I like this. While the scrolling stuff is quite standard, the user interface is very good. By using a standard keyboard, it enables a non-technical person to easily enter the text. Also having that all on a atiny is great. I would have expected at least some esp8266.

For the lazy among us does anyone have a recommendation for an off the shelf medium sized LED dot matrix display controllable from python probably over USB?

Ideally it’s ready out of the box to sit on a desk and be programmatically controlled from a python program. I said for us lazy ones and therefore know that means paying more than one should if they were not.

BetaBrite LED signs have been around forever and have a well published spec for the serial port to program in new messsages. There are Python libraries that wrap around the serial protocol.

The smallest I’ve seen are 26” wide so big for sitting under a monitor on a desk. Maybe there are smaller versions I haven’t seen.

There are projects doing lo-fi displays, if a 7" LCD display is too high rez for you I suppose.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tidbyt/retro-display

The tidbyt display size is perfect! I don’t need the rest of their system just want to drive exactly that type of display directly from a python or C program.

Perhaps the display is solve separately somewhere.

Try Adafruit. They'll have everything you need and instructions on how to do it.

https://www.adafruit.com/product/4745

You can get vacuum fluorescent displays from old point of sales equipment.

They are driven by RS232, with a USB adapter they work with python.

This looks like the best option. They all support RS232 and are pretty cheap. Requires some DIY work but not horrible.

Thanks for pointing me in that direction.

Reminds me of a similar project some decades ago (in the university) with PIC16C84 microcontroller :-) The closest modern alternative I could find using PIC is: https://www.friendlywire.com/projects/scrolling-text/