In preparation for Makerfaire, [hwhardsoft] needed to throw together some demos. So they dug deep and produced this unique display.
The display uses two synchronized peristaltic pumps to push water and red paraffin through a tube that switches back over itself in a predictable fashion. As visible in the video after the break, the pumps go at it for a few minutes producing a seemingly random pattern. The pattern coalesces at the end into a short string of text. The text is unfortunately fairly hard to read, even on a contrasting background. Perhaps an application of UV dye could help?
Once the message has been displayed, the water and paraffin drop back into the holding tank as the next message is queued up. The oil and water separate just like expected and a pump at the level of each fluid feeds it back into the system.
We were deeply puzzled at what appeared to be an Arduino mounted on a DIN rail for use in industrial settings, but then discovered that this product is what [hwhardsoft] built the demo to sell. We can see some pretty cool variations on this technique for art displays.
Slick.
Remarkable that air voids don’t happen nor boundary smears or tries to mix.
Reminds me of that rope clock with black marks on the rope which formed numbers as the rope ran through some channels and around several pulleys.
Cool!
*clicks on HaD search bar*
For the lazy:
https://hackaday.com/tag/rope-clock/
For the really really lazy. (Video)
https://hackaday.com/2014/02/22/flux-1440-a-highly-impractical-but-awesome-clock/#more-115528
Very clearer and creative! Could you just have one water pump for multiple lines and only modulate the oil input into each line? So 10 lines or vertical pixels only needs 11 pumps and valves to stop back flow?
What the heck did it say?
In the first photo it says, FAIRE
haha, he said backk floww
Unique display? Julius Popp did this five years ago and it looks like his display worked much better: https://vimeo.com/22390871
Ah, sorry – just saw that hwhardsoft was referring to Julius on the project page.
You can also purchase the rather poorly named “USA 10/4,6” clips from Phoenix Contact and laser cut / drill / have your circuit board created to mount these clips, turning nearly any project into a DIN rail mount.
eshop.phoenixcontact.de/phoenix/treeViewClick.do?UID=1202713
Your usual electronics supply house sells them, though they are extremely over priced for what they are.
There are a lot of cheap alternatives for DIN rail
http://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/Zrz7AUfQz
“We were deeply puzzled at what appeared to be an Arduino mounted on a DIN rail for use in industrial settings”
There is the Industruino as well. It’s been on the net for a few years already.
You could add optical sensors, to determine exactly where the ‘segments’ are. Though they are already very well timed out already.
Nice. :O
Pretty cool, but aesthetically unpleasing considering the hours I have spent fighting ink-jet printers with continuous ink flow systems that often had bubbles of air in long tubes for ink. This display reminds me of that pain. :-)