[geeks] Telesign TS-16 LED sign

[Fred]

Hi all:

Figured this would be more appropriate for geeks than for rescue.

I am in possession of a Telesign red led sign model ts-16.  Every now and again
I get the thing out of the closet in the hallway in an attempt to try to make
it work.  It has a 25 pin female "serial port" on it (in quotes because I'm not
sure if it's standard serial or not).   

The most I can get out of it is various forms of garbage looped through an
RS232 tester and my DECServer 90M ... I've tried all sorts of baud rates,
parity, etc ... thrown the entire ASCII set at the thing, nulls, breaks, you
name it.  

If there is a controller for this thing (in lieu of serial) I am not in
possession of it and countless Google searches reveals that the only Telesign
"company" I can find is a company in the UK or Germany that does voice 
messaging or similar.

Anyone on geeks have any idea how I can communicate with this beastie and make
it display what I want vs. what is already programmed in the sign?  I can think
of lots of unique possibilites and fun stuff I could do if I could only *talk*
to it and make it understand me! ;)

Summary: Sign works, scrolls old messages, cannot communicate with it to place
new messages on it.  Telesign model ts-16.

Thanks & greetings from Ohio ...

Fred