The lifespan is probably not as limitless as you might have imagined, the discs tend to fall off or get stuck. But they are really neat while they are working, especially how they sounds.
I was at an office with these flip dot displays, and eventually we dismantled the display. I took some picture of the pieces and you can see how stuck discs look like:
For sure. They're similar to butterfly wings. It's easy to lose or break discs. Our kids loved touching them while we were building, and we'd constantly have to replace discs that fell off.
Fun fact: Texas Instruments DLP (Digital Light Processing) are like a miniaturized version of the flip-disc display.
But some differences are that flip-discs rotate 180° whereas DLP pixels only tilt a little bit to redirect the light to a heatsink, flip-discs have different colors on each side whereas DLP has mirror pixels, flip-discs probably have finite lifespan whereas DLP is good for trillions of cycles, and DLP responds so quickly (in microseconds) that grayscale is accomplished by duty cycle modulation (PWM).
They have a work that shows melting polar ice, but I wonder how energy efficient it is (I expect it does not consume energy when nothing flips, but still ...)
Amazing art from this studio! If you like this stuff, check out their "brixels" pieces like the one titled Ocean for the new Fontainebleu Hotel in Vegas
How exactly did the author get the panels? I've looked into stuff like this before and it's basically impossible to source outside of things like eBay. Unless you're willing to buy industrial quantities at industrial prices.
I got mine off eBay, but you can get the same panels from AlfaZeta. There are some more affordable options like: https://xqd-led.en.alibaba.com/productgrouplist-936470954-2/.... I do mention in my post that I would like to see these panels become more affordable for hobbyists. If anyone wants to collaborate on this, please contact me!
Speaking as someone who also recently purchased these panels (and read the second paragraph where they mention where they got them), they're from the company AlfaZeta.
They build and ship from Poland. They don't have a publicly available price list but they cost approx 220 EUR per 7x28 panel. Expensive, but few places still manufacture them.
If you continue reading the post, they also link out to other manufacturers including ones on AliExpress that seem to be cheaper.
I love to see Javascript used for stuff like this. It blew my mind that the James Webb Telescope uses a custom Javascript runtime for a lot of the onboard functions.
Not the parent, but I like seeing particular languages used for something like this because it may be a langauge that I am familiar with along with all of its libraries and tooling. This makes a project like this that interacts with hardware easier to acheive.
to speak to your example: my girlfriend's dad was a welder on aluminum boats. he is always excited to see aluminum boats, find out who built them, etc.
It's also intresting to see a language used in a way it's not intended to necessarily our for a creative/unique use. Why do people like to port doom to random devices, because it was never indended to run on those (and it's a challenge/meme at this point)
Sorry, late reply, but I think it's still worth answering.
I think Javascript is a really fun language. I've done a lot of embedded C and it can be... exhausting? I would love to try Javascript on an embedded system, IoT device, etc. I'll bet a lot of the most annoying stuff can be abstracted away pretty easily on modern hardware.
I think this could be useful as a NOC monitor. Mostly the display is static but if something goes wrong the display updates and the noise naturally draws your attention. No “alarm” necessary.
Nice. I also have a fondness for flip-dots. Started with Javascript controller for Hanover bus display (https://engineer.john-whittington.co.uk/2017/11/adventures-f...) and continued with the Alfa-Zeta modules following a commission to make the controller for a 256x56 one - 24 panels!
It's my project TODO list to make a FPGA based direct HDMI controller for the Alfa-Zeta modules since refresh rate of the on-board firmware leaves a little to be desired.
Readit News
The lifespan is probably not as limitless as you might have imagined, the discs tend to fall off or get stuck. But they are really neat while they are working, especially how they sounds.
I was at an office with these flip dot displays, and eventually we dismantled the display. I took some picture of the pieces and you can see how stuck discs look like:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/onpHefUVL8oeP4si7
How do you remove dust from them? I imagine that's when they break.
But some differences are that flip-discs rotate 180° whereas DLP pixels only tilt a little bit to redirect the light to a heatsink, flip-discs have different colors on each side whereas DLP has mirror pixels, flip-discs probably have finite lifespan whereas DLP is good for trillions of cycles, and DLP responds so quickly (in microseconds) that grayscale is accomplished by duty cycle modulation (PWM).
https://breakfaststudio.com/flip-discs
How did they buy them, and for how much?
I feel like that's a key data point that would help people decide if they want to explore this further.
edit: someone further down the thread discusses pricing: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40791049
They build and ship from Poland. They don't have a publicly available price list but they cost approx 220 EUR per 7x28 panel. Expensive, but few places still manufacture them.
If you continue reading the post, they also link out to other manufacturers including ones on AliExpress that seem to be cheaper.
I love to see Javascript used for stuff like this. It blew my mind that the James Webb Telescope uses a custom Javascript runtime for a lot of the onboard functions.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19739454
Still not sure why they chose JavaScript.
According to their paper it's a commercial JavaScript engine however:
https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2006SPIE.6274E..0AB/abstra...
It would be like being excited at seeing someone using aluminum to build something over steel/wood/etc.
I think Javascript is a really fun language. I've done a lot of embedded C and it can be... exhausting? I would love to try Javascript on an embedded system, IoT device, etc. I'll bet a lot of the most annoying stuff can be abstracted away pretty easily on modern hardware.
For the unawares, the original video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtutLA63Cp8
My favorite version, also using real-life objects: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lT-fdnIK0k0 (HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39527559)
For that I used a Python module (https://github.com/tuna-f1sh/flipdot) and Python Flask/React based manager, with sequence info in a SQLlite db. Same outcome as your App with pre-loaded transitions and of course, Game of Life: https://engineer.john-whittington.co.uk/2020/04/game-of-life...
It's my project TODO list to make a FPGA based direct HDMI controller for the Alfa-Zeta modules since refresh rate of the on-board firmware leaves a little to be desired.