Y Panel Splitter (aka Double Sided Panels)

[SmartAlecLights]

P4's, P5's, P6's, P8's, P10's, (infact all Hub75 Panels)
so if you have 2 matrix signs, exactly the same,
for every row of panels, you will need one of these boards

(x= panel)
eg 2x5 matrix = 2 rows, 5 columns = 2 boards needed
x x x x x
x x x x x
or 8x8 matrix = 8 rows, 8 columns = 8 boards needed
x x x x x x x x
x x x x x x x x
x x x x x x x x
x x x x x x x x
x x x x x x x x
x x x x x x x x
x x x x x x x x
x x x x x x x x
http://www.smartaleclights.com/shop/index.php?route=product/product&path=59&product_id=97
Only $2.50 a Board,
But there is 1 catch,
You Solder them yourself,
(Otherwise i will charge you double, for me to solder them )
eg, 5 kits = $10.50 OR 5 Boards Soldered = $25

 

[multicast]

This works until it does'nt. The signaling rate of the Hub 75 signals operate around 100-200Mhz, depending on the setup. At that rate the signal path is effectively transmission line, and the Y/T in the signal path causes all sorts of interesting reflections. This will work just fine at the slower data rates that are used on low bit depth systems but will start to show up with odd interimttment and flakey displays as the bit depth goes up. Results get quite varaiable with differing lengths of ribbon cables to your panels, and the types of panels themselves..

The idea is good, but you need to put some active buffering between them for relaible operation. A line driver such as a 74HC540/541 will do the job quite nicely, and you'll improve things by putting some resistors in series with the output.

I have recently done exactly this for somethign related to the chocolate box.