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Finally found a solution for those looking for a score ticker

post #1 of 43
7/28/10 at 5:21am
Thread Starter 
After months of sporadic searching, I finally found an easy, inexpensive way to stream sports scores and news to an LED ticker display. I know there have been a few looking for the same thing from time to time, so I figured this would probably be useful. Best part is no subscription fees and low cost.

First, find a BetaBrite, Alpha, or ProLite LED display (used is fine - I have a lightly used 48 inch ProLite TruColor XP I found on ebay for only about $80).

Next, depending on what sign you get, you will either need a long USB cable or a combination of DB9 cable/USB converter for connection to a computer running the software.

Last, Install this cool software that can stream RSS data to the sign. I use this one: http://www.kitchi-rss.com/ its very easy to use and free for most of the features (unless you want to run kitchi in the background as a service).


Pictures and video of my setup coming soon
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post #2 of 43
7/29/10 at 6:13am
Thread Starter 
photos added:


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post #3 of 43
8/3/10 at 12:01pm
thanks for the pointer.
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post #4 of 43
8/3/10 at 9:10pm
Nice setup man!
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post #5 of 43
8/11/10 at 8:27pm
Absolutely love it! Thanks man. Off to eBay
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post #6 of 43
8/12/10 at 9:52am
cp, thanks for the idea. I have purchased my display, but while I'm waiting for it, I'm trying to get the rest together. What rss feed or feeds are you using?
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post #7 of 43
8/12/10 at 10:17am
Thread Starter 
I have been using the rss url's provided from ESPN's website:
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/rss/index

I also found a site where someone created their own rss code which pulls the scoreboard info from ESPN. I don't have the link but I think I found it by searching google for RSS scoreboard feeds
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post #8 of 43
8/12/10 at 1:41pm
Nice setup
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post #9 of 43
8/12/10 at 2:14pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by cpotteke22 View Post

I have been using the rss url's provided from ESPN's website:
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/rss/index

I also found a site where someone created their own rss code which pulls the scoreboard info from ESPN. I don't have the link but I think I found it by searching google for RSS scoreboard feeds

Possibly stupid question to follow: Are those news feeds or am I missing the feeds for just scores, or are they all together i.e.: the NBA news feed includes game scores when there are games.
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post #10 of 43
8/12/10 at 2:22pm
Thread Starter 
Unfortunately, and I am guessing as a way to protect the subscription based services, the major news networks (Sports or otherwise) do not provide live score info. As I mentioned, several people have taken it upon themselves to create their own RSS feeds from the scoreboard data from ESPN.com, etc. I don't have the URL for one of these handy right now, but I might be able to get it posted later
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post #11 of 43
8/16/10 at 8:19pm
Anyone know how sports bars get their feeds? Should be a business here somewhere. Either way your setup looks great. I just need to figure out a wireless feed...
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post #12 of 43
8/17/10 at 6:31am
Thread Starter 
Thanks for the kind comments everyone
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post #13 of 43
8/21/10 at 11:20am
Quote:
Originally Posted by cpotteke22 View Post

Unfortunately, and I am guessing as a way to protect the subscription based services, the major news networks (Sports or otherwise) do not provide live score info. As I mentioned, several people have taken it upon themselves to create their own RSS feeds from the scoreboard data from ESPN.com, etc. I don't have the URL for one of these handy right now, but I might be able to get it posted later

I found some feeds here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=272354. Are these the ones you are using? Also, have you found a way to load multiple feeds into kitchi? I also have a Pro Lite, so I am thinking it should be the same. Oh, 1 last question: Do you get all the data or does it stop? I don't seem to get the whole scroll of games. Maybe 2/3 come through. I'm guessing that I'm reaching the character limit before all of the games. Any idea to combat this (maybe I need a feed with team abbreviations)? Again, thanks for the help and the great idea!
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post #14 of 43
8/22/10 at 5:44pm
I lied, more ?'s. What settings are you using for a USB connection? I have gotten the sign working with a rj12 cable/serial adapter. However, when I try on a newer computer (no serial port) with a serial/usb adapter, nothing happens. Any ideas?
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post #15 of 43
8/24/10 at 6:03am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by alarsuel View Post

I lied, more ?'s. What settings are you using for a USB connection? I have gotten the sign working with a rj12 cable/serial adapter. However, when I try on a newer computer (no serial port) with a serial/usb adapter, nothing happens. Any ideas?

I'm using a dedicated, older computer for the sign that has a DB9 COM port on it so this is not something I've run into. My only guess is maybe baud rate of the port?
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post #16 of 43
8/24/10 at 6:09am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by alarsuel View Post

I found some feeds here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=272354. Are these the ones you are using? Also, have you found a way to load multiple feeds into kitchi? I also have a Pro Lite, so I am thinking it should be the same. Oh, 1 last question: Do you get all the data or does it stop? I don't seem to get the whole scroll of games. Maybe 2/3 come through. I'm guessing that I'm reaching the character limit before all of the games. Any idea to combat this (maybe I need a feed with team abbreviations)? Again, thanks for the help and the great idea!

