We’ve seen a lot of persistence of vision (POV) builds on bike wheels, sticks, and many other holders, but this one puts it on something new: a pen. [Befinitiv] was looking for a new way to add some smarts to everyday devices, and the result is a neat POV display that fits over a pen. At 128 by 64 pixels, it is not high definition, but this build uses a number of interesting techniques.

[Befinitiv] decided to try an alternative way of creating the display. Rather than mounting the LEDs on the outside to shine directly out, this prototype uses fiber optic cables to create a thinner display that looks more attractive. This involved putting 16 of the chips onto a PCB, then adding a 3D printed holder for fiber optic cables. The light from the LED shone into this cable, which was routed up to another holder at the top of the pen. This produced a much more subtle and attractive display than the bare LEDs themselves. It’s still a work in progress), but it’s an interesting build that shows a different approach to adding POV to a small device. You can grab all of the files to make your own in [Befinitiv]s Bitbucket.