Colorado Time Systems LED-R

LED-R is the single-line LED numeric scoreboard module made by Colorado Time Systems (CTS), and the module its multi-line numeric boards are built from. One module is one line of digits in an aluminium frame behind a sliding weather shield; a board of several lines is a column of modules bolted to the same pair of struts and linked by short data cables.¹²

Each line shows one thing at a time, chosen by a code set on switches inside the module, so a six-line board is six lines each assigned a different piece of the race. The data arrives from a CTS timing console over a single RS-232 run.³¹ Shared background on numeric boards, including the contrast with light-reflective digits, is on the scoreboards overview.

Naming¶

CTS’s own documents disagree about what this product is called. The installation guide runs to 36 pages without using a model name, calling its subject a scoreboard display line throughout. The configuration guide puts LED-R in brackets on its cover. The Colorado Display Systems catalogue lists LED-R as a product with dimensions and a weight, and the 2011 CTS catalogue mentions LED-R single modules in passing while naming LED-REX, a retrofit that converts an older light-reflective board to LED.¹³²⁴

One fuller code survives in an unexpected place. The German-language specification page in the older F218 guide gives the fuse rating for 10LED-8R/8RO, where the English page on the facing side says only LED. The reading that fits is a 10 inch digit, 8 digit board in indoor and outdoor versions, but no document held states it.⁵

Lines and digits¶

A line carries either eight or ten digits, and the arrangement matches what the line is for. Six of them always carry the time, colon included. On an eight-digit line the other two are a single lane digit and a single place digit; a ten-digit line gives each of those fields two digits instead of one.¹

A groove along the top of the frame and another along the bottom hold the digits, with spacers between them, and a digit can be slid along that track to line up under the signage. CTS is firm about two limits: the order of the digits must not change, or the board will not work, and unused digits stay in the frame rather than coming out, both to keep the spacing right and to leave a spare available.¹

The eight-digit line has a consequence at large pools. With a single lane digit, double figures are shown as letters, so lane 10 appears as A, lane 11 as b and lane 12 as C.¹

Module codes¶

A line’s module code decides what the console sends it. Boards leave the factory on 0F, and on a multi-line board each line has to be set to something different.¹

The codes belong to the console’s software rather than to the board. CTS’s timer manuals list what each module shows in each sport, and the board receives the one it is set to. From the configuration guide’s examples, 01 carries the place and time for lane 1 and 0C the event and heat; 03 doubles as time of day when the operator blanks the scoreboard from the timer; 11 shows lane 1 during the race and switches to team scores, which are normally 0D, once the timer is reset; and 12 exists for television, holding the running time, the leading split and the winning time instead of cycling through every finish time the way 0F does.³

Setting a code means opening the line. The weather shield slides aside and two digits lift out to expose the control board, which sits behind digits 7 and 8 on older eight-digit boards and behind the centre digits, 4 and 5, on newer eight-digit and all ten-digit boards.¹³ The switch chart is printed inside the frame and published on CTS’s website, because it differs between board revisions.¹ A removed digit must never be left hanging on its wiring; CTS’s own suggestion is to turn it round and rest it in the weather shield groove.¹

A board states its own code at power-up. Every digit lights, then the module code appears, and a newer board follows it with a firmware revision where an older one may show the data speed.¹

Power and data¶

A line draws up to 3.0 A from a 120 V supply, or 1.5 A from 230 V, at 50 to 60 Hz, and is protected by a single 3 A time-lag fuse. The module is rated for 0–50 °C at up to 90% relative humidity, non-condensing, and to 3000 m.¹

CTS asks for a duplex outlet for every two lines, positioned so that each module has power beside it for test gear, and for dedicated circuits, on the grounds that the board is computer equipment. The on/off switch belongs near the board or in the timing booth, six to seven feet up, because a switch hidden in a plant room means the board is left on permanently, which shortens its life.¹

Data reaches the board either through the removable two-wire cable supplied with it or through permanent cabling in one-inch conduit running to a data connection box near the timing table. On a multi-line board, short cables link one line to the next, top to bottom or bottom to top, and the cable from the console attaches to whichever input is left free at one end of the column. Side-by-side columns are linked to each other in the same way.¹

Mounting¶

Signage goes on before anything is lifted. The lettering arrives as a transfer between a carrier and a transfer sheet, is taped along one edge, rolled down from the opposite edge, and left a couple of days for the adhesive to set before the panel is handled normally.¹

The board itself hangs on slotted struts carried by wall brackets. CTS gives the geometry plainly: the bottom of the board sits at least eight feet up to discourage vandalism; the top and bottom brackets go 6 to 8 inches inside the marked corners of the board; no more than 66 inches, which is four display lines and a sign panel, may separate one bracket from the next; mounting holes are drilled 2.5 inches deep; and the hardware is torqued to 10 inch-pounds, with a warning not to overtighten concrete inserts. A corner-mounted board is marked out 67.875 inches from the corner, and only a single column can be corner mounted, since a side-by-side pair needs a flat wall or a frame the facility provides.¹

