Mechanically Multiplexed Flip-Dot Matrix

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I previously built a Prioritising Mechanical Multiplexer which allowed one main drive motor to control three outputs. There were lots of suggestions in the video comments about using it to build some sort of display, so I thought I'd have a go at a prototype flip-dot display using one one servo per row. Of course this could be expanded to more columns with no more motors, and more rows with only one servo per row.
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XROBOTS
Former toy designer, current KZbin maker and general robotics, electrical and mechanical engineer, I’m a fan of doing it yourself and innovation by trial and error. My channel is where I share some of my useful and not-so-useful inventions, designs and maker advice. Iron Man is my go-to cosplay, and 3D printing can solve most issues - broken bolts, missing parts, world hunger, you name it.
XRobots is the community around my content where you can get in touch, share tips and advice, and more build FAQs, schematics and designs are also available.

[@recurvestickerdragon]

"i'm using ping pong balls because i have a lot of them" *prints a fake half-ball anyway*

[@user-wq3hc4ze3n]

Yeah, I don't get it, why not just cut ping pong balls?

[@SteffenBauer]

@@user-wq3hc4ze3n a half ball could look bad on camera with all the light because of the black background and the thin white plastic.

[@halvorhansen]

Yeah, why not just have a black and white slate?

[@tramburo23239]

I hate this about the channel, he always prints A LOT of things that can be made much more easily, cheaply and quickly in other ways

[@formercrow5242]

@@user-wq3hc4ze3n Would be way more effort!

[@thomasschulz3442]

Have you considered using ramps on the lever, to flip the dot while "swipe past" the dots. No jamming, no waiting?

[@randomelectronicsanddispla1765]

And no need to know the previous position, especially if some external influence messes with it.

[@willburke]

that was my first thought as well

[@hanifaji1672]

Well yes and you could simply build kind of centering ramp, then from there you could assign either go fully open or fully closed

[@diyexplorationsbyjoe3213]

I was thinking in same direction also.. In addition, servo can have a park position if need to just pass through without touching the flips

[@ruthmoreton6975]

You could also 3D print them as compliant devices so there's only a single moving part for each pixel and spring is built in.

[@recurvestickerdragon]

what you should do is make the input levers independent of current state. so, as the servo slides by, it'd pas cleanly over a dot that was already in the right place, but index one that wasn't. like a pin in a track, using the lead screw's own motion to slide through

[@Blender3DProjects]

Absolutely this.

[@singerdog]

yup, better idea

[@petiocskos]

Replacing the servos with magnets seems a good idea, less moving parts, just have to time it right. A controlled polarity on the moving side, and a fixed polarity on the dots, you just have to dial in the magnets to be able to reliably pull/push the dots. Also a belt driven axis on a smooth rod seems way more efficient in terms of speed. If you want to go overkill and use only two motors, you could build something like a coreXY motion system like a 3d printer but instead of a nozzle you have an electromagnet/servo that switches the dot matrix, this could be scanning row by row, or just go to only the neccessary positions if programmed right

[@CrimsonQueen_plays]

I was just thinking that I would want to see a version of this that uses an x y type thing

[@CommonApathy]

Magnets have issues as their strength is directly related to how close to other things it is. Could be two magnet per, one for on to off, the other for off to on, and have them end up close to the thing.

[@flatfingertuning727]

In the 1970s or 1980s I saw a display like that in the baggage area of the airport in Milwaukee, WI. The display appeared to be backlit by fluorescent tubes, and would be erased when a dark silhouette moved behind it right to left, and would then be drawn as that silhouette moved left to right. Probably about 8 rows by 20 characters.

[@AlRoderick]

Looking at the display made of ping pong balls, I kind of want to see someone do a creepy art project version of one where each ball has a set of black eyelids that can open and close.

[@memesfromdeepspace1075]

And with follow you around

[@davidparil8100]

I think the flipping part should be 90° flipped, the middle point should be free to pass the hole at any state, while the small diviation in the angle would flip it to the correct side as it passes by. It would make your life a lot simpler.

