Category: Development

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This is the final update on the Rheingold beer sign project (originally covered here: A beer light to guide us).

Rather than do anything drastic, I opted to retrofit the sign with LEDs and call it a day. A new cord with a polarized plug was also fitted and all the sockets were wired properly. There was a fair bit of corrosion under some of the original wire nuts, so I’m glad to have nice, clean connections now. That also serves as a reminder to inspect the connections on these old signs.

There’s a photo of the finished job below. I left a note on the inside for the curious person that pops this open in the future. Maybe they’ll decide to restore this sign to its original glory. Until then, I’m enjoying the warm, constant glow.

Photo of the inside of a circa 1970's beer advertising light (Rheingold J-347) that has been retrofitted with a LED replacement bulb. The mechanical flashing unit has been bypassed and the wires are connected with WAGO connectors.
Always leave a note…

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Update: This repair is complete.

I’m at a bit of a crossroads with this an on again, off again beer light repair project. First, some history…

This old Rheingold sign was hanging in a furniture store in Gowanus years ago, casting a retro-chic glow over a sectional. Not sure if it was for sale, but the manager was feeling charitable or anti-retro-chic that day and let it go for a modest price.

Animated GIF of a circa 1970s, lighted Rheingold Extra Dry beer sign, model number J-347. There are pictures of five different beer glasses that light in a random order. From left to right, the glasses are labeled: "Tulip", "Mug", "Pilsner", "Goblet" and "Pinch". The tagline on the sign is "Tastes Great in Any Glass".
Rheingold J-347 Sign: “Tastes Great in Any Glass”

Since it’s been in my hands, I’ve rarely plugged it in. Sometime in the last few years, it stopped working. It still lights, but no flashing. I’ve opened it up years ago and found the problem to be the small, geared motor that drives a cam that switches the lights. Specifically, I suspect the gears are gummed up since the motor tries to run. Unfortunately, the motor is sealed, and I think I’d destroy it if I tried to open it.

At the time, I thought I’d just swap out the inner-workings for something solid state. Then I put it back on the shelf and forgot about it for three years. Recently, the inspiration struck to get it working again.

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Years ago, I created a sort of home dashboard to offer up relevant information–mostly when getting ready to head to work in the morning. I gave it the perhaps poor title of Good Morning Display, which has stuck all these years. This isn’t an original idea, by far. However, it has proven not only to be a useful information tool, but also a great platform for learning about new (to me) technologies.

Now, all the these years later, I’m thinking about another rewrite to better serve my current needs. What follows is a bit of a brain dump before I embark on this project. Keep reading for some history and my thoughts for what might be next…

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Jon Udell’s 7 Guiding Principles for Working with LLMs has some really solid advice on using Large Language Models. His usage is mostly around software development and writing. Two areas where these LLMs can really shine.

By the way, Jon’s Seven ways to think like the web is still as relevant today as it was in 2011.

I’ve only dipped my toe into the LLM pool thus far. As I embark on a personal project, I’ll follow these principals while I lean on LLMs to make up for my lack of recent knowledge and experience in developing tech. I find them to be especially helpful with the syntax and best practices type questions I would have been scouring in Stackoverflow for in the past.

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Regular expressions seem like a dark art to me. I use very simple ones frequently enough to remember a few things. Anything slightly more advanced probably involves web searching and copy/paste.

Regexer is a tool for learning and experimenting with regular expressions. It does a great job of breaking down the expressions and showing how each element works. There’s also an extensive library of community patterns to choose from.

via Flowingdata