TL;DR
Get wellness gear delivered free — and shop member deals
- Fast, free delivery on millions of items
- Access to Prime Big Deal Days deals on October 6–7
- Prime Video, Amazon Music and more included
Maker mitxela has completed a project running a FLIP (Fluid Implicit Particle) fluid simulation on electromechanical flipdot display panels, built as an installation for EMF2026. The project used surplus Hanover-manufactured panels supplied by Sam of Look Mum No Computer, with custom driver electronics to overcome the panels’ slow one-second refresh rate.
Hardware hacker mitxela has completed a project running a FLIP fluid simulation — FLIP stands for Fluid Implicit Particle — on an electromechanical flipdot display, publishing the full technical write-up on his site on 24 September 2026. The installation was built for EMF2026, and according to the author, the primary motivation was the wordplay: a FLIP fluid on flip dots. The project also addressed a set of engineering problems around driving decades-old flipdot hardware fast enough to animate a liquid simulation.
Flipdot displays are electromechanical pixel boards in which each dot physically flips between two states. As mitxela explains, the dots are non-volatile — they hold their position when power is removed — using two permanent magnets and two polarisable cores per dot rather than a simple coil-and-magnet arrangement. According to the author, only one flipdot manufacturer still exists, holding exclusive deals with a small number of artistic studios; he cites Breakfast Studio as one he identifies as well known and says they are not interested in projects with budgets under $50,000, which he reports places off-the-shelf flipdot hardware outside the reach of most hobbyists.
The panels used in the project came from Sam Battle, known as Look Mum No Computer, whose museum of obsolete technology had received a large donation of old flipdot displays. Their exact provenance is unclear — mitxela writes that it is unknown whether they were reclaimed from old buses or were new-old-stock, and many were in poor condition. The panels carry a 2007 date code, have a resolution of 13 by 28 dots, and were wired as a single matrix. According to the report, most surplus panels on the market were manufactured by Hanover, which still exists but no longer makes these displays.
Two problems drove the custom engineering. First, the circuit boards protrude over the panel edges, preventing seamless tiling in one direction. Second, the original drive circuitry takes roughly one second to update the whole panel, which is too slow for fluid animation. Drawing on a video by Mike of mikeselectricstuff as his primary reference, mitxela notes that while a dot takes around 60 milliseconds to physically flip, the cores can be polarised with a pulse of perhaps a millisecond at most. His approach — higher voltages driving shorter pulses — allows the matrix to be scanned faster than the stock driver permitted. The write-up documents the full build, including custom KiCad circuit boards, decoder boards, a dedicated power supply, a joystick for interaction, and a supporting framework.
Why an Electromechanical Display Was Chosen
According to the author, the project addresses a limitation he identifies in his own prior work: LED-based fluid simulations he has built in recent years — including a volumetric display and a fluid pendant — produce no sound. An electromechanical display produces a “swishing” sound as a by-product of the dots physically flipping, which LED displays do not. In his account, this makes flipdots a suitable match for fluid visualisation, where sound reinforces the illusion.
The build also documents a route other makers could follow. Flipdot hardware is scarce and expensive, and mitxela’s report, together with the references he credits, adds to a small body of practical knowledge on driving surplus panels at speeds their original electronics were not designed for. He notes that at hackercamps there was talk of forming a collective to commission newly manufactured panels from China, but that the manufacturing process — including dots built as a sandwich of roughly six materials — is, in his description, complicated. He also states that if a Chinese manufacturer started producing cheap flipdot displays after his publication, he would consider that a favourable outcome.
From Failed Negotiations to a Panel Donation
Before obtaining his own panels, mitxela describes attempting two other routes. He did contract work for a company that happened to own a large flipdot display and, by his own account, offered to forfeit his salary in exchange for being allowed to put a fluid simulation on it — an offer the company declined. He also asked around at hacker events, where he says he found widespread interest in flipdots but little available hardware.
The breakthrough came through Sam Battle, who had already driven several of the donated panels with their original circuitry, building an Etch A Sketch and then a wider multi-panel display, and who mitxela says was willing to hand over a few panels with the promise of more if a functional driving method emerged. According to mitxela, Mike of mikeselectricstuff had previously carried out the most extensive documented hobbyist build, and his video provided the matrix layout details — setting a column line high or low and then pulsing the relevant row — that underpinned the new design. A further community data point: some people mitxela spoke to had newer AlfaZeta displays, though he says most surplus stock is Hanover-made.
“The primary motivation behind doing this was the wordplay.”
— mitxela, project write-up
Unknowns in the Panels and the Pulse Timing
Several details remain unresolved. The provenance of the donated panels is unknown: it is unclear whether they were reclaimed from old buses or were new-old-stock, and their poor condition may simply reflect storage. The exact reason the original panels have a 13-dot dimension is speculation — mitxela suggests it is “probably a result of the designer’s affinity for prime numbers.”
On the technical side, the author reports that longer and higher-voltage pulses can flip a dot slightly faster, but not significantly, so the practical refresh-rate ceiling of the approach is not precisely quantified in the write-up. The full performance figures for the completed installation, and how many panels the final build uses, are covered in the accompanying video rather than fully detailed in the text of the report as published. The manufacturer landscape is also based on the author’s own gathering of information rather than verified industry data.
Publication and Event Debut
The project is marked complete as of 24 September 2026 and was built as an installation for EMF2026, where visitors could interact with it via joystick. The published documentation — the write-up and the accompanying YouTube video — covers the demo and the build in full, with sections spanning the custom circuit boards, decoder boards, power supply and framework.
Two possibilities follow from the report. Sam Battle’s original plan — turning the entire donated pile of panels into one large display — could be revisited if mitxela’s faster driving method proves scalable, since the panels were supplied with the promise of more once a functional driver existed. As the author notes, open publication may prompt others, including manufacturers in China, to attempt producing cheap flipdot displays. He also mentions that most of his other fluid simulations remain unpublished but will be released eventually.
Key Questions
What is a FLIP fluid simulation?
FLIP stands for Fluid Implicit Particle, a hybrid method for simulating liquid motion that combines a particle system with a background grid. In this project it was used to animate realistic-looking, interactable liquid on a low-resolution electromechanical display.
Why use flipdots instead of an LED screen?
According to mitxela, his LED-based fluid simulations are silent, whereas flipdot dots physically flip and therefore produce a swishing sound naturally. The pun — a FLIP fluid on flip dots — was also, by his own admission, the primary motivation.
Where did the flipdot panels come from?
They came from a large donation to Sam Battle (Look Mum No Computer)‘s museum of obsolete technology. It is unclear whether the panels were reclaimed from buses or were new-old-stock. They carry a 2007 date code and were likely manufactured by Hanover, which no longer makes this type of display.
What was the main technical challenge?
The original drive circuitry took about one second to update a panel, too slow for animation. Mitxela designed custom electronics using higher voltages and very short polarising pulses — around a millisecond — to scan the dot matrix much faster, while also solving the problem that the circuit boards protrude over panel edges and block seamless tiling.
Can flipdot displays still be bought new?
According to the author’s research, only one manufacturer still exists, working exclusively with a small number of artistic studios — Breakfast Studio being one he names — with project budgets reportedly needing to exceed $50,000. Some newer AlfaZeta panels also exist in the community, and there has been talk of commissioning new production from China, though the author describes the manufacturing process as complicated.
Source: hn
Fall Picks
fall essentials
As an affiliate, we earn on qualifying purchases.
