You’ve got your holiday display running beautifully, your lights are dancing to the music, and your FM transmitter is broadcasting the audio perfectly to the street. But as cars drive up to watch your show, you notice a problem: How do they know what radio station to tune their cars to?
Every great animated display needs a "Tune To" Sign. It sits at the front of your yard, scrolling a clear message like: "Tune Your Radio to 88.1 FM." While some vendors try to sell you expensive, fragile, industrial LED video panels (like P10 or P5 panels) that require complex specialized controllers, the modern pro-tip is much simpler: Use a standard, rugged GEUSA coro pixel matrix and the native xLights Text Effect. Here is how to set it up in five minutes.
Step 1: Choosing Your "Tune To" Canvas
A standard coro pixel matrix is just a flat sheet of black fluted plastic with a clean grid of holes drilled into it (like a $24\times50$ grid).
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The Spacing Rule: For text to be readable from inside a car at the curb, you want 1-inch or 2-inch pixel spacing.
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The Sizing Rule: A grid that is at least 12 pixels high by 36 pixels wide is the absolute minimum resolution required to scroll a clean, readable English font. The more pixels you have horizontally, the more letters you can display on the screen at one time before they have to scroll!
Step 2: Dropping the Text Effect Into the Sequencer
Once your matrix model is drawn in your xLights layout screen, navigate over to the Sequencer tab to add your custom message.
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In your timeline layout, locate your Matrix prop row.
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Look at the effects toolbar at the very top of your screen and find the Text Effect icon (it looks like a green letter "T").
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Click and drag the Text Effect icon down and drop it directly onto your Matrix timeline. Stretch the effect block out to match how long you want the message to display.
Step 3: Writing and Styling Your Message
With the Text Effect block highlighted on your timeline, look at the Effect Options panel on the left side of your screen. This is where you configure your sign's brain.
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Type Your Text: In the main text box, type your message exactly how you want it to appear (e.g.,
TUNE TO 88.1 FM). -
Choose Your Font: Click the Font button. For low-resolution pixel grids, always choose a clean, bold, sans-serif font (like Arial Black or Impact). Avoid thin or script fonts, as they will look like a blurry mess of pixels from the street.
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Pick Your Colors: Select your text colors from the color palette palette. Pure, brilliant White, Green, or Red offer the highest visual contrast against a black yard background.
Step 4: Making it Scroll (The Movement Settings)
If your message is longer than a few letters, it won't fit on the screen all at once. You need to make it move.
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Inside the Text Options panel, look for the Movement dropdown menu.
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Change the setting from None to Left. Your text will instantly begin smoothly marching across your matrix from right to left like a movie theater marquee.
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Adjust the Speed: Use the Speed slider directly below the movement menu to slow it down. You want older folks driving past your yard to be able to easily read the full radio frequency before they cruise past your driveway!
💡 GEUSA Pro-Tip: Adding a Layer Blend Effect
Want to make your "Tune To" sign look like a professional commercial production instead of just plain scrolling text? Use Layer Blending.
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Right-click your Matrix row in the sequencer timeline and select Insert Layer Below.
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Drag a Butterfly Effect or a slow-moving Bars Effect onto that new bottom layer directly underneath your text.
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Click on your Text Effect block on the top layer, look at the Layer Blending options panel, and set the Blend Mode to Canvas/Unmask.
The colorful, shifting pattern will now only display inside the actual shapes of your scrolling letters, leaving the background perfectly dark. It creates an incredible, high-end look that makes your store-built sign look like a custom digital billboard!