youtube.com/shorts/97cLIO7FNtw
Ancient
A new design for my swept volume 3D display with improved viewing angles. The dome isn't on, so it's not running at the full refresh rate.
youtube.com/shorts/97cLIO7FNtw
youtube.com/shorts/97cLIO7FNtw
updated 1 month ago
youtube.com/shorts/97cLIO7FNtw
The display is a homebrew swept volume display (it spins a bunch of LEDs to create a true glasses-free 3D image). It's refreshing at about 25 Hz - the flickering is an artefact of the video.
The dome is just cosmetic - it doesn't hold a vacuum (the holes in the base are there to let air in so it doesn't overheat).
It doesn't flicker in person - that's an artefact of the video.
This is a true 3D display; it works without glasses from any angle.
The principle is the same as a 'hologram fan', except that instead of spinning a 1D strip of LEDs to make a 2D image, it spins a 2D panel of LEDs to make a 3D image.
Like any persistence of vision display, it looks flickery on video unless it's spinning comfortably faster than the camera's frame rate. This is getting close to the point where you could just point your phone at it and get reasonable footage, but it still comes out looking worse on video than it does to the eye.
The display takes advantage of the persistence of vision effect. It's like a hologram fan, but instead of spinning a 1D strip to make a 2D image, it spins a 2D panel to make a 3D image. In person it's not as flickery as it appears in this video - filming it is challenging because to reduce the flicker you have to increase the exposure time, which reduces the framerate of the video.
I've gone for a shorter exposure and more flicker in this video, because I had complaints (so many complaints) about the framerate in a previous video. Even so it's not 30 fps, and the youtube codec struggles badly with the confetti effect of those rapidly shimmering voxels.
The real solution is to increase the spin rate, and that's the ultimate aim of this new design.
youtube.com/watch?v=na7pvihXhYs
youtube.com/shorts/TahQshQAqEI
The image is generated by an LED matrix updating at 4000 fps and spinning at 600 rpm, to pass through every point in a 128x128x128 volume.
Just like the PoV displays which spin a line to create a 2D image, this spins a plane to create a 3D image.
The addressable volume is 128x128x128 voxels.
The game is playable in the sense that you can run around in the world. It's not playable in the sense of being a fun time.
The installer is here: github.com/AncientJames/rp2040-doom/releases/tag/v1.0.1
The capacitive touch wasn't tuned very well, so it's a bit shooty.
The circuit is a single PCB which I cracked along 4 score lines to wrap it into a ring. I wanted to see if this was a useable technique. It isn't. The result was very fragile, and I lost the connections to the capacitive pads and USB port during encapsulation.
If I make another, it will either be fpc or castellated construction.
The ring is running RP2040 doom: kilograham.github.io/rp2040-doom
Modified to generate greyscale on an oled using the technique here: github.com/AncientJames/uGrey
I've chopped out sections that went on a bit, but tried to leave in enough of everything to show the whole process.
Edited together from a few different builds, so there's some continuity errors with the resin colour at the end.
Code for driving the screen in greyscale is here: github.com/AncientJames/uGrey
The screen is a 0.42" OLED, available from aliexpress or similar.
Yes it runs Doom. youtube.com/watch?v=TJHSMpYi8bg
The display is a 1bpp 72x40 oled; greyscale is achieved by flicking between 3 contrast levels.
It's very challenging matching exposure to this refresh rate, hence the horrible video quality.
Instructions for building it are at bricksafe.com/pages/AncientJames/life-mk-ii
There's some explanation of how it works here: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=108403entry2197352
You can download the LDD file for it here: http://1drv.ms/1bSM59J
25 of them are crammed together inside this: youtube.com/watch?v=OyC_Qh6B0hw
And the Lego Digital Designer file for it is here: bricksafe.com/files/AncientJames/lever%20lock%202.lxf