Moving parts made of acrylic, though. Will not wear well. Delrin, maybe? It's now possible to buy commercial split-flap displays from China. $180/char.[1] [1] https://splitflap.en.alibaba.com/
eh? It's DIY. Make them out of whatever you like.
Open source “split-flap” mechanical display
81–90 of 96 posts
Re: Open source “split-flap” mechanical display
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nostalgia, really -- I have fond associations of these with childhood train journeys. I could just about imagine a genuine use case in some kind of hostile environment. You could probably make one of these very resistant to water/temperature/radiation, with the controller kept safely out of the way.
That sparked an interesting idea: would these work in a zero-gravity situation (mechanically I mean), and if not, how to adapt them so they would? (And agree with the nostalgia - I'm sure for many the sound is associated with a quiet anticipation or excitement of embarking on a journey.)
I think they'll work... Somewhat? As the card is pushed through the face, there's a small amount of spring energy that it stores by bending, which gets released when it makes it through the opening and propels it forward + downwards. Normal gravity just adds to that motion and keeps the flap moving down. Zero g doesn't help as much but the card should already have momentum out of the gate. In zero g the problem may be more dealing with the rebound as the flap hits the bottom of the frame - it may bounce back up and float. May need some dampening or magnetic trick to keep it down...
In any case they probably won't work upside down.
Re: Open source “split-flap” mechanical display
#83Frankfurt airport has a huge split-flap display to show departures[0]. I love looking at it changing the data, and hope they'll never replace it with a digital one. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cj32w5z81Ak
Still? Good to know :) Last time I went through Frankfurt was back in '06.
Re: Open source “split-flap” mechanical display
#84I wonder how easy and cheap i could make these? Would be neat to slowly grow a stack of these on the wall with some Pi controller and feed Wifi messages to it.
Not sure why i like it, but i do.
Re: Open source “split-flap” mechanical display
#85Genuine question: what are some practical advantages of a split-flap display over, well... any other kind of dynamic character display? The only two I could think of are: - they don't emit light, so maybe there could be some kind of light-sensitive situation where this would be required (though in that case e-ink would surely surpass it). - the sound passively-alerting those present to updates. It's not obtrusive or…
- Visibility angle is much better than any other alternative. This is crucial when one big display is used in a very large room instead of many small displays. - Image sharpness and contrast is excellent. You can read text on an old flip display far away that you would struggle to read on a modern LCD if you have mild astigmatism. - Perfectly readable on a sunny day. - They can show colored logos and symbols (e.g. tr…
- oddly pleasant sound indicates change in data
Re: Open source “split-flap” mechanical display
#86A nice coincidence, this was on my homepage of Reddit this morning: Smart flip clock with weather tutorial [1], [2]
It looks like in this other project they just 3D print everything?
[1] https://old.reddit.com/r/functionalprint/comments/mtq0k8/sma... [2] https://github.com/barlowtj48/flipclock
Re: Open source “split-flap” mechanical display
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Laser cutting a bunch of sheets at once could be one option Use a waterjet cutter instead. You'll have some issues with microplastics in the water, but these can be filtered.
Show me a water jet cutter that's priced at the hobbyist level (and isn't a full time job to upkeep) and I'm there.
A lot of hacker spaces have waterjet cutters, they're not that expensive if you're a collective pooling together funds.
Re: Open source “split-flap” mechanical display
#88someone make an ebook reader of this (miniaturized of cause)
Re: Open source “split-flap” mechanical display
#89Moving parts made of acrylic, though. Will not wear well. Delrin, maybe? It's now possible to buy commercial split-flap displays from China. $180/char.[1] [1] https://splitflap.en.alibaba.com/
eh? It's DIY. Make them out of whatever you like.
They're intended to be laser-cut, which limits the materials.
Those flaps and wheels really want to be injection-moulded from ABS, with round pins at the flap ends. That would be cheap if you were making enough of them.
(I miss TechShop. They even had an injection molding machine good enough to do this.)
Re: Open source “split-flap” mechanical display
#90Frankfurt airport has a huge split-flap display to show departures[0]. I love looking at it changing the data, and hope they'll never replace it with a digital one. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cj32w5z81Ak
They were installed as useful & beautiful features in the Qantas First Class lounge at Sydney International Airport, and are much loved:
https://theluxurytraveller.com/2019/03/review-qantas-first-c...