[@bkuker]

I think that would even let it flip them on the move, just scan the lead screw back and forth twiddling the servos as you go. 180 the servo horn when you get to the end and your idea even works in both directions. I'd live to see how fast he can get the thing going.

[@foldionepapyrus3441]

I like the cached current state method - but for me use the actual balls and a small inclined plane - drive the ball pusher/holder up and down the plane from the back - then you can do primitive grey scale leaving them at 1/4 1/2 etc too!

[@bkuker]

@@foldionepapyrus3441 Unless I am mistaken, the current method would fail mechanically if you snuck in and changed the state of one ball by hand.

[@DavidFrostbite]

A belt drive would make it faster too. And if the switches were ramped, all you would have to do is set the position as you pass and the switch would slide into the correct position.

[@foldionepapyrus3441]

@@bkuker Indeed, as it currently stands it is mechanically flawed, being easily externally driven and probably unable to deal with the fact - the arms might manage to bulldoze the linkage back to the expected state, but its clearly not designed to do so. But move to something very much harder or even impossible to back drive and having a remembered current state means no mechanical reset, clutch/ratchet or sensing type system required. So on my inclined plane idea - I was thinking driven by screw thread - you can set the height up the slope and need no reset to change it correctly to the next grey level you desire.

[@perdo1123]

I’m very curious of how many miles of filament you’ve used over the years.

[@matthewgoodman434]

I'm more interested in how many kilometers he's used

[@Matty.Hill_87]

Enough to go to the moon and back a few times

[@GunGryphon]

500 miles. Perhaps even 500 more.

[@anestiskokmotos4973]

You ll eat it with your food in some years, like all plastic

[@Niohimself]

@@matthewgoodman434 5 miles, 2 kilometers and 1 smoot

[@ToyoTheFox]

"If it has a screen, it can play Bad Apple!!, if it doesn't have a screen, make one."

[@gavinhicks7621]

If you use a belt drive on the linear motor instead of a lead screw it would work a lot faster also you could make one that instead of moving horizontally it moves in a circle I’m not sure what it could be used for but someone would find a use for it in the comments

[@brantwedel]

Oh! If you snake wound the belt, and had the servo follow a zigzag, maybe you could update any number of rows and columns with 1 servo!!!

[@strictnonconformist7369]

@@brantwedel the proper design, clearly, would be a space-filling Hilbert Curve, of course!

[@TheUnofficialMaker]

@@strictnonconformist7369 this is not a square its 3x5

[@brantwedel]

You could do faster switching if you made a ramp mechanism that the servo selected and moved across the balls (like a railroad switch, but the switch/rail is what is moving through the row of balls) ... Would also probably eliminate jamming as well since the servo would be selecting the ramp between the balls, and the ramps would self-align. (Designing the ramps as 2 alternating contours on a cylinder would probably make for a compact design) ... would have most the advantages of the electromagnet idea.

[@brantwedel]

Ah, I just realized you can build the ramps into the flip-dots instead of the servo, so basically what you have but with angled slots, and have the servo pre-position and move through them! Ideally, no jamming, and no stopping!

[@TheMeditron]

"I wanted to use ping pong balls because I have a lot of them..."... Prints ping pong balls anyways.

[@luckyshots5098]

You are cool and smart

[@fatgamer919fan4]

You haven't even seen the whole video it's only 1 minute after upload

[@baronofclubs]

@@fatgamer919fan4 they're not wrong though

[@DylanLisansky]

Were you paid to say that?

[@fatgamer919fan4]

@@DylanLisansky I wasn't paid to not say that either

[@fatgamer919fan4]

@@baronofclubs I agree

[@Skyentific]

Great video again! It is impressive that each week you manage to design and build another complicated project. Are you doing this alone, or you have a team, for example to help with video editing?

[@dhruvbose8294]

Sky!

