Like many cricket clubs up and down the country we had been using our faithful wooden scoreboard with metal digits for decades.

It was 2017 when I suggested the club could have a new scoreboard.

With a background in software development, a Raspberry Pi, and a bunch of RGB LED strips I set to work on building a new electronic scoreboard for the club.

2019/2020 High brightness LED Scoreboard

It soon became clear that RGB LED strips in the English sunshine were difficult to see from a distance.

I went back to the drawing board and decided to replace the LED strips with single colour high brightness LEDs.

With no electronics background I designed the digits and got them printed at our local PCB Manufacturer, Cambridge Circuit Company Ltd who donated the prototypes and final PCBs!

However, I persevered, re-designed the board and got to work soldering 1,197 LEDs to the boards.

2026 the next chapter for the scoreboard

The LED scoreboard is still in use and has been working great over the last few seasons. However, at Milton we are fortunate enough to have 2 grounds!
I had a dilemma — I could re-produce what we had at The Sycamores, or try something new. I’m not well known for taking the easy option so I decided to think about how I might improve upon the existing design.

What’s working well?

• Easy to setup.
  Hang it up, plug it in, turn it on.
• Easy to use, with no training.
  I built a web app, hosted by the Rasperry Pi, that can be used by any cheap tablet or mobile phone without internet access or app to download.

How could it be improved?

• LEDs v sunshine – sometimes even in the UK the sun wins out which results in less contrast at the wicket.
• The LEDs have a limited visual angle.
  While different LEDs have different visual angles it’s a trade-off between brightness within this range v visibility at a wider angle. The wider the angle, the lower the brightness with that range.
• The board can’t easily be seen from players in the pavilion.
  The board needs a power supply and we’ve hung it, hinged, on the pavilion wall which means the scorer and players in the pavilion can’t easily see the score.

What options could we consider?

I re-visited all of my original ideas, some more fanciful than others, which included

• Projector and screen.
• High contrast TV.
• An LED scoreboard jacket or cap for the umpires.
• Electromagnetic ‘flip dot’ display(s) – the sort we used to see on the side of a bus.
• Hundreds of lit micro drones sent up at the end of each over.
• … the list went on.

Goals for v3

• High contrast and visibility in bright sunshine.
• Low power.
  Could it be powered from a 12V car battery?
• If it could be battery powered it might then be portable.
  This could mean not only players on field but those in the pavilion and our supporters get to see it.
• Include an extra 6 digits to show each batter’s score.

With these goals I wanted the display to require minimal power once the score is set – which ruled out LEDs especially with the extra number of digits.

What if we went old school?

I settled on an electromechanical approach with digits that consisted of 7 ‘flippable’ segments each of which will show as white or black.

I have been 3d printing for many years, the first scoreboard had multiple 3d printed parts, which meant I should be able to print each digit to my exacting specifications.

Initially, I took inspiration from a project I found from Sebastian Sokolowski here:

I then switched my focus to small, lightweight DC servos that are most commonly used in remote-control vehicles.

Each motor would live under the black/white flipper using cogs to drive them.

I supersized the digit to be as wide as I could manage on my printer. This meant I had to print it as 2 sections because my print bed isn’t anywhere near big enough to print the 400mm digit in one go.

I also switched from using a Raspberry Pi 4 single-board computer and .net IoT to a low-powered ESP32-S3 microcontroller using the .net nanoframework – ping me and I’ll happily wax lyrical about the great work the nanoframework guys are doing while also sharing my frustrations about what’s missing in equal measure.

Sometimes bigger isn’t always better as the bigger the digit:

• The greater power/signal losses resulting in more complex electrical wiring.
• Greater weight.
• Harder to move around and store.
• Could the board become an enormous sail in the wind and fly off into the sunset?

What next?

My primary focus is now on scaling the digit back from being the monstrous 400mm tall to a more manageable 250mm tall.

Could we have a new scoreboard for 2026?

Getting it re-designed, printed, enclosed and reliable for 2026 is highly unlikely.

Perhaps it could make an appearance for the 2027 season!