DOOM on a 3D-printed mechanical TV

[@stephentrier5569]

There are ham radio operators in the UK who build their own mechanical televisors like this and use them to send live video to each other. It's pretty cool that they are keeping this ancient form of TV alive.

[@g-r-a-e-m-e-]

Wow, that is very interesting to hear.

[@fireaza]

And what percent of these live videos are dick-pics?

[@justaweeb9086]

Woah, I've never heard of such a thing! That's really cool!!

[@zemoxian]

I was wondering if this was the type of television used in Doctor Who: The Giggle. It would be hilarious to prank your UK friends with a dummy doing the Toy Maker’s giggle. 😂

[@TaigiTWeseDiplomat--Formosan]

Is that energy effiecient? (Just wondering because I tried to use laser reflect on the vibration of the surface to produce pattern and that is energy consuming...)

[@skybirdprojects5489]

Replace the stepper motor with a DC motor for higher FPS. Use the optical interrupt as a speed sensor and interrupt driver to sync the LED and rotating screen.

[@johannlicher8420]

I think in this case you could even use the h-bridge already used for the LED to control both the LED and the DC motor.👍

[@nor24o2010]

@@johannlicher8420 Better would be a BLDC motor with FOC .

[@SidneyCritic]

If it goes too fast he'll have to put the disk in a vacuum - lol -.

[@grindfi]

Or how about a hard drive motor?

[@HenryLoenwind]

This would also change the frame rate of the video to that of the DC motor. This works when your video source is artificial, like here, but not when playing a video file or a live transmission. There, you need to sync the motor with the camera's motor (or shutter, if you're not using a camera that's using the same tech). I think the original invention used an AC motor because those are trivial to sync by including a simple sine wave in the video signal that is then amplified to drive the motor. In this build, simple gearing would be more than sufficient. The disc is lightweight and will be spinning at a constant speed, so the reduction in power won't matter. The stepper motor already can do 15 fps, so a 5-to-1 gear ratio is more than needed. He just needs some code to slowly ramp the speed up to avoid undue stress on the parts.

[@DavidMulligan]

The childlike joy you expressed when you got to 20 fps is infectious! I always look forward to your videos.

[@alexkuhn5078]

I've found that the image quality on a mechanical TV display is actually more crisp when you set the screen/diffuser BEHIND the disk from the perspective of the viewer. It seems counter-intuitive but that way it doesn't give the beam of light any chance to 'fan out'

[@rdyer8764]

One of the mottoes we had when I was working with a very creative group of engineers was that you aren't pushing the limits of your circuits until you liberate the smoke from your chips. Glad to see you upholding that tradition! There are a handful of innovative YT content creators whom I follow. You've always been among them with your imaginative projects. Thanks for all you create. :))

[@paradiselost9946]

lol, laughing with a mate a while back, that the 2n2222's i had purchased from aliexpress didnt contain "sufficient smoke"... whatever it was i was trying at teh time seemed to just fail after a few minutes without anything interesting happening... next second... BOOM! as his circuit erupts in a glorious mess of smoke and glowing red wires... "oh! i see! i just wasnt performing the correct incantations!"

[@mumblety]

This is an awesome project! Glad you didn't forget Bad Apple and Doom.

[@SenileOtaku]

He just needs to post the full version of Bad Apple, then it can get added to various playlists.

[@korblborp]

with a title like that i expected more DOOM gameplay but i still appreciate that it does a good job showing how these things work, that doesn't gel from reading the wiki page.

[@md_vandenberg]

It's a reference to the "Can It Run DOOM?" meme. We don't need to see DOOM run on a mechanical TV to know it would look terrible.

[@aceman1126]

​@@md_vandenbergwell idk about you but I NEED to see it lol

[@Alleroc]

Now we need a 15" version of this.

[@mfbfreak]

With the disk, you end up at a very high rim speed, and a huge disk. However, you can probably print a mirror screw (a different kind of mechanical television that is otherwise fully compatible with the nipkow disk system) very well and stick either thin mirrors to it, or make your own by coating glass microscope slides with gallium.

[@MadScientist267]

​​​​@@mfbfreakI'm still not sure 15" is a good idea for that... the original spinning mirror attempts still only had spans of a few-several inches. That's a lot of not just mass but fragile mass, spinning rather fast, that also needs to be in near perfect balance because of these two ideas. That said I think the spinning mirror is superior in many ways to the disk (which still is far inferior even to earliest CRT), but would be equally more difficult to construct. I've actually attempted neither to date, however the mirrors would still be my go to for the first run at it. Clarity and size being at the forefront. Of course this means a photodiode camera also needs to be made... I'm all for working around that with a computer until the display is worked out, but to be authentic and take the experience all the way... 🤣

[@ironhell813]

Just make it project onto a wall using a lens… I don’t Know why anyone using this tech hasn’t thought of it. Why would you want to look at such a small screen?

