Solari Split-Flap Displays

For sale! Ebay listing here:
www.ebay.com/itm/Solari-Split...
I purchased these displays on eBay several years ago and built custom boards to drive them. They are very rare; it is difficult to find displays that have letters, and I have never seen displays sold with a working controller (
They run on 15VDC and are controlled using RS-485. The controller board takes a USB input from a Raspberry Pi to control the displays wirelessly.
I use these as an automatic cryptocurrency ticker, but they could be used to display weather conditions, dates, etc.
Like and comment!

[@Account4096]

WE'VE BEEN TRYING TO REACH YOU CONCERNING YOUR AUTO'S EXTENDED WARRANTY.

[@cat-.-]

We need an internet troll prank calling people about extended warranty, except he actually offers free warranty!!

[@joseluizdurigon8893]

Must be nice to have a wall full of these little guys. Imagine you're chilling and then it all start moving like hell. Jezzzz

[@Lexitivium]

It reminds me of about 20 years ago... I got late to my flight in Frankfurt airport because I was way too busy watching the giant split-flap display - even showing my own plane departure ;-)

[@SuperCode1]

These giant split-flap displays are still where they used to be 20 years ago in Terminal 1 at Frankfurt airport :)

[@Lexitivium]

@@SuperCode1 Niiiiiiiiiice. Must visit it again and get late for my flight home ;-)

[@billy.7113]

I need those sound for sleeping.

[@badhairday462]

See You8Sleep on KZbin

[@coriscotupi5378]

Galeao airport (Rio, Brazil) had its arrivals and departures displays with this type of technology. It also had clocks with this type of display spread all over the terminal, in enclosures hanging from the ceiling just over two meters high. People would pass below them and manually flip one of the digits, prompting the thing to start a several-seconds-long flipping of all its digits until the correct time was again shown. And they'd do it again. And again. It took several months for the airport administration to react and install protective acrylic covers on the clocks.

[@TheHarrisonW]

Thanks for sharing this! That sounds like something I would do, haha. The displays in this video wouldn't notice -- they can only tell when they are in the "blank" position. When it turns on, it "homes" to the blank position, and it just counts up to the correct letter after that. Cool story, and I hope I get to visit Brazil sometime!

[@coriscotupi5378]

@@TheHarrisonW Let's hope this pandemic comes to an end. You'll Surely be most welcome here.

[@Raven-bb6ki]

Right after watching technology connections hah

[@gabrielulibarri9950]

Same lol

[@vulcanwolfy794]

mood

[@positivemelon7578]

Strangely enough I haven't even watched that video yet and I still get these in my recommendations

[@zac_5295]

Same, along with another video from a youtuber I watch that talked about these too

[@_GhostMiner]

Lol. Nice 👌

[@ForeverMan]

Damn technology connections, my feed is all about this now, thanks

[@AetherXIV]

lol same! I clicked on one video!

[@ronwise3069]

I saw a Vestaboard in a restaurant in Louisville last fall and have been obsessed with split-flap displays ever since. My feed is filled with these videos now. Thank you for sharing!

[@hgrunt100]

Very jealous. I've been hunting for years for some.of these solari units and I'm never able to find them! Cheers for sharing.

[@JxSTICK]

THIS IS SO ... COOL AND ... SATISFYING

[@epiccollision]

Wow ether for under 1k, what a time...

[@bytesabre]

I remember the sound of these echoing around Waterloo station, before they were replaced with LED ones

[@TheHarrisonW]

These were decommissioned from Penn Station in Newark, NJ. They also replaced them with LED displays.

[@bytesabre]

@@TheHarrisonW well, the sound of them moving still took me back. Thanks for putting the work in to keep old memories alive

[@matthewvwuk]

So can I Tina Stormcaller. They certainly made a unique noise that is for sure! I believe Norwich railway station had these type of displays before the electronic LED replaced them.

[@rayfenwick8761]

Damn! Missed them! So cool :)

[@LemmyCaution66]

I liked the video. I’m a bit envy I must admit but they all have found a great home. Hope you’ll enjoy them a lot and will upload more stuff. That’s why I also subbed. Greetings 🖖

[@KukunMishra]

Nicely done 😊👍

[@patrickrostker6693]

One person was late ! Great video!

[@thejhonnie]

Awesome video!

[@leonardoh.j.schellino5982]

very cool man

[@simonl7784]

awesome, thanks

[@SilverCraft15987]

so god damn cool

[@claudiopro]

This is legit amazing. I'd love to hack one of these myself 🤩

[@Lawi_Jake]

Love this technology. Like in the Dharma Station

[@TheHarrisonW]

That's actually why I did this project! I also programmed an old Apple II+ computer to enter the numbers! Check out this video from a few months ago -- this guy built the countdown clock from scratch! kzbin.info/www/bejne/e6PSmZydeK-VmaM

[@miscellaneousHandle]

amazing

[@kaca2903]

Cool!

[@MimeoTn]

😍

[@agebee]

Frankfurt Airport still have!

[@spoiledmilk5592]

If it wasn’t for this video I wouldn’t know what the name of this kind of display is

[@Cullenfields]

Do you still have any more of those Solari Flip Displays...or am I too late?

[@TheHarrisonW]

Sorry, they sold out very soon after I listed them on eBay last year. You can sometimes find other ones like these on eBay if you check often.

[@mickeyethantv8759]

HEY!!!

