Solari Boards

[Jon_G4MDC]

I thought this was well worth reading.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-51470599

[AC/HL]

Same nostalgia as with flip clocks, but on a grander scale.

[barrymagrec]

I had a flip alarm clock for over thirty years but it developed an irritating tisk tisk noise intermittently, only at night when things were very quiet.I pulled it apart and lubricated bits - no difference - after another attempt I chucked it and started to use an LED clock - same noise........ it was a bit of loose cord on the drain pipe outside the window..........

[Refugee]

I used to live in a top floor flat with a street lamp outside.
On windy nights it used to sway and the cable running down the middle used to slap on the inside of the steel pole.

[julie_m]

There used to be one in Birmingham New Street railway station showing the departures, and it used to rattle in a very distinctive way whenever a train had just departed or was just about to arrive.

[dazzlevision]

Originally Posted by julie_m

There used to be one in Birmingham New Street railway station showing the departures, and it used to rattle in a very distinctive way whenever a train had just departed or was just about to arrive.

Yes, my mainline London station was (and still is) Paddington and it had a large Solari departures indicator board above the ticket barriers.

In the 1980s, the (Western Region) Regional Signal and Telecommunications Engineer's telecoms drawing office in Reading had to prepare, and then have fitted all, the changes necessary with the arrival of the summer and winter timetable changeovers.

They also dreaded heavy rain, which caused the flaps to "stick".

I recall there was an electromechanical indicator product using arrays of individual coloured dots, made by Ferranti-Packard (of Canada, IIRC). A forerunner to dot metric LED displays.

[Jon_G4MDC]

I like them. Until today I would have had no idea what to call them.

[Lucien Nunes]

We'll be needing one at Electrokinetica. I have in mind a display of displays; they are made to be looked at, so an array of different systems will make an eye-catching demonstration of technological development.

Another kind of mechanism referred to as a flap indicator was used on large scoreboards. Each digit uses a low-resolution dot matrix of hinged flaps, black on one side and white on the other, each of which is controlled by one cam on a common shaft. The camshaft has as many valid positions as there are different characters to display, each of which flips a different combination of flaps to show their white sides.

We have some examples from a racing tote system. The digits to be displayed are generated mechanically within the computing geartrains of the totalisator, but transmitted to the flap indicators electrically. Within each indicator digit is a DC motor that drives the camshaft continuously, forming digits in ascending order, searching for a marked contact in a bank and stopping when it is found.

[G6Tanuki]

There was a similar kind of display that used a dot-matrix of 'flags' that were held in either 0 or 1 state by a permanent magnet; there was a small coil on each magnet which when pulsed 'flipped' the state of its appropriate display-bit.

They had classic (X,Y) multiplexing.

I remember fixing the power-supply to one of these that was used to display currency exchange-rates. The presented fault was "display does not clear on command" - turned out that when you sent the display's logic a 'clear all' command (so all bits went back to black/0) the logic did a 'ripple' down the panel turning-on all the vertical-rows and then sequentially firing each horizontal-row driver.

The power-supply had developed - after a decade or so - a 'tired' main smoother, so when faced with the current-demand of firing every magnet on a horizontal-row of the display, it sagged. The easier-operating flags flipped as expected, any that were a bit sticky weren't getting enough current to flip them.

New smoothing-capacitor fixed the problem and I was declared a hero!

[Robsradio]

I have a few Solari split flap clocks that i run, they are great to watch and listen to, they are not quiet but your brain blocks the sound out, I don’t think I would get away with a board though!

[duncanlowe]

Having spent many years in airports, and train stations I can SO hear the noise. Can I describe it, no. But as soon as someone mentions them it's in my head. Can I remember whe I last saw one, again no. Euston in the eighties? LAX in the nineties? Newark 2000? Maybe even Stuttgart or Hannover later in the noughties?

One thing, though. You didn't have to keep looking at them to see if there was new information. You could HEAR when there was new information.

[AC/HL]

One of those things that you don't realise that it's missing until prompted. If I remember correctly there were two distinct waves, one clearing and then a second one with the new data.

[dglcomp]

Some train exterior destination displays (Siemens Desiro stock notably) use flip LED displays which have an LED incorporated in to each segment (I believe in a 50/50 arrangement).
Makes for excellent daytime and nighttime viewing.