[@timmturner]

This is awesome, subbed. Look forward to seeing your previous videos and seeing what you come up with in the future.

[@cho4d]

this could be pivoted in to the most excessively over engineered game of guess who ever created!

[@ScibbieGames]

Or connect four lol

[@afajalaka]

You make so many interesting things. I learn a lot just listening to you describe your thought-process during the different stages of a project. One of my favorite channels. Good luck hitting 1MM subs!!

[@guinevereteef]

id like to see a clock made of two rings of this kind of display, each with 12 dots, where the inner dot represents the hour and the outer dot represents the minute in increments of 5.

[@soviut303]

Why not paint one half of the ball black and rotate them with a screw gear or rack gear?

[@RickMeasham]

With a gear fixed to each ball you could pass at high speed and engage a stationary gear on the carriage when you want to flip "on", then engage in the return jointed to flip "off". (Relatively weak) Magnets on the "east" and "west" pole of the ball can attract a magnet in the side frame to hold the ball in place.

[@aurigo_tech]

Just extremely cool. The pace with which you output this intricate projects is astonishing.

[@ArmchairDeity]

A new vid!! Love the robotics stuff man… helping me formulate my own plans for the future!

[@nxpnsv]

It takes balls to make a display like that

[@TheColourOfFear]

7 and a half balls, to be precise.

[@danwood1121]

I really like these sorts of projects, it's the kind of clever engineering you'd see on those really interesting early electromechanical devices from the early 1900's.

[@ahoe]

make the servo horn like a ramp, flipping the lever by passing by.

[@OutwardThinker]

To make the refresh rate faster, try adding an offset like on a Verner caliper. You can have multiple "flippers' attached to each servo. In each position the only one flipper and ball is aligned at a time.

[@skaramicke]

This is PERFECT for my antenna tower project where I need to be able to point multiple different yagis in different directions and will never move more than one at a time.

[@skaramicke]

Oh and I could even add a tilt axis to each of them without thinking about motor costs!

[@tbengineering7066]

this is literally the perfect video I need. I plan on building an automated spice rack, and I ideally don't want a ton of servo motors to open and close each shelf door because that is expensive. I'll definitely try to integrate this design into the product.

[@campbellmorrison8540]

Always amazing what you can do. Im still fighting my way through one of your other arm projects, you make it look so easy :)

[@bitluni]

I love ping pong balls!

[@lozzak998]

We've noticed! : )

[@tanjiro3285]

make an even larger display 😜

[@HariWiguna]

James, that works awesome! The white ping-pong ball completely disappears and reappears as if by magic! I've been toying with similar idea but trying to do gray scale. Instead of black or white, each pixel is a cylinder of black to white gradient. Pixel axis is vertical as to take advantage of gravity and friction to maintain its rotational position. As the gantry moves at constant speed horizontally, the servo arm would catch a half disc on top of the cylinder to rotate it. By retracting the servo arm just at the right time, each pixel could be set to desired gray scale. To rotate the pixel the other way, we would rely on the gantry moving the other way and again using the servo arm to catch that pixel to rotate it the opposite direction. I've only modeled it in Fusion and have not printed them. I suspect there are tons of issues that I have not tought of yet. When I saw your black/and white pixel, I realized that's what I should have done before tacking gray scale. Very nice. I love it!

[@kn4ughty]

whenever you do sponsors its like you have a gun to your head lol

[@kn4ughty]

@Ankit Meher Just the way he speaks i guess

[@PrograError]

I guess he's just too monotone, it looks like unmotivated ad

[@fortyforty-seven1061]

i was hoping youd do something like a combination lock where only one rotational input can set different discs to different angles when i saw in the thumbnail "one servo" but this is still pretty cool

[@sddiymakeitworthit7512]

Excellent work man thanks 🙏

[@Kevin-rc5ec]

Wow. That's brilliant! Nicely done.

[@RyoCanCan]

Man, I don't do robotics or electronics at all but this is such great content I can't but watch.

