The Shirtpocket Billboard

The Shirtpocket Billboard consists of a miniature programmable scrolling electronic sign that runs on batteries and hangs on your shirt pocket. Any message you choose (up to 50 characters in each of 4 different message areas) will scroll across 35 tiny red LED lights as you walk around town. It's an even more miniature version of the Desktop Billboard.

The electronic components that make the sign work are visible on the front of the circuit board, which is faced with Bubinga wood veneer. You can see two integrated circuits and the 5 pushbuttons that are used to enter your messages, much like setting a digital clock. The back circuit board with these parts drops inside your pocket, so the only part visible when you wear it is the smaller front panel with the display. Power is supplied by 4 "AAA" size batteries which also sit in your shirtpocket, providing several days of 8-hour operation.

Many operator controls are built into the software. You can choose any one of 4 different 50-character messages, you can make the display brighter or dimmer, you can vary the scroll rate, and you can select two different built-in animation effects to run at the end of your message: a bouncing ball (like "Pong") or something that looks like an exploding dot. When entering characters for your message, you can insert, delete, and scroll forward or backward. Messages are retained in non-volatile memory when the Billboard is turned off.

I no longer make the Shirtpocket Billboard for sale.