[@MadScientist267]

@@ironhell813 There's nothing saying you can't, but you need a lot of light. Projection of any kind involves spreading all of the effective light out over whatever area the "screen" takes up. The issue with that, you'll find, is heat. To generate the kind of light you need, the disk has to be able to handle all of the heat any absorbed visible light makes but also any IR component. BigGER may be doable, but "big" would get at least as interesting as the development of the rest of the system ever thought of being. The good news is you can probably use the same light you're using for the camera... as if you take it all the way, you have the same problem on that end, "in reverse". Edit: A high power light source is also that much more difficult to modulate as well.

[@bricaaron3978]

@@MadScientist267 You're saying that the more power a light source requires, the lower the frequency at which it can be pulsed? Or what?

[@Certifiable]

DOOM on mechanical TV. [2 seconds at the end]

[@lithostheory]

Please upload a full version of bad apple with this unique setup!

[@jparky1972]

Awesome! I never knew how the mechanical screen worked. Now I do!

[@BlondieHappyGuy]

You should see how the mechanical color tvs worked. Basically, a spinning disk as well, in front of a black and white CRT TV and the disk has red, green, blue filters (cellophane). There another disk in front of the connected black and white TV camera and the 2 disks are synced together. The color was actually not too bad. But obviously, it never made it big because being mechanical, there were a lot of issues.

[@MadScientist267]

​​​@@BlondieHappyGuyLOL Color is an adventure all in itself. Biggest thing is there were so many ideas that it was hard to call the best one early... Toss in the reliability of mechanical and a standard was difficult to implement. What's amusing to me is that the color CRT (particularly some of the last to be made) were capable of *way* more resolution than the SD TV signals feeding them (computer monitors demonstrated this clearly)... an amazing feat in itself considering how much has to line up just so to make a faithful picture from the signal. The mechanical versions almost seem simple in some ways in comparison. Stray magnetic fields weren't a color tube's friend... we live on a giant magnet. Of course the solution for that was rather elegant in itself in the end all the same. It's amazing to see how it all progressed over time.

[@caroline1724]

"A fun weekend project everyone can build at home" >dude has a million dollar workshop with every component known to man at his disposal I suddenly feel like I'm watching Art Attack

[@apruszko]

Great!!! I read about Nipow TV about 40 years ago as young boy, and I have dream from this day about how to make te same system! You made thing of my dreams! Great, ... 😊

[@BrainSlugs83]

User a continuous rotation servo instead of the stepper. It's like a regular servo but instead of controlling the position, you can control the RPM. Most hobby shops will have them, because they are used in RC airplane propellers.

[@starguy9]

I remember seeing this technology and thinking about how much money , research , and development it must have taken to build. I thought about the lab that would have to exist to assemble it. I always wanted to have one. The idea of not needing a cathode ray tube, or a liquid crystal display was amazing. Although this design still uses electronics, the mechanical portion is really interesting, and "Nowadays, everyone is able to build a televisor from home"....

[@DouglasFish]

using printed plastic as a screen is a fun concept, what a cool video

[@sergeychistov8162]

Bad Apple and Doom in one video?! You did well!

[@dev-debug]

That took retro to a new level. Very cool !

[@FiEctro]

You need to use 2 disks with identical line holes, / for vertical scanning, \ for horizontal scanning. This will help to increase resolution without increasing disk diameter.

[@ImmortanJoeCamel]

You mean like slots, right? So when they overlap they are perpendicular to each other producing a single point. I'm not sure but I don't think it'd even need to be "smart". Fixed ratio gears and multiple correctly spaced slots could probably do it.

[@FiEctro]

​@@ImmortanJoeCamel yes, \ and / for 2 discs make X with square dot in center. Synchronization should be accomplished using opto-sensors and stepper motors (maybe use bldc and more holes for more frequency). Since all holes are identical, the frequency can be increased many times, and the resolution of the scanning lines on two axes can be increased. If you leave 1 line hole on first disk, and a spiral slot on the second, you can make a mechanical screen that can occupy the entire area of ​​the disk like Chinese holographic fans.

