GAA Scoreboard Idea - Would this work?

CavanHurler

Hi Everyone,

I'm looking for some feedback on an idea I have for my final year university project (Electronics at Jordanstown).

I see some of the GAA scoreboards are going LED but most people I talk to have to get out the ladders or climb scaffolding to make the changes to the team names. I see some of the county grounds have the big ones controlled by PC but I had was messing with some LED circuits and I had a different idea.

Would you think clubmen and spectators would like either of the following.

Option 1:
Scores displayed by LED as normal (amber LED looks nice I think)
Two coloured LED flags (one for each team) displayed beside the score, these can be changed by remote to match the teams colours.
Each flag could have two colours so any club/county could be represented.

Option 2:
No flags but the actual digits could be changed to the team colour.

I can make practically any shade of any colour (that's the essence of the project really) so I could make the right shades of blue for say Dublin vs Cavan.

One problem that's been brought up would be for example Tyrone Vs Cork both teams have similar colours - my reply was that one team will always have to change kit (usually white) so they can adopt that colour.


What do you think would look best or have you any suggestions?

Clareman

Could you put 3 colours into it? I think this would solve your problem for teams with the same colours, for example, if it's Clare v. Tipp, you'd have Clare with Yellow, Blue, Yellow and Tipp with Blue, Yellow, Blue (yes I know saffron and gold), if 2 teams with the same colours are due to play each other you could adjust to have the alternative colours in place.

Finally, I wouldn't overthink it too much, after the first score most people will be able to figure out which score if for which team

padd b1975

Option 1 sounds best to me.

Option 2 sound a little tacky to be honest, just my opinion:)
Any chance you could broaden your project to include some sort of match timer?

Best of luck.

CavanHurler

Thanks for the feedback so far.

Yeah I can make a clock fairly simple, I actually did a big lap timer for my A-Level project so I can just rehash that.

3 Colours is probably possible.
I was thinking about having each flag having two halves (split vertically) and then a coloured border. The border is essential anyway in case one team has black as part of their colour.

Clareman

You would get away with 2 colours if you wanted to, just have the primary colour first, the problem you would have is where counties have more than 2 colours (Offaly and Carlow for example), but by having 2 colours you should be able to account for over 90% of all teams.

Colm R

Saw a nice feature in Tullamore earlier in the year during. They display the name of scorer for a few second, then revert back to the score itself.

solarith

Alternative solution: could have a 40 inch TV hooked (put it in a waterproof case) up to a Raspberry Pi, running a server with a webpage controlled by iPhone and is not at all as complicated as it sounds.

Stinicker

solarith wrote: »

Alternative solution: could have a 40 inch TV hooked (put it in a waterproof case) up to a Raspberry Pi, running a server with a webpage controlled by iPhone and is not at all as complicated as it sounds.

This would be stolen overnight by some scumbag.

GAA clubs will go for whatever is cheapest, my own GAA club installed a mechanized scoreboard a few years back worked by remote control.

Caiseoipe19

Teams like Down with black as one of their colours could make number 2 awkward. Number one sounds better anyways in my opinion.

CavanHurler

Thanks for the feedback guys, I'll report back with some sketches and if it goes to project stage I'll take some photos and post them.

solarith

It's a pretty interesting idea, and marketed right a lot of clubs would be interested if the price were right. Make sure you let us know how you get on!

gooch2k9

What type of LEDs are you looking to use? Going to need to be fairly powerful to be seen from the far side of the pitch on a rainy day...

CavanHurler

The Raspberry Pi idea is nice but the project has to involve PCB design to gain a distinction.

I'm pretty sure I have LEDs that are bright enough(10mm 1000mcd from farnell), it's sunny days in direct sunlight that are the problem. I have a little test board soldered up (about 3"x3") to test just that. It's visible from one end of the local pitch to the other with no problem at all... though I havn't had a bright day here to test it yet.

The lecturer just emailed to approve my idea so I've started the drawings.
My plan is to have two colours and a coloured border.

So for example:
Down = RED/BLACK with RED border
ANTRIM = YELLOW/WHITE with YELLOW border
CORK = RED/RED with WHITE border
OFFALY = GREEN/WHITE with YELLOW border

When teams in similar colours play each other, one of them will have to change kit to their secondary colour so for example Cavan vs Monaghan
CAVAN = BLUE/BLUE with WHITE border
MONAGHAN = WHITE/WHITE with BLUE border.


People can decide the best colours and borders for themselves, I think this should give spectators and players a very clear idea of which team is which. It's a lot more work than I anticipated so for my project I'll just be doing the flags rather than the whole scoreboard - I'll keep you all updated if I ever get it running.

Thanks again for help.
James.