A Pocket-Sized Mechanical TV Hits 4K Resolution
Make a Portable Wide-screen Mechanical TV
New Zealand maker James Brown built the Scanwheel, a pocket-size electromechanical TV with a 4,096-by-20-pixel resolution. Using a Nipkow drum instead of a disk, a Raspberry Pi Pico, and the RP2040's PIO coprocessors, he achieved surprisingly sharp video. The project's OpenSCAD files let you customize and print your own drum.
In tests, I’ve pushed the horizontal resolution to more than 8,000 pixels.
- itintheory
Here's a video of it in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41b8fw3_wP8
- ccamrobertson
The electromechanical television got me in trouble with my 5th grade teacher. When she stated that television dated to the 1940s, I (obnoxiously) had to correct her that in fact it was invented the late 1920s as I had seen one of the original Baird televisions in the British Museum.
I wish there was a photo of the writer's setup, I would love to see a modern version in action.
- Animats
Oh, sort of like a LED wand.[1] Those were a popular toy for ravers a few decades back. Hard to find now.
[1] https://tinkersphere.com/soldering-level-i/3355-magic-messag...