Lines are tested on the ground before they go up, which is what the power-up code display is for. CTS’s reasoning is that a wrong code or a dead line is far easier to put right at waist height than on a ladder, so each line is plugged into a nearby outlet and checked first.¹

Service¶

CTS says the boards need no routine maintenance, and asks only that they be switched off when not in use.¹

Most service work starts by removing a digit, which follows the same lift-and-tilt procedure as setting a module code, with the added warning not to bend the LEDs. Digits are numbered from the left and the control board is labelled to match, so a digit being returned to the factory is disconnected from the connector bearing its own number, with a second, smaller connector alongside it for a decimal point. Fitting a replacement means routing its harness behind the digits to its right, one at a time, until it reaches the board. A failed control board comes out the same way, from behind the two digits that cover it, and goes back to CTS rather than being repaired in place.¹

Generations¶

The guide CTS published in 2017, F218, covered two products at once: the LED boards and the 4009, its light-reflective board, whose mechanical digits needed their own wiring method and their own fuses. The 2026 guide has dropped all of it. The branch-circuit method for the 4009 is gone, the fuse list has one entry instead of three, and the note about where the control board sits, which used to begin “4009 and older 8-digit LED”, now names only the older LED boards.⁵¹ CTS has published no withdrawal notice for the 4009; what can be said is that the current guide no longer covers it.

Two smaller changes came with the same revision. The US supply figure moved from 115 VAC ±10% to 120 VAC, and a German specifications page was added.⁵¹

Specifications¶

Type	Single-line LED numeric scoreboard module
Digits per line	8 or 101
Digit height	10 in (25.4 cm) per the catalogue; 10.1 in (25.7 cm) per the datasheet26
Digit colours	Red, amber, green or blue26
Module dimensions	14 in high × 97.625 in long (35.6 × 248 cm)1
Weight	45 lb (20 kg)2
Environmental	0–50 °C, 90% relative humidity non-condensing, 0 to 3000 m1
Power	120 VAC at 3.0 A maximum, or 230 VAC at 1.5 A, 50–60 Hz1
Fuse	3 A, 250 V, time lag, 5 × 20 mm1
Data	RS-232 scoreboard port at ±12 V1
Factory module code	0F1
Bracket spacing	66 in (167 cm) maximum, or four lines and a sign panel1
Status	Current7

Part numbers and accessories¶

• LED-R, the model name as the catalogues give it; 10LED-8R and 10LED-8RO appear once, in a fuse specification.²⁵
• LED-REX, the retrofit that converts an existing light-reflective board to LED digits.⁴
• Supplied with a board: display lines, sign panels and signage transfers, sign panel brackets and hardware, a removable data cable, link cables for multi-line boards, slotted struts, universal and “U” mounting brackets, and bracket hardware.¹
• Ordered separately: permanent data cabling and its connection box, and slotted strut covers.¹

See also¶

• Scoreboards: the shared overview, including how numeric boards work and what the rules require of a results display
• Mini LED scoreboard: the compact two-line board CTS positions as carrying two LED-R lines in a quarter of the space
• Otter: the wireless numeric line
• Scoreboard control: the adapters and controllers that can feed a board in place of a console cable
• Colorado Time Systems: the manufacturer

See everything tagged Scoring.

References¶

Footnotes¶

1. Colorado Time Systems, Single and Multi-line Numeric LED Scoreboards Installation Guide (F1079 Rev. 202604, ©2026). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷ ↩¹⁸ ↩¹⁹ ↩²⁰ ↩²¹ ↩²² ↩²³ ↩²⁴ ↩²⁵ ↩²⁶ ↩²⁷ ↩²⁸ ↩²⁹ ↩³⁰ ↩³¹

2. Colorado Display Systems, Scoreboard Catalog, track scoreboards section (LED-R dimensions, weight and digit colours). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

3. Colorado Time Systems, LED Numeric Scoreboard Configuration (LED-R) (F1078 Rev. 202507, ©2025). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

4. Colorado Time Systems, Complete Timing, Scoring, Training and Display Solutions catalogue (2011), LED-REX and 6-digit scoreboards. ↩ ↩²

5. Colorado Time Systems, Single and Multi-line Scoreboard Display Modules Installation Guide (F218 Rev. 201705). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

6. Colorado Time Systems, LED and Light Reflective Scoreboards datasheet (Rev. 08/12). ↩ ↩²

7. Colorado Time Systems, Manuals (LED-R configuration guide F1078 and installation guide F1079). ↩