Bending a printer control board to output POV messages

printer-turned-pov-device

Confronted with the issue of finding a use for his mounting pile of junk electronics, [Rue] set out to build a persistence of vision device using a hardware state machine. We have a suspicion that his original link may go down if there's too much traffic so here's a cached link just in case. Any board that is MSC-51 or MCS-48 based would have worked for his purposes. This is because the … [Read more...]

Tubular POV display

goomba

[Ryan]'s cylinder POV display is an amazing piece of work. Right now it's impressive sitting on his workbench, but we're sure it would be astonishing hanging above the middle of a dance floor. There are 64 RGB LEDs on this display and they're certainly bright enough to liven up any space. Power is provided through a slip ring. The ground is connected to the shaft of the motor [Ryan] picked up … [Read more...]

Reverse engineering the Icebreaker POV toy

reverse-engineering-the-icebreaker

[Ch00f] spent some serious time figuring out how the Icebreaker POV toy works. This is a pretty cool device about the size of a toothbrush holder. It's in a clear plastic case, which lets the row of 32 surface mount LEDs shine through. But making light isn't their only function. You can use the device to scan in a high-contrast design, then 'play it back' using the persistence of vision display … [Read more...]

POV bauble uses DIY accelerometer to sync the image

pov-with-diy-accelerometer

So we saw this tip come in and thought--oh, another POV device. We watched the video (embedded after the break), took a sip of coffee, then almost sprayed the beverage all over the computer when we realized that this uses a diy sensor to synchronize the POV image. [Ch00f] came up with the idea for the sensor after seeing a similar implementation on a commercial POV toy. Instead of using a … [Read more...]

Amazing RGB POV clock

rgb_pov_propeller_clock

We’re no strangers to POV time pieces around here, but something about them never gets old. Whether they use a ring of LEDs to draw clock hands, or an intricately cut HDD platter to replicate LCD segments, we love seeing them. [David] sent in this hard drive POV clock built by a fellow named [Kly], and it’s just beautiful. [Kly’s] “Propeller” POV clock is named as such due to the … [Read more...]

POV keychain from prototype to SMD board

POV-keychain

[Augusto] wrote in to tell us about his keychain-sized persistence of vision project. He built the original prototype on some protoboard, using a PIC 16F627 to drive eight LEDs. Synchronization is managed by a tilt sensor on the board that starts the strobing to match the direction the board is traveling. This is a similar setup as the POV device that used an accelerometer, but it should be quite … [Read more...]

More POV fan message hacking

pov-fan-hacking

[Zach's] company is all about the safety and to reinforce those ideals they handed out POV display fans to each employee. "Being Safe is Cool", get it? Gimmicky... yes, but now [Zach's] got a tiny little POV fan to hack. Although he may not have known it, this isn't the first time we've seen this hardware. These fans were handed out as a promotion at Black Hat a couple of years ago and … [Read more...]