[@johnwolfe7517]

What ICs do you use on the driver board? I noticed the pic, but cannot identify the 8 pin dip, the 3 pin device and the long thin device. Have some Solari split flaps now and thinking about the driver circuitry. Thanks!

[@TheHarrisonW]

The 8-pin DIP is an RS-485 transceiver (chip number SN75176BP). RS-485 was ideal because according to the standard, you can tap off the same bus up to 32 times. The controller board sends a signal to each of the individual boards over RS-485, telling them what index to go to. This system only uses one-way communication, i.e. the individual boards never talk back to the controller board. The 3-pin device is just a 5v linear regulator (chip number AS78L05ZTR) to power the microcontroller (chip number PIC16F18324). It steps down the voltage from the 15v supply. The long thin device is the motor driver (chip number BA6956AN, which is now obsolete). It's just an H-bridge circuit in an SIP-9 package. The Solari units I had would advance by one flap each time the polarity was reversed. So each time it needs to advance by one flap, the H-bridge connects the 15v supply from the bus directly to the motor (where the polarity is the opposite of the way it was last connected). When it isn't moving, no power is connected to the motor. The "motor" is just a simple coil on these units. These units are connected using a custom ribbon cable I built. I just bought some ribbon cable and clamped on headers at evenly-spaced intervals. Each individual board receives 15v power and taps off of the RS-485 communication lines. Hope this helps! Good luck with your project!

[@johnwolfe7517]

Excellent description. Thanks for your help!

[@johnwolfe7517]

One more question. Were you able to get both home and index out of the device. On mine, the two hall sensors appear to have their collector outputs tied together and be powered separately. So to get home out, you need to cut power to the index sensor and vice versa. These sensors are SAS 211s4. Seems like an odd arrangement to me.

[@TheHarrisonW]

@@johnwolfe7517 [Updated] On my units there was a Hall effect sensor that would output logic-high when the Solari unit was on the blank flap, and logic-low otherwise. I think they may have also had another Hall effect sensor that would strobe when the index advanced, but I didn't use it regardless. When power is first applied, each unit slowly cycles through the flaps until they reach the "home" position (blank flap). Then they each keep track of their own indexes, since they know how many flaps they've advanced past that point (as I mentioned earlier, the index would advance exactly 1 position each time the H-bridge reversed the polarity, so keeping track of the index was easy).

[@bathrobelife5177]

Was this a one-of-a-kind or have you made any more for sale, Harrison?

[@TheHarrisonW]

Hi, I bought these displays on Ebay about 6 years ago and sold them a few years back. I don't have any more, but you can sometimes find displays like these on Ebay if you check often. Thanks for watching!

[@whitewaterduck835]

I have hunted original Solari box but for control board I'm in your mercy. Do you have price for your work?

[@TheHarrisonW]

It would depend on the project. I can probably provide some advice if you give me more info on the Solari displays you have. Each model is different.

[@littlejohnandbaloo9701]

Haven't you noticed that font? It's very Gill Sans-ish...

[@AlexOvechkinSucks]

Typeface. Not font. :)

[@KeithRodri]

@@AlexOvechkinSucks Nope it's still a font because they are all the same weight and scale. A Typeface is the broader family. If this board featured different weights, you could correctly say it's a typeface.

[@AlexOvechkinSucks]

@@KeithRodri not quite. He mentioned the broader family of Gill Sans. If he said, "I appreciate that specific font of the Gill Sans typeface," that would be more accurate. It would be like saying: "I love the Sport model of Honda." When the model is actually a Civic, and the trim is called Sport, a subset of the Civic.

[@KeithRodri]

​@@AlexOvechkinSucks Your example isn't accurate. It's closer to him saying I like that sedan, it's very Honda. And you correcting and saying no it's a line of Honda automobiles. Sure, it's part of a line, but he's not wrong for calling it a sedan. While it may be a general typeface he's alluding to for simplicity, what is on the actual Split-Flap is a font, and not the broader typeface, so correcting him was inaccurate. Though, this design quibble is fun.

[@olaleyemedia-photographyvi393]

Brilliant! What did it sell for in the end?

[@TheHarrisonW]

I sold the split-flap displays for $1000, which is about what I paid. They weigh a ton and take up a lot of space, and I needed to get rid of them before moving. I sold the controller to a guy in the UK who had the same displays as I did, though I don't know if he actually used it. Thanks for watching!

[@blyatberry7036]

Amazing were did you buy this stuff? Whats the price of one part

[@TheHarrisonW]

I found these on Ebay about 5 years ago. I think I paid $60 a unit, but I also bought 20 at once. These aren't made anymore so you're going to be buying them used. If you check Ebay often you can find them for sale from time to time.

[@jamesdean349]

you can order this on alibaba

[@FlashDrive356]

Man, I wish Ethereum was still that cheap.

[@ivangutowski]

buy the dip

[@volante8657]

if it's used to display ETH price in real-time, the digit bits will probably went in 48 hours

[@aimesolomon]

Ethereum is above 2k USD now

[@ThomasBensler]

"frame" rate of about 0.3 per second

[@layterejon8780]

0:06

[@TheJek0]

12

[@layterejon8780]

La que se está la casa está en casa ok

[@ArifBillahOnGoogle]

Refresh rate: -144hz

[@konnichiyawasan1619]

this is gives me like a steins;gate shit

[@tanjiro3285]

C OOO L

[@EminentInception94]

Should have bought ETH when this video came out. lol

[@TheHarrisonW]

I tried to tell them

[@kkon5ti]

Ethereum 2000 lol

[@CHITUS]

Right after watching technology connections hah