[@miko007]

this is the first video from you i have watched in years. boi, has your presentation style changed :D i was quite shocked ^^ also rocking the gray hair now :D man, time goes by so fast...

[@jamesbruton]

Thanks - I changed the format at the start of the year. Views are a little better!

[@markstevensfpv3722]

Great as always James! 👊 I think that the best practical example of a mechanical multiplexer I’ve seen is the MMU2 by Prusa

[@josiahmitchell530]

Really interesting concept. Good job!

[@rundata]

Absolutely brilliant. And then mixes up 4 and 5 xD

[@DanielSimu]

Nice idea! I'd love to see a version with free horizontal movement on each row, so 3 lead screws if you have 3 rows. That way, the servo/magnet can jump to the position it wants to update much faster.

[@TheYaguar007]

Instead of flipping the levers each time to current position of the column, it suggests itself to put several levers on each servo in every possible positions. Kinda like a gear

[@Iamjafex]

What if the servos had a "gear" on them instead of an arm? You could pass cleanly through all states of the actuator at that point and just rotate clockwise or anticlockwise as you need, since the gear has equidistant teeth all around!

[@otm646]

This is the best idea I've read in the comments yet. This allows you to move much faster as you both don't need to pause or have a gap for the servo to reset as you described, it also lets you move the motor off of the moving carriage. They could sit right next to the ball screw motor. Those gear teeth could simply run on a splined shaft.

[@emanueldalton7370]

Free idea for a design that can be extended in the other dimension as well: Cylinders with black on one half and white on the other half, with paddles on each side that interface with each other like a safe lock / combination lock does. So you have a motor at the bottom that turns 2 spins to the left, sets the top pixel, turns 1 spin to the right, sets the second pixel, and turns to the left, to set the bottom pixel. Then moves across to the next column (somehow).

[@raphaelchauveau1147]

If you flipped your matrix, you could make a 7-segment display !

[@fenwah1]

Would be cool to do a big display running Conway's Game of Life with randomised or semi-random seeds. Could even do a cylindrical version that wraps around

[@MakeDataUseful]

I love it, a great challenge would be to get down to one servo on a 10 by 10 display!

[@mungewell]

A court of suggestions: 1. Implement the servo with 3 states - switch to on, no change, switch to off. 2. Make the ball mechanisms latch when the carriage is not at that column. 3. Implement a sprung/naturally 'off' state to the balls. This could also be used to do a global clear all action

[@Theballonist]

I’ve always wanted to try making a fishing line based grid display. Each row and each column having a servo controlled fishing line. If both the row and the column are engaged a third “actuation input” connected to all the dots could do the actual flipping. This way multiple dots could be flipped simultaneously with each tick of the clock. Writing the prioritization algorithm would be a delightful hell.

[@makecodeandhardware1395]

Very interesting, had not studied mechanical multiplexing prior to this.

[@serversurfer6169]

_”Maybe a clock or something? 🤔”_ _”That’s a great idea! Yes, I _*_will_*_ build a dot-matrix display!! 🤗”_

[@crystaldragon141]

It would be interesting to use two motors for X and Y axis control and then a single motor as the "change" actuator.

[@DCDLaserCNC]

Very cool prototype

[@alcalx]

Cool idea. There's no need to remember last positions if you leave gap for servos to be in the middle always, then the walls for on/off can be in reach of servos arm, turning all the way right or all the way left. The no need for intermediate step, just return to center previous to move them.

[@rx8tom]

One idea could be a spinning bristle brush instead of servos, the rack could slide sideways through all of the levers without moving anything, but have them quickly spin one way or another and they could influence the display. Small motors might be cheaper and easier to drive than servos too. Great video!

[@SirDzair]

creativity at its finest

[@Badspot]

One advantage of a setup like this is that the actuators can be higher quality and do things that a grid of electro magnets can't do. Each "pixel" could rotate to 4 different positions to show a different shape or color. Or perhaps they could be some kind of cone shape that could be moved in and out to any position to make the dot appear larger or smaller - sort of like a newsprint photograph.