[@FiEctro]

@@ImmortanJoeCamel yes, \ and / for 2 discs make X with square dot in center. Synchronization should be accomplished using opto-sensors and stepper motors (maybe use bldc and more holes for more frequency). Since all holes are identical, the frequency can be increased many times, and the resolution of the scanning lines on two axes can be increased. If you leave 1 line hole on first disk, and a spiral slot on the second, you can make a mechanical screen that can occupy the entire area of ​​the disk like Chinese holographic fan

[@bensmith3304]

I work with applications where LEDs need to be switched in under 1 µs, and the white phosphor LEDs can easily do this, it is really impressive. The lime and red phosphors, though, are pretty slow.

[@AureliusR]

Green and red LEDs don't use phosphor, they emit that wavelength directly. Only white LEDs use phospors commercially.

[@bensmith3304]

@@AureliusR Lime, mint, and some amber and photo red LEDs are also phosphor coated.

[@peter.stimpel]

Nice one. Now just add the 3 different colors, and reinvent color tv :)

[@VladoT]

I think that Baird had demonstrated color mechanical TV in 1928.

[@Poult100]

Not too difficult with a tr-coulour LED. 👍

[@unlokia]

Love the cine projector sound 📽️

[@chrisliddiard725]

About that laser version. Instead of physically moving the laser, you could deflect the beam electromechanically via a tiny mirror.

[@MrHack4never]

If you're using the right type of UV, you should be able to use normal printing paper as a screen, but then you should probably project on the same side as you view it on

[@diyhard666]

Now use the blanking intervals to transport copyright informations or teletext 😂

[@DasIllu]

There is glow in the dark glue and paint. Maybe improvise a spin coater and coat some acrylic glass. It might allow you to fine tune the glow duration and maybe mix in some fluorescent dye to counter the green tint.

[@jackcrawford304]

I wish I kept it together, but around a year ago I built a working camera and televisor in 1 unit with children’s snap circuits. I have the video on my channel, but it was a very small screen and it had 4-6 layers of snap circuits. It looked like a CPU die up close 😂 there were so many connections.

[@kumbah2006]

Looked for that video, couldn't find it. :(

[@unlokia]

Talking of scan lines: If I am in a room and my door is open only a crack (3-6mm) and I don’t want to draw attention, I move my head horizontally back and forth, passing my field of view across the gap, which is the same principle as used by a scanner - I get a reasonable view outside the room, made up of accumulated slices, built up as my head moved in relation to the gap.

[@theespers5263]

So cool! This is the first time I've seen one of these that actually works properly

[@ShouryaSatvik]

really an amazing project!!!!!

[@t7732155980]

Very intersting video, Thanks. Choosing a step motor is the quick way to solve the problem, but I would go with thress phase BLDC. The phosphor screen you used is slow, so you lost what you wanted to gain when decided to use UV led. Thanks again for very interesting Video

[@ShirokoCycling]

Hard disk motors! Use them!

[@Poult100]

Wonderful! I love modern retro engineering ♥️

[@halisidrysdale]

And all this was done in analogue - impressive in so many ways :D Great fun!

[@TaniaKisha]

You could try to simulate a scanline with a tape instead of a disc. a longer track is also given for greater details. :)

[@MadScientist267]

Ooof.. same issue as the disk. The "tape" in whatever form it takes will need to be frame width x line count long. Doing rough math, a 12" wide frame with 100 lines, would need to be 100 feet long in a loop, which does a complete pass for a single frame. For even 15 frames per second, you'd need to move the tape at 1500 feet per second. That's um... damn quick.

[@Spacekriek]

@@MadScientist267 That's like.. going at around Mach 1.5. The TV set will break through the sound barrier ! :D

[@paradiselost9946]

@@MadScientist267 yeah, thats the conclusion i came to as well... for just a very low resolution and frame rate, the speeds required are phenomenal... could maybe reduce it somewhat with two belts at right angles with angled slots, producing the required scanlines as they mask each other ... iunno, i did some basic maths a few years back (pre internet?) and thats about as far as i went with it... seems easier to try and make a CRT! but i also wonder if two sheets of slightly different spaced holes could be gyrated to produce the required raster? im not a subscriber to the "because it is there" mindset. i like to do something for a practical benefit, not just... "because i can"... example... i tie my shoeleaces for a reason... not just because i can.

[@MadScientist267]

@@paradiselost9946 I would think the only real way to do it with a "tape" would be (for horizontal scan) a vertical slot in the tape for every frame and each line would need what amounts to a flat light pipe that extends the width of the frame... with it's own LED behind each one. Still seems a bit radical at the DIY level but I think much more doable as the tape speed would only need to go as fast as frame width x frame rate... still pretty quick but if it's possible at all, you gotta get that tape speed down to a manageable level 🤣

[@Meshamu]

@@paradiselost9946 How about a tape on something like a typewriter carriage, which is nudged downward a skosh at the end of every scanline, and the carriage returns to the starting position during the vblank? Could be a really noisy TV!

