We will continue our discussion using the BetaBrite 1036 series LED signs. I chose these displays because they are the most common model, and very easy to come by. I must note that the cable we are going to construct will probably work on MOST BetaBrite signs, and possibly other vendors as well. To quote the last article "Once you start looking for them, you will be surprised how many places have them.. They are EVERYWHERE. Problem is they always have a boring message on them, advertising Specials, News, etc..  I would seriously prefer they say "I-Hacked.com" =)" Except, this time I want them to show people what I-hacked is all about!

In order to make the cable, you will need the following parts:

• Standard 25' RJ-12 Phone Cable. This is phone cable that has 6 wires inside. Very important that you don't use one that only has 4. (RadioShack 279-422)
• Female DB9 Connector (RadioShack 276-1538 )
• D-Sub Hood (RadioShack 276-1513)
• BetaBrite Sign you want to "hack"
• Misc Soldering supplies

The following image of the pinout was taken from the Adaptive Networking Manual (page 32) however it has been edited to simplify our cable construction.

You will see that we will only need to identify and connect three wires from the RJ-12 cable to the DB9 connector. In the above pinout, the colors of the wires are identified, however I would suggest that you double check everything with a multimeter before hooking it up to your computer. You will notice that the conductor wires inside my cable were not color coded. I am always in the habit of verifying everything before I cut, and after I solder to ensure that I didn't mess anything up. I would hate to fry my com port or even worse my BetaBrite! Ok lets get started building the cable.

:CONSTRUCTING THE CABLE

Being the good hacker you are, I am going to assume that you have identified Pins 1, 3, & 4 from your RJ-12 Cable, stripped the ends and tinned them, giving you something similar to this:

You will notice that my conductor wires all are silver!

Now all we need to do is connect these wires according to our pinout above.

Reading from Left to Right, we see pins 2, 3, and 5 are correctly soldered to the corresponding conductor wires

After you have verified the above connections, you are going to want to make a small jumper between pins 7 & 8 on the DB9 Connector. I used a small piece of solid core wire that I had laying around, but you could really use anything. (like one of the pieces that you cut from above)

Pins 7 & 8 have been jumpered

That's it! Now all you have to do is put your Sub-D hood on, and your cable is completely finished.

:TALKING TO THE SIGN

Now that we have our cable completed we get to have the fun. Connect your cable to your computer (com port 1) and to your betabrite sign. (You may have to remove a panel depending on your version of sign). You will need to download a few basic tools to ensure that your cable is working properly

1) For Windows users download BetaBriteHelloWorld.exe. (from remote-control.net)
2) For *nix people, you can use this simple perl code. (from wls.wwco.com)
3) For Mac People you can either use the perl code above or use MacBrite

Ok, now go have some fun with your sign.. Yeah I know you are going to send "I-Hacked Kicks Ass" as your first message... That's ok, indulge. =)  If you don't have a Betabrite sign to play with, run down to your local quickie mart and plug into the Lotto sign... Trust me they wont mind.

Ok, at this point the sky is the limit. You can control this thing with your computer. Using some google searches you can find all kinds of good software that you can use. Looks like a hacker named wumpus1 has released a BetaBrite API, have it show Caller ID information, or have it display weather info.

But my personal favorite software for my new betabrite toy is called BetabriteHeadlines from remote-control.net. This application allows us to utilize RSS to feed our Betabrite with info. I have created files for I-hacked and edge.i-hacked.com for you to use with BetabriteHeadlines.