[@ThantiK]

James, if you turn each of those lever slots into an hourglass shape (turned on its side and open on each end) so that it catches the servo horn as it passes by, you don't need to pause in between each - you can just fly across them quickly. This also solves any issue of them being in an unknown state if manually changed while the actuator isn't directly over and the physical model mismatching the data model. If you're worried about catching/jamming - should be easy to put a small ball bearing on the tip so that it rolls across the hourglass shape.

[@frollard]

In my mind I want the back slots that the servos actuate to be cams that allow the servo to pass a 'keep the same' slot, 'flip the dot' slot such that the servo arm never needs to stop moving, it just needs to choose the next state after it passes the current bank. It would be the horizontal movement of the carriage that would do the actuation in the cam slots.

[@TheGiedow]

It would be cool to use this for an application where you have a lot of options, like an airport sign where you can change each letter/digit

[@steven_porter]

Very clever! I'd like to suggest an idea to eliminate the need to move the levers between each column. If the flip mechanism were replaced with one that could be driven by a cam rather than a lever, you could use the same gear design you had in the previous build and just give each one a half turn to toggle between white or black. Since the teeth on the last design meshed nicely as it moved, this could eliminate the jamming concern and also make the code simpler since it would only need to rotate a half turn in any direction regardless of whether it needs to turn a pixel on or off.

[@seadragonet1738]

3:08 I believe that is a parallelogram linkage as opposed to a 4 bar linkage, as a 4 bar linkage has 4 bars on a rotating square to another rotating square and it perfectly transfers the rotation.

[@sabrinazwolf]

Great video James. I am amazed at how many videos you put out so quickly. It seems like the cadence has really increased and you maintain the same great quality and interesting content. As for ideas along the lines of this video, I wonder if it would be possible to to have a row of actuators in both the X axis and Y axis that mechanically flip "pixels" where activated actuators intersect. Much in the the way some membrane keypads work. For example a 5 actuators on the X and 5 along the Y could control 25 pixels. One actuator on each axis would be activated and where they intersect the pixel could be flipped. hopefully you get what I mean....

[@electronic7979]

Excellent

[@harborned]

I know you said why you didn't just have it move continuously and try to time the flips.... but I really wanted to see it :D Great video as always :)

[@pokyinvictorleung]

I once saw a window display in the Museum of Digital Art in Zurich that has an interesting vertical column of rotatable cells. Each column has multiple dots, each having two sides. Each column is driven with only one motor and the linking mechanism is similar to a flip display. With only one motor, it is able to index the entire column (despite very slowly) to a given pattern. I'll leave the exactly implementation down to your imagination.

[@DamianReloaded]

It proves the concept really neatly! Very nice! What about a 1 motor multiplexer for a 2D display with only 2 actuators, one to rotate the motor making it engage each dimension and another to flip 1 pixel at a time. The two axes could be driven by pulleys instead of a rod. It'd be almost a magic trick if it worked! :D

[@Meoiswa]

Suggestion: swap the "slots and levers" for ferromagnetic rods (on each pixel) and a pair of electromagnet "slots" (one forward, one to the back) that can pull the rod in either direction. This way you don't need to match the previous state for each pixel, and you can always "set" a pixel to either state, with nothing happening if you "overwrite" With this solution, you're combining the best of both worlds: mechanically multiplexing the electromagnetic part of a solenoid (keeping wiring simple and power draw consistent and controlled), whilst keeping the "actuator" fixed to each pixel, allowing scaling up with minor cost

[@singerdog]

Another nice example for mechanical multiplexing mechanism can be numbered wheels to make numeric combinations by rotating numbered wheels with a multiplexer mechanism it uses 2 motors, 1 for linear displacement and the other to rotate the wheels which will have a geared perimeter. So when you align the selector mechanism with each wheel it engages the teeth of the selected wheel, then turn the selector shaft, selecting a number (could be a letter or any other thing)

[@JimRobb44]

James, you are like a techno-drug.