[@drfrancintosh]

Really Awesome! I love me some retro computing. But this is in a class all its own. Continued Success!

[@BRUXXUS]

This is such a cool project! Unlike anything I've seen made on KZbin before. :)

[@not_riley]

- has doom in the title - has less than 5 seconds of doom on the screen

[@charlesswenson259]

we were scammmed

[@mururoa7024]

I agree with your assessment of 3d printers. Every time someone asks me which printer they should buy, I ask them if their hobby is to build things or to build printers.

[@jckf]

Haha I recognized Bad Apple from the thumbnail

[@nimkiibineshi24049]

How????

[@sebastiankusyk7764]

I also started building a Nipkov display, but instead of one LED it will have a whole matrix of them. Maybe even with the possibility to choose any combination which of them will light at the same time. So for each position of a hole there could be rays emitted from it at different angles (there will be no diffusing screen) and one may see different pictures depending on the viewing angle, or even holograms.

[@marcelbricman]

very nice project! use 4 leds for separate columns and use 4 matching dots on each line, youll have X4 brightness and still manageable complexity!

[@kjamison5951]

This is bonkers and I love it! Thank you for sharing! Good luck to you for your projects!

[@jayman912]

Damn...I love my 3d printer got it on sale many years ago. It is an AnyCubic Mega s and has served me so well over the years with almost no issues. But seeing the speed of that printer wow what a difference. You could cut the time down to a fraction of what my current one prints at. Plus the other features my basic printer lacks. Going to check it out. Nice video.

[@גוגל.קום]

You're a very talented man!

[@FrankGraffagnino]

i don't know why this makes me so happy... very cool... could we change this into a clock?

[@CarrotFarmer]

Hi! I have family that lives in Lębork (The city Nipkow was born). Last time i went there i visited the Muzeum w Lęborku, which has "Paul Nipkow's Office", which had an old mechanical TV! It also had a Wisła (First polish production TV).

[@Yenrabbit]

Your videos are always such a treat! Thank you for sharing 😊

[@yakacm]

The results produced by Logie Baird's TV may have looked really bad, but it always blows me away that he could do it at all 100 years ago. The fact that his TV was made with stuff you could buy from the local 1920's hardware store is just insane.

[@AndyCallaway]

Great project. All you need now is a matching camera. 👍

[@gunier.j.kintgenanimations]

One time, when I was younger, I got grounded from all TV privileges for a month. So, to stick it to the man, I built my own darn TV! A mechanical TV much like this one, except mine never worked. She was so impressed / angry, I got another 2 weeks of TV taken away when she found out what I was doing! Man, good times...

[@Debrugger]

Awesome, there's some things that just seem inaccessible to make yourself like display panels and you kinda sorta made a working one!

[@TeamUnpro]

dude you have no idea how desperate I am to see more of these types of displays you remake. Omg.

[@georgieippolito9924]

Machanical TVs need a comeback! a movie theater with building sized machanical displays would be a huge attraction too! With modern technology we can make a higher tech version of machanical displays

[@intel386DX]

Fantastic project 😊

[@hollensted]

Absolutely love it! Anything with CRT or VFD is a fetish for me.

[@gummimauer]

I am waiting for the moment when I can see DOOM on the screen.

[@jongdt]

Wow impressive build 👍

[@GHILLIESARCADEANDMORE]

Cool i hope to see more on this project

[@TomS699]

Amazing once again

[@andymouse]

Awesome work ! sterling stuff !

[@aviationodyssey1892]

Wonderful! I love it

[@iamsushi1056]

It’s crazy that the first mechanical TV was in full color

[@winandd8649]

No Way, this is insane!! 🥸Great project!

[@racemouse5014]

Thanks for great content. You're an inspiration !!

[@PrinceOfAstoria]

This project is BEAUTIFUL! You basically made a mostly Steampunk TV! Since you are using LED as light source, I wonder if by using polarizing filters you can make a RGB color tv.

[@SamwiseOutdoors]

I subscribed when you accidentally dropped the alan key because I can really relate.

[@robertheinrich2994]

an idea that you might like. the glow in the dark material usually gets activated by blue light, or better, ultraviolet light. but on the other hand, you can also reverse it with red or infrared. practically turn glow in the dark filament off (it should work the same way with fluorescence). that means, you could put your dots on a part of the disk, and have one bright window where IR shines through, resetting the screen after every frame. should be possible.i

[@Naedlus]

Only two minutes in, and my first thoughts are "The DLP projector I am using to watch this is damn near the exact opposite of what you are making. It's amazing how things rhyme as they are iterated."

