Ferrofluid is fun. You’ve probably seen all kinds of demos with it bouncing around in response to magnetic fields, or dancing near a speaker. [beastie417] decided to turn the entertaining fluid into a display.

The concept is straightforward enough. First, construct a tank of ferrofluid with a white panel behind it for contrast. Then, place it in front of a grid of electromagnets. Now you have many “pixels” you can turn on and off. You turn a magnet on to attract ferrofluid to that point, and turn it off to let it fall away. Since the ferrofluid contrasts with the white background, you have a viable display!

[beastie417] notes that while the concept is simple, the execution is hard. Ferrofluid can be very difficult to work with, instantly staining many materials like acrylic and even glass that isn’t properly prepared. It can also be quite expensive to construct a display like this, with [beastie417] noting their 16×12 pixel design costing approximately $700 thus far. Then you have to figure out how to drive all the pixels—this project uses DRV8908 coil driver ICs running off a microcontroller which controls the display and handles animations.

We’ve seen some great ferrofluid displays before, like this neat build that could even create readable glyphs. Meanwhile, if you’re doing rad things with the coolest fluid of the new millennium, don’t hesitate to let us know!