[@IsardPragmatique93]

Belt might be a better solution than the lead screw, alowing for faster travel ans refresh rate

[@1kreature]

Core-xy gantry moving on the back of the entire system, single servo flipping bi-stable dots by giving em a push without potential of binding. Would be fun. Updates a single dot at a time.

[@JohnEdwa]

I would go with the ramp idea, combined with placing multiple modules on the same leadscrew - you use electronic multiplexing to set the servos to what each characters next column will be, then move the leadscrew forwards and the ramps will flip the dots. That way, while you would use more servos, you would only need one extra IO pin per character and you could build a lot longer display with a much faster refresh rate. Could work as a subscriber counter behind you on the wall too (though that doesn't need the refresh rate, but you get the idea :) )

[@marco_gallone]

Interesting concept! I would design the linkage interface so that it can flip to 2 states but with clearance for a servo middle state which leaves it unchanged. Perhaps that just requires you widen the gap that the servo horn slots into. *Arbitrary numbers* say the action requires 60 degrees of servo stroke, let the final 10 degrees in either direction be the flip action, but the middle 40 degrees to be the neutral state. This way your algorithm doesn’t need to save a memory of the column and change state to it as it passes (especially if they are to be left unchanged). The runtime can greatly improved if the algorithm goes: index to next column->flip necessary dots->back to neutral->index (repeat)

[@RoySATX]

"I wanted to use ping-pong balls because I have quite a lot of them" proceeds to 3D print more ping-pong balls.

[@kensmith5694]

The folk shaped thing that is used to flip the "balls" could be made to work like a ramp. If you set the servo in the on position before that arm on the servo gets to the fork, it just slides on the ramp and moves it to the new position. You could also have an X screw, a Y screw and only on servo. This would be much slower but only need a total of three motors to do a huge number of dots.

[@retroatx]

The old Radio Shack Armatron used a mechanical multiplexer to allow a single motor to control the gripper and the joints and rotation. It would be neat to have a replica Armatron.

[@CraigBurden1]

@JamesBruton if you design the size of the slot and the throw of the actuator such that there is a position in the middle of the throw where the sides of the actuator cannot reach, you'd have a home position for the servos where they can pass through any column. That would make things a little simpler and hopefully up the refresh rate

[@justincase5228]

You might consider updating the servo motor's wiper from a single lever to a spoked wheel. It might have six spokes at 60 degree separation. As long as you orient any spoke in between the connectors, you're good to go; just rotate clockwise or counterclockwise from your stored knowledge of the last bit position.

[@zyrain]

If you want the display to always update left to right, a second vertical actuator line could be used to have two. Each goes from one end to a maximum extent in the middle. While one is flipping the other is resetting (carriage return?) So the right can take over once the left reaches the middle. You can gear it so only one motor is required as they can move in tandem!

[@Earthling418]

You may be able to increase the vertical pattern by having more slide linkages sandwiched in the width of each pixel then using ramps that don't care what starting lever position comes by, only changing if change is called. This is useful for an earlier idea I had where small drawers pop out as needed in a wall of drawers when you need a place for something then again when you need the something.

[@sharedinventions]

You might want to rotate a ball. If it is polarized, then an electromagnet (kind of motor coil) can rotate it. Also it would be nice to have some snap-on-position, on the two end points to have a consequent draw.

[@richardward6747]

Ya could put another long twirly thing on the Y axis an do away with needing so many servos.. an have different coloured sides to the pixels.. then it's 3 motors an a lot of plastic an it's a colour display! Great vids man your awesome.

[@itonylee1]

It is possible to use spring preload servo arm or some type of cam to active the two state (1 or 0), this way, you won't have to remember the previous state. This will avoid crash in case the actual state mismatch the memory state. (someone touch the ball...etc)

[@oraziovescovi1922]

wow, sponsored by non other than Autodesk itself!