I'm pretty sure those are the URL's I'm using...hopefuly I will be able to find similar work done by someone for top Fantasy Football scorers as the season nears.
To answer your questions, you can add multiple feeds by right-clicking input in Kitchi and select add input- you can then prioritize the individula inputs by right-clicking them and selecting move up or move down.
I have also had a problem with the feeds getting cut off. I have been playing around with a few things and am unsure if its the rate of my updates being to short, character count, or if the URL's for the RSS data cut the feed.
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post #17 of 43
8/24/10 at 4:35pm
Thanks for the answers! I guess I'll contact the dev for kitchi and see if they can answer the cutoff question. Does the NFL feed work for you? I can get MLB (or could on the old computer with serial port) but the NFL feed didn't give me anything. I though it was because of preseason, but click the url gives scores. We ought to be able to get this working flawlessly by Sep. 2nd! I let you know what I find from kitchi.
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post #18 of 43
8/25/10 at 5:41am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by alarsuel View Post

Thanks for the answers! I guess I'll contact the dev for kitchi and see if they can answer the cutoff question. Does the NFL feed work for you? I can get MLB (or could on the old computer with serial port) but the NFL feed didn't give me anything. I though it was because of preseason, but click the url gives scores. We ought to be able to get this working flawlessly by Sep. 2nd! I let you know what I find from kitchi.

Excellent, I look forward to hearing what you find out!
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post #19 of 43
9/28/10 at 1:35am
Have been watching this type of thing on and off looking for a solution without a subscription. I love the solution here but still dream about something closer to this:

http://www.risedisplay.com/products/LED_tickers/

or

http://www.tickercom.com/9/sports.html

I guess this solution really isn't any better than a DIY solution, interesting they are getting some press now:

http://www.twisplays.com/index.php?page=faq
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post #20 of 43
9/28/10 at 5:53am
This one is really interesting set up. Appreciate it.
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post #21 of 43
9/29/10 at 6:55am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by alarsuel View Post

Thanks for the answers! I guess I'll contact the dev for kitchi and see if they can answer the cutoff question. Does the NFL feed work for you? I can get MLB (or could on the old computer with serial port) but the NFL feed didn't give me anything. I though it was because of preseason, but click the url gives scores. We ought to be able to get this working flawlessly by Sep. 2nd! I let you know what I find from kitchi.

Any luck with this yet?
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post #22 of 43
10/17/10 at 8:39pm
Just got a used Alpha 220C through Ebay. Theater/Bar isn't done yet, but at least I can probably still hook this up elsewhere until then.

Also this is a pretty good tutorial, whether you are putting Twitter on the scroll or not:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QR4dzFDwLns
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post #23 of 43
10/19/10 at 8:01pm
Nice done
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post #24 of 43
10/20/10 at 7:06pm
Sweet I've been looking for a sports ticker. Do you use that same program and just program in a sports RRS feed?
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post #25 of 43
2/23/11 at 1:37am
Thought I'd update. I'm still having the problem of the ticker getting cutoff before all the info scrolls through. I tried the Kitchi devs but didn't hear anything. This reminds me to try them again.
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post #26 of 43
2/24/11 at 11:33am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by alarsuel View Post

Thought I'd update. I'm still having the problem of the ticker getting cutoff before all the info scrolls through. I tried the Kitchi devs but didn't hear anything. This reminds me to try them again.

I'm having the same problem. It also appears the NFL live scoring URL was no good. I wasn't able to receive live scores all season. At least with baseball season around the corner that one works
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post #27 of 43
3/31/11 at 7:39am
Sounds like Kitchi may be a dud. Has anybody used this company?

http://tickermedia.com/sports-tickers-w.html
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post #28 of 43
6/4/11 at 6:37pm
I realize this is an old thread, but I'm toying with the idea of making a "ticker" application. My idea is to make an actual scoreboard, similar to the one you'd see at the ballpark, so I needed to find realtime data... and more than just the score. And as most of you have already discovered, it's almost impossible to find RSS feeds for live stats.

But I hit a gold mine! For anyone who is looking for baseball stats - including real-time info, the MLB has a site where you can grab just about anything.

If you go to http://gd2.mlb.com/components/game/mlb/ you can drill down to the year, the date, then the game to pull information. You can also point to the current date and grab live updated XML. I believe boxscore.xml gives you the most up-to-date information.

I haven't yet written the code for my app to extract the info, but this discovery certainly gives me hope!
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post #29 of 43
6/4/11 at 10:46pm
Do post if you make any significant progress. I also have interest in having a way to do a scoreboard ticker or something similar in the basement I'm finishing...but all the possible solutions I've seen either cost too much or don't give me what I really want (up-to-date scores on all games in progress year round). I *really* don't want to have to dedicate a screen to showing ESPNews.....
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post #30 of 43
6/4/11 at 11:58pm
Sounds great, kitchi still gives me problems. Anything that gets us on the track to scores without being cut off is good to me. If you do end up creating an app, let us know! Truthfully, I'm not even sure the mlb, nfl, etc. data we had before still works. I'll have to check.

*The URL's found in the xda forum I linked earlier do still work. At least MLB and NHL do. Those were the only ones I could check because the others don't have any games today.
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