Show HN: I spent 6 years building a ridiculous wooden pixel display

#1

Post by benholmen » Mon, Aug 04, 2025, 4:16 PM UTC

I built the world's most impractical 1000-pixel display and anyone in the world can draw on it. It draws a single pixel at a time and takes 30-60 minutes to complete a single image. Anyone can participate in the project by voting for the next image to be drawn, and submitting images.

https://kilopx.com/

Show HN: I spent 6 years building a ridiculous wooden pixel display
benholmen.com

Re: Show HN: I spent 6 years building a ridiculous wooden pixel display

#2

Post by joetannenbaum » Mon, Aug 04, 2025, 4:19 PM UTC

Incredible write-up and a hugely ambitious project. Thanks for sharing!

Re: Show HN: I spent 6 years building a ridiculous wooden pixel display

#3

Post by aarondf » Mon, Aug 04, 2025, 4:22 PM UTC

This has to be the the most expensive cost per pixel display I've ever seen. And I've never loved a display more. This is absurd in the best possible way

Re: Show HN: I spent 6 years building a ridiculous wooden pixel display

#4

Post by benholmen » Mon, Aug 04, 2025, 4:28 PM UTC

aarondf wrote: post #3

This has to be the the most expensive cost per pixel display I've ever seen. And I've never loved a display more. This is absurd in the best possible way

I don't think I want to think of the actual cost per pixel - especially the cost of my time! I have deliberately avoided accounting the final cost

Re: Show HN: I spent 6 years building a ridiculous wooden pixel display

#5

Post by mosdl » Mon, Aug 04, 2025, 4:33 PM UTC

Really cool and it would totally work for a restaurant/coffee shop.

Re: Show HN: I spent 6 years building a ridiculous wooden pixel display

#6

Post by benholmen » Mon, Aug 04, 2025, 4:38 PM UTC

mosdl wrote: post #5

Really cool and it would totally work for a restaurant/coffee shop.

I think I might put this in my friend's coffee shop but I'll restrict access to people in the coffee shop. Not going to let the internet get a hold of that.

In addition to the user-controlled modes I also have ambient modes. My favorite is a clock that struggles to draw the current time because it takes too long

Re: Show HN: I spent 6 years building a ridiculous wooden pixel display

#7

Post by cinntaile » Mon, Aug 04, 2025, 4:43 PM UTC

There was a fish project on here a few days ago that also had to deal with uh... adverserial images and it was (mostly?) solved by training a neural net to detect those.

Re: Show HN: I spent 6 years building a ridiculous wooden pixel display

#8

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Aug 04, 2025, 4:44 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Show HN: I spent 6 years building a ridiculous wooden pixel display

#9

Post by zahlman » Mon, Aug 04, 2025, 4:55 PM UTC

benholmen wrote: post #4

aarondf wrote: post #3

This has to be the the most expensive cost per pixel display I've ever seen. And I've never loved a display more. This is absurd in the best possible way

I don't think I want to think of the actual cost per pixel - especially the cost of my time! I have deliberately avoided accounting the final cost

For what it's worth, dollar stores typically sell wooden cubes for arts & crafts purposes (board game designers also like them for prototyping) in bags that work out to a few cents per piece. I guess they're quite a bit smaller than what you ended up using, though. And of course that doesn't account for the frame or the control mechanism. (And now you have me trying to think of more robust ways to turn the pixels...)

Re: Show HN: I spent 6 years building a ridiculous wooden pixel display

#10

Post by xnx » Mon, Aug 04, 2025, 4:56 PM UTC

Wow. Impressive. I would never have guessed you'd use a Vanna White / Wheel of Fortune turning method.