13 Nov
1998
13 Nov
'98
9:10 a.m.
John Foust <jfoust(a)threedee.com> wrote:
Anyone here know the name of this sort of device, so I
can web-search
for others who've made one? It wouldn't be hard to craft. To be
obliquely on-topic, I've thought about making a simple circuit that
would be driven by the parallel port of an old PC.
About 12 years ago Jim Philips and Richard Ottosen made signs with a column of
LEDs that was attached to a motor such that the path of the LEDs described a
cylinder. They called it a whirlygig.
A few years later, Rich Ottosen and I decided to try to build a name badge
that worked as you describe; a single column of LEDs that would show a
message as your eyes scanned past it.
We used a surface-mount PIC16C54 microcontroller and eight surface-mount
LEDs on a PC board about 1 inch square. A pair of lithium coin cells clips
to the back of the PCB.
By analogy to Jim's device, we called it a "whirlless gig".
Cheers,
Eric
Visualize Whirled Peas, or at least whirled LEDs.