[Peter Lehnér] has designed a brilliant 7-segment flip-segment display that doesn’t really flip. In fact, it doesn’t use electromagnets at all. This one is 3D printed and hand cranked. It’s a clever use of a cam system to set the segments for each digit (0-9) makes it a perfect entry in the Hackaday 3D Printed Gears, Pulleys, and Cams contest.
We find the nomenclature of these displays to be a bit confusing so let’s do a quick rundown. You may be most familiar with flip-dot displays, basically a dot-matrix grid of physical pixels that are black on one side and brightly colored (usually chartreuse) on the other. We saw a giant flip-dot display at CES four years ago. Akin to flip-dots are flip-segment displays which do the same thing but with segments of a digit rather than dots. We featured a 3D printed version of these last week. The common aspect of most flip displays is an electromagnet used to change the state of the dot or segment.
The version [Peter] designed gets rid of the magnets and coils, replacing them with mechanical logic instead. Each segment sits in a track on the frame of the digit. When slid to one position it is hidden by the bezel, in the other position it slides into view. A cleverly designed set of cams move the segments at each of 10 positions. The animated graphic here shows three cams which are responsible for moving just two of the segments. More cams are added to complete assembly, a process shown in the second half of the demo video found below.
We’re delighted to see this as an entry in the contest and can’t wait to see what kind of gear, cam, or pully scheme is built into your projects!
Source:: Hackaday