[@andrewkieran8942]

"Autodesk: Maker of tools, most makers can't afford"

[@AttilaAsztalos]

@@andrewkieran8942 ...which is why I avoid even its "free" tools like the plague, and try making do with things like SolveSpace (I love that thing) and OpenSCAD / LibreCAD / FreeCAD instead.

[@gauravupasani9088]

This is awesome.

[@AMTunLimited]

If the angular distance to flip were an even division of a full rotation (e.g. 90, 70, 60 degrees) you could make the bit attached to the servos a full wheel with spokes. Then it would essentially always be in the same position after each rotation because of rotational symmetry.

[@notahotshot]

A flat circle of white vinyl tape could have easily replaced the "ping pong balls"

[@BRUXXUS]

I imagine using puffs of compressed air to move the pixels so you wouldn't need to run any electronics down the length, just one or two small, flexible tubes per row. As others have said, a belt driven system could speed up the run of actuators. Got my imagination going crazy with this one!

[@londonalicante]

Have the flipping axis of each dot perpendicular to the main motor axis. Flip to black in one direction, white in the other. Have one solenoid per row that extends out to do the flipping, which can be very low power as all it needs to do is extend / retract the flipping pawl while it has no load on it. You need to extend the pawl whenever an element needs to be flipped. If it's already the correct colour it doesn't matter if you extend it or not. A linearly moving pawl should be able to drive a maltese cross / geneva type driven element through 90 degrees, which should be enough (you'd only need one slot instead of a whole ring of slots though.)

[@TheDarrenJones]

It'd be interesting if you mentioned how long the print time was for each project - some of them must take a loooong time!

[@Wobblybob2004]

Belt drive for the carrage. Some kind of sliding wedge arrangment so the carrage motor sets/resets the dots. Use solenoids not servos (not to push/pull but to select set/reset). If you stagger the actuation point of the dot in a coloumn, you could get way with only one solenoid per coloumn.

[@aswingirish7727]

Sir all ur projects are cool...waiting for the new one

[@glennedgar5057]

Good video. I have an idea. Consider a two dimension matric of small solar cells with concentrating lens or cones. This array would have to be tracked to the sun position very accurately. The mechanical multiplexig arrangement could adjust each solar cell. What you would have would be a relatively small amount of silicon generating optium output. Also, the array enclosure would not move, unlike conventional trackers where the panel has a large range of motion. Been sitting on this idea for 20 years. When i first saw your video on mechanical multiplexing i though it was a fit.

[@WistrelChianti]

Weirdly I too got fascinated/intrigued by flip dot displays recently also... and fell down a YT hole seeing what people were doing with them. They're really cool and one can't help but start to wonder if it would be possible to build them cheaper than what they sell for...

[@OfficialXau]

9:12 This feels like a checkup at the opticians

[@ShaneGulley]

This would make a really cool clock!

[@sirmiro2]

Nice concept. If you make the "U" larger so the servo can have a "zero" point where it always can pass and then only move when in position for a tenth of a second then back it could do it while moving. Like a momentary switch. Forget what it was, just put in what it should be while passing in high speed.

[@justinberdell7517]

I sure didn't have a good experience with Autodesk customer service. My customer service experience with them was so bad i switched to different software. Cool video!

[@mariusreith3242]

I really like the mechanical Multiplexer, but if I had to solve a problem the mechanical Multiplexer can solve I would have jused one motor with several gears on one axis engaged with a clutch for every gear. I think when you would have a heavy load on the gears of the mechanical Multiplexer, the gears wouldnt last very long when they slide together. But still really entertaining to watch, keep going :)

[@DmC944]

You have a burnt ping-pong at 10:45 ... :-D

[@Sqwince23]

if you had two "u" slots you could pass the horn through either "U" since the state is fully open or fully closed not in between. this would allow you to move the ball from either state and pass through without jamming.