pixels with an X axis offset of 5 and a Y axis offset of 1 !!! Obvious …right? Well, not to me-- It took about 4 hours to get this right! J Lastly, convert each picture to bmp format and name each output picture in numeric sequence as W1.bmp, W2.bmp, W3.bmp, etc.

In the video that I used, there were 1262 bmp pictures placed on the 1GB micro SD Memory Card used.

Pictures were read off the memory card and displayed as fast as possible, on the display, in sequence, by the Pro Mini. Intermixed with the “video” was the random sequencing of the upper room lights in the building.

If you are a glutton for punishment you can download the Arduino sketch, the modified libraries, and the “video” to place on your own SD card here:  http://www.scalemodelanimation.com/Articles/HarrysTV.zip

OLEDColor4_edit4         folder contains the Arduino sketch

Video                                folder contains the “video” for your SD Card (put only the CONTENTS of the folder

On the SD Card

OLED_SSD1332    &        are folders with the modified libraries to be copied into the “libraries” folder

Adafruit_GFX                  in your personal Arduino folder (usually  …\My Documents\Arduino\libraries\

on a Microsoft system)

Only a portion of the one inch OLED display was used: 38 by 38 pixels out of the 96 by 64 pixel screen. The display was masked off with a scaled photo of an RCA CTC-15 Console TV from 1963-1964. Harry’s TV is still a work in progress. I’m thinking of another animation for the right side window and how I will finish the details and weathering of the building.

Complicated?  Yes—a bit. Do-able? Yes, entirely! Now even your HO scale citizens can become couch potatoes!

Harry’s TV will be one of the animation examples I use in one of 3 animation clinics I hope to give this summer at the NMRA national convention in Portland.  I Hope you all come and watch some scale TV with me!

Have fun.  

Best Regards,

Geoff Bunza

OH WOW!!!!

Dreams do come true!  Great job!  I LOVE it!  Thanks for bringing this to reality.

Especially for You !

Hi Rick,

'Glad you saw this-- Especially for You !

Best regards,

Geoff

When I first saw

Rick's TV "dream," I said to myself, "if anyone can do that, Dr. Geoff can!"  You never disappointment, Dr. Geoff.  Well done.  More projects!!  Gotta get to one of these before long.

@ Geoff

Amazing as always Geoff!

One thing, if I had known what you were up to I would have directed you to irfanView, a free image program that will do everything you used ImageMagick for.  The difference being, irfanView has an easy to use interface where options can be checked and values entered in fields to accomplish in one batch process all the things you needed to do.  Might have taken you two minutes to setup and execute.  Give it a try for the next show!

Great backlit sign too.

Regards,

@Kevin re:irfanView

Hi Kevin,

Your reference to irfanView is very much appreciated. ImageMagick is really powerful, but I felt like I traveled back in time to the days or yore in computing! 

Best regards,

Geoff

irfanview

Geoff,

I saw that and I felt your pain!  I think irfanview will work well for you in the future.

Best regards,

Kevin

The understatement of the

The understatement of the year

 You sir have out done yourself, not just with the TV but with the model you have placed it in. The realism of the crowd outside the store watching the show is fantastic. During my time as a police officer I stopped by a Curtis Mathis store with a TV in the window and watched a bit of a football game with the crowd in front of the store.

I am beginning to imagine a new product from Canada, involving electronics and laser cuttings to produce HO scale TVs to put in stores in layouts everywhere.

The product may become known as the BunzaBrillinger Console.

Geoff, that is just fantastic work.

Unbelievable

As if building the scene wasn't enough.  But having the knowledge to make all this magic happen is truly amazing.

Gobsmacked

As always Dr B your remarkable talents astound me. 

Superb!

Geoff:

That is some ingenious modeling.  Makes me want to build an entire wall of TV's but luckily I model the 1930's!

Great stuff.

JG

Cool!!

Blows me away Geoff! Now can we just get someone to develop Rick's " Don the Dispatcher" dream?  At least I think that was the name. Ricks been dreaming a lot lately.

MIchael

Amazing!  