[@roboman2444]

Would be kinda neat to use a cam or crank mechanism to aim the LED at the exact scan line the disk was currently showing. Much tighter beam and more efficient.

[@Xlaminator]

Great project! Amazing :)

[@jmcbike]

You might use 2ea. BLDC drone motors powering 2 Nipkow disks, one for transmit and one for receive. Since the BLDC motors are 3 phase, they should stay in sync. Add a RC ESC module and a RC servo tester to vary the motors speed. With this setup, you don't even need the microcontroller or separate source material.

[@dav1dbone]

I believe there are archived vinyl recordings by John Logie Baird, there was a news story a few years ago, reaching out for anyone interested to display their content, obviously never before seen

[@SullySadface]

I love how most of these neat projects just end up being 30% ads for crap i can't afford, like 3d printers

[@teslatrooper85]

Thanks for reminding everyone that Philo Farnsworth invented the TV like Ford invented the car, Edison the light bulb and Alex Bell invented the telephone. 😊

[@zylascope]

That's cool. Thanks for sharing.

[@w.w.2007]

NICE WORK!

[@michaelmayer775]

it should be possible to make multiple leds and screens around the disk for a multi monitor setup. Maybe a funky clock.🙂

[@Droid_Does_not_compute]

We eating good with these projects

[@ImpossibumPlays]

That's a cool project. I can't help but wonder how much of a gear ratio you could manage with that NEMA motor to max out your fps. And of course, we need to biggify it! :) Good job, keep the fun projects coming!

[@alexwang007]

This is so cool! Please revisit this using better components, like a more precisely manufacturered scan plate (i.e., laser cut stainless steel mounted on machined aluminum hub/coupler), and most importantly the motor, if you want perfect synchronization, use one from a laser printer (prism motor), those have built in phase locked loop that controls precisely how fast it's spinning and remains stable, you just need a reference clock and it'll lock to it.

[@xlerb2286]

Oh man, I remember trying to ramp up stepper motors back when I worked with hardware. Depending on the motor and controller you can get them to work quite a bit beyond their specs, if you don't mind the smell of hot windings ;) This makes me want to dig out all my old stuff and get back into it. It was all Z-80's and 68000's in those days and most of work on controlling a stepper was done in software. It's so much better today. As others have said for higher performance a servo motor will be easier to work with if you want to get higher frame rates. I never did much with those. You pretty much had to build your own controllers and the math was a bit beyond me at the time - all linear algebra and Jacobians. As a result I was a big fan of bang-bang controllers (variable structures, if you want to be formal). But that was that just a wee bit hard on the equipment.

[@drstefankrank]

You can try to narrow the dots over the length and put 4 times as many on one wheel. Means that you can have 4 full images per rotation.

[@RicardoMusch]

Liked and subscribed. Love this!

[@buggi666]

this is so cool!

[@Chester200100]

Man builds a screen, man plays bad apple and doom on it, man happy

[@jimboAndersenReviews]

That is absolutely epic. So I subscribed.

[@thecrazy8888]

Wow, Impressive!

[@hardrivethrutown]

I'd love to see a larger, higher resolution version of this

[@TheTwistedStone]

I tapped a thumbs up before watching just for the idea of what I was about to see.... :)

[@СерыйТехнарь]

Bambu- rules👍

[@GamingHistorySource]

I wonder if it would be possible to triple the size of the screen, add 3X as many holes & 2 more lights separated by partitions. Of course you would have to synchronize the flicker rate between them. But you would probably get a higher definition image.

[@jamesburke2759]

The modern message LED Fans make me think of this technology and in the future could almost replace the conventional LCD TV, No one talks about this. it would make JLB proud of what technology has become i think.

[@verebellus]

at first I thought you called your viewers sheep, but deshipu was a user that recommended something lol

This is awesome

[@twin1q]

Very cool project. I would still like to see the CRT project working.

[@StormBurnX]

I've had an A1 Mini in my cart ever since I found out they were doing the black friday deal, so I got really excited to hear they were sponsoring you, thinking maybe there would be a code or something I could use to get the same discount but help your channel out as well! Here's to hoping the affiliate links work

[@matthewdunstone4431]

This content is bonkers good.

[@Lionstarr86]

Nice Projekt 😮

[@oburi85]

Bad Apple Love! Da fühlt man sich iwie alt bei. :D Tolles Projekt.

[@sa3270]

You achieved a line rate of 640 Hz with this one.