Idea: SPINning LED display

Oldbitcollector (Jeff)

This just begs to be done with a Propeller...

Video:www.youtube.com/watch?v=93HcgS4W_8g
Homepage:home.versatel.nl/edithenwilliam/william.htm

I'm thinking a vertical line of say 20 RGB LED's would make this a perfect monitor.

OBC

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Fred Hawkins

By the way, today I happened to notice that Radio Shack has "Message Fans" for $3, 'subject to availability'.

Agent420

Not sure if he has any patent on the design, but I think Bob Blick is credited for this type of spinning display, which he coincidentally named a 'Propeller Clock' (this is years before the Propeller chip).
http://www.bobblick.com/techref/projects/propclock/propclock.html

Bob Blick said...

That RatShack fan looks like a closeout deal.· I'm going to have to stop by my local store and see if they have any left.· Can't go wrong for $3 [noparse]:)[/noparse]· The hardest part of making these things is usually the mechanics and brush assembly.

Post Edited (Agent420) : 6/4/2008 11:53:46 AM GMT

Ken Peterson

I've been thinking of trying a means of transferring power and information to the spinning armature inductively. No brushes. There's still the issue of balancing which would also be a challenge.

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tpw_man

I might be able to build that. I have already built an LED display and I am planning on building a bigger one. I think most Propeller Clocks have the circuitry on the spinning part, so the only issue is power and the infrequent serial comms.

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I am 1011, so be surprised!


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Ken Petersen said...
I've been thinking of trying a means of transferring power and information to the spinning armature inductively. No brushes. There's still the issue of balancing which would also be a challenge.

I did it optically in 1988 without spinning the electronics. (but I only had red LEDs)
Indeed it was the only graphic display I could afford for embedded projects at that time.
The simplest way is to spin a mirror near a row of LED's, with some magnetic or optical sensor for sync.
The resulting display in that case is concave instead of convex, but very cheap and useful.

The Nintendo(tm) "Virtual Boy" of the mid 1990s used a pair of similar mechanisms for a 3D display, one for each eye.
(stationary row of LEDs and moving mirror)

rjo_

I haven't looked at the design but the demo is great... you could build same with one lens from a projector and some way to jiggle your PROP... or you could use a mirror and leave your poor, abused Prop alone. Then you just need a motor that rotates at the right speed and some way to attach the mirror.

I think this would be perfect for a Propeller Hat design... that way wherever you are... your display is right in front of you.

If you built the mirror/motor gizmo as an attachment fir the demo board, you would have a ready customer base.