Amazing!

The Sign

Hey Dr. Geoff,

Quick thought on the sign, you could also make the graphic as (for example) a .jpg, and take it to Kinko's and have it printed on transparent stock.  The sign shape would be black (and if it were me, too big, to later be cut to size and the letters white, which would print clear. You could then use it as your mask with the same construction.

I usually do several variations, or several different signs on an 8 1/2" x 11" page... $0.75 in black no matter what is on the page.  They can also print in color...

Hope this helps, and makes sense:

,jim

The Sign

Hi Jim,

I tried that technique for the "mask" with old transparencies that we used to use for overhead projector slides. I was never satisfied with the density of the mask. Can Kinko's provide a better opacity ink? I found that the light would still be seen behind the mask, and with LED lighting it was easy to spot the individual LEDs, which I thought ruined the effect I was after.

Also, on a different note, I have been looking for new ways to use my KNK cutter. I can feed almost any font into it, and it just cuts away! In other words, I was having fun experimenting with my new toy! 

Thanks for the Kinko's lead.  I'll see what they offer. Have Fun!

Best regards,

Geoff

what's on the tube today?

Awesome work as usual Geoff!

BunzaBrillinger < --- that made me chuckle.

Hey Dr. Geoff,To be honest,

Hey Dr. Geoff,

To be honest, I'm not sure. The Kinko's black is pretty decently opaque, but maybe not as much as you might wish.  For $0.75 it might be worth a test.  I've been using the transparencies to create gobos for FX projections, mostly water FX where the gobos are turning and one only sees the light projected through the transparencies... not the transparency itself (which is hidden from view).  The black works as a mask really well, there's no light where I didn't want it.

We did use the technique for a sign.  It was fairly small, and only had one LED, but as I 'thought' you did, we used a frosted backing and there is no 'hot spot'.  Maybe I just imagined that?  But a diffuser would help in tha regard.  That sign is, for now, constantly on... so I'm honestly not sure if the black portion shows light.  The intention is to eventually have it blink on and off... hope the black part isn't obviously emitting light!

Also, before I read the article, I thought you were using a larger display, and lighting the sign (and the windows) with a flat color on another part of the display.  I know better now.

In any event, I totally understand playing with the new toy.  Just wanted to help.

The TV gag is terrific Geoff, can't help you there, you don't need it,

jim

Several TVs

Geoff I love this you have done a great job.

A thought!

I have always loved seeing TV displays where several TVs show the same picture. Is it possible to show several copies of the one picture on the screen and then have "masks" of several TVs so it looks like a stack of TVs showing the same picture? I may be asking too much here but it would sure look cool!

@Graeme re: Multiple Screens

Hi

Short answer: Maybe. First, the displayed screen is 38x38 pixels (dots) on a 96x64 display-- you could not fit two same size "TV" screens side by side. But you could put 2 30x30 screens (or smaller) side by side. You would need appropriate space for the "cabinet." Cabinets for large TV screens back then were not compact nor streamlined. There is also the problem of dropping the screen resolution so much that you could barely make out what "show" was on the screen. But if you did make the "TV" screen size small enough-- say 24x24 pixels-- and you found an appropriate "smaller cabinet" you could conceivably put four "TV sets" in one display, all showing the same "show."  That would also represent 48 x 48 pixels to be displayed and the displayed "TV frame rate" would drop, so more screen "flickering" would appear without more software/sketch re-writes for speed ups (if that were even possible). The frame display rate is not just determined by the Pro Mini speed, but also by the speed of the micro SD memory card, the interface to the display, and the software itself.

Your question also gives me an idea for the right side window! One could build another console set, place it in the right window, and synchronize the two displays. It's little more work, but I think it might be do-able.

I might try both some time in the future!    I do like the idea quite a bit! Thanks!

Have fun!

Best Regards,

Geoff Bunza

Glad I could help!!

I am planning to "Steal" your ideas for a store on my soon to be built Inglenook layout. I have a Monster Model Works store front and was panning on making it a "Stereo" store with displays of record players etc. in the window but now I might make it a TV store and use your great ideas.

