FlipDigit kinetic display

Kinetic Digits, is a mechanical Flip Digit display made up of 448 7-segment digits.

Flip Digits (XY7)

Flip Digits are electromagnetic operated 7-segments digits they can individually flip on & off creating images from a distance.

This project was heavily inspired by the works of; Ksawery Kirklewski and Breakfast NY.

This repo is the open-source Processing App that runs the graphics on a 7-segment. Here you will find everything you need to setup and run your own display.

About the FlipDigit panels

Each digit is made up of 7 segments that each hold a permanent magnet that physically flip on or off. Powered by a small electromagnetic to change state each segment retains its state even after power is disconnected.

These XY7 panels are made by AlfaZeta, each panel includes a controller board that communicates over an RS485 serial connection using its own protocol. These panels have 7x4 digits, each digit is made up of 7 segments for a total of 196 'pixels' per-panel.

The panels can be daisy-chained together to share an RS485 line but only to a point. Chaining too many panels will result in slower framerates. In this setup of 16 panels, I have chained 4 panels coming from 4 serial outputs on the ETH-UKW485SR140 Ethernet to RS485 Serial converter.

Image Processing

To render graphics to the display I am using Processing a powerful Java-based software package for the visual arts.

If you know Processing or p5js you can easily draw whatever you want. It works by drawing to a virtual canvas that is processed and sent to the display. The virtual XY pixel canvas is converted into a 7-segment digits image using a technique inspired by Ksawery Kirklewski that creates two virtual images. One for all X-aligned segments and a second for all Y-aligned segments. The pixel image is scaled to fit these two axis images, processed and then combined for the resulting 7-segment image. See cast_convertImage() for where this pixel-to-segment mapping happens.

Build list

• XY7 7-segment Flip Digit panels from AlfaZeta
• Laser cut steel back plate. Design file: pdf/dxf
• 24V 16A PSU
• Ethernet to RS485 Serial converter ETH-UKW485SR140
• RJ11 cables
• Processing to run software

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