What is going on? A possible backstory?

These four men have stopped off from work to admire and dream of someday owning the displayed RCA color television.  The male in front of uniformed man on the left may be commenting to his Dad how keen it is to see color.

It must be in the fall of 1965 or later because “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea” series, which ABC first broadcast in the fall of 1964, wasn’t broadcast in color on the ABC network until its second season in 1965.

The TV networks didn’t want to go to the expense of broadcasting in color because there weren’t that many color TV sets in the U.S. and the public didn’t want an expensive color TV if they couldn’t get color reception.  It was “the chicken or the egg” syndrome.   Even so, many households did buy color TVs in anticipation of color broadcasting, and forced the networks to battle for ratings, although by 1971 less than half the TVs being watched were in color.

The time of day would be in the late afternoon or early evening, because these men would not stop on their way to work, and Harry may not be open for business that early.  It’s unclear if Harry is open.  If not, he might have left the blinds open to deter intruders, and will be back later to completely close down.

In 1965 the average price of a new house was $13,600, and the average income was $6,450, or about $3.00 per hour, giving about $537 a week before taxes.  The federal minimum wage was $1.25.  A gallon of gas was 31 cents; bread was 21 cents a loaf, and a new automobile could be bought in the neighborhood of $2,600 depending on make and options.  Rent was about $110 a month and the new color TV console that these men are looking at could easily be half the price of a new car.

Unless these men belong to a Union, they probably earn less that the $6,450 average, and each would be the sole wage earner in his household.  Throw in a wife and a few young children, and one can understand why these men stopped in front of Harry’s on their way home from work to dream a little.

Someday; not tonight, but someday.

Gene
Good work!  

P.S. 

Dr. Geoff, I borrowed your jpg image for ease of illustrating the story.

I Love it whan a Story Comes Together !

Hi Gene,

I love the backstory !  I consider "the story" to tbe one of five parts of a "complete" animation: lighting, movement, sound, synchronization, and story. I thoroughly enjoy the fact that Harrys TV evoked a story for you!

Close inspection will show there are five men-- does that change the story?

In 1964, the RCA CTC-15 Color Console listed for over $1000 ! It had a record player and might have had a radio built in as well. It was a top of the line unit. (I needed to find the largest screen I could!)

You are most welcome to borrow any of the images at your pleasure!

Great story! Have fun!  

Best Regards,

Geoff

Four men and a boy…

Hi Dr. Geoff,

Yes, I saw the five people, but mistakenly identified one as a young lad in my opening paragraph.  That fifth person must be bending over for a closer look because I can’t see his head or shoulders.  No, I don’t believe I’ll change or embellish the story.

The top of the line RCA Color TV Console in 1965 would have had a 4-speed record player (16-2/3, 33-1/3, 45, and 78 rpm), which also included an adapter for the big 45-rpm-record hole.  In late 1965 the record player would undoubtedly be playing the Beatles; an unknown new band from England.  Also included in the entertainment console would be an AM/FM radio, and in later years would have had an additional 8-track tape player.  One still had to change the TV stations manually.

The Color TV Console “Entertainment Center” was a thing of beauty, being made of real wool such as Cherry, Oak, or Maple; the proud focal point of any well-appointed living room.

I believe every scene has a story built into it, intentionally or otherwise.  One just has to look.

Gene

"One still had to change the

Actually it was easy to get the wife or kids to do it. I remember the days when I was the remote control for my DAD! Back in those days we had 6 channels via an antenna, years later we went to cable and picked up 3 more for a total of nine! VHF 2, 4, 7, 9, 11, 13, later 2, 4, 7, 9, 11, 13, on VHF and then UHF 27, 33, 53. Strange that with less in the way of channels there was more on TV to watch. I find that I very seldom watch anything other than the news now or a football game and when I wish to watch something like a movie it comes out of my movie collection of DVDs.

That scene really takes me back to a time when that was common place. How many folks remember the sign off at the end of the late movie, or the test pattern before the TV started up with farm report.