12/13/2023 0 Comments Shakespeare insult translatorReplace the bulbs with 5v LEDs (but I need to find compatible LEDs)Īdd relays to the Arduino output (but this grows the size, the complexity, and adds electromechanical failure potential)īuild a custom circuit (but since starting from individual transistors and components is beyond my skills, I’d need to either outsource this, or find the right building blocks to join together) My initial thought was to control them with an Arduino - an open-source hardware single-board microcontroller for building digital devices - but those bulbs exceeded both the current & voltage output that such a board supports, which led me down three possible paths: The incandescent bulbs the displays came with were 12V (drawing approx 100mA). ![]() “Loggerheaded weather-bitten skainsmate” would not do “saucy fool-born lout” is closer to something that can fit in the tiny space! The size of the print in the display - ultimately, I found good results with 6pt text - also dictated the words I could choose for the display. So, instead, I went through multiple iterations with different transparency stock (and tweezers to handle the finished product slide so as to not smudge the toner), until I finally achieved a “good enough” print. I contemplated outsourcing the slide printing part, but since the text alignment was so critical to line up with the internal optics, I feared spending money and weeks waiting for the slide, only to find out that a column or row is off by a few millimeters. But as the entire slide is smaller than a 35mm negative, it proved very challenging to get the alignment of the words and the crispness of the text good enough using my laser printer. These particular displays were originally used in some 1960s-era printers, so the first step would be to replace this mask with a custom-printed mask with my selected words. With a few compound lenses between the transparency and the front of the screen, the message or image in that part of the slide is projected to the front. The displays themselves are essentially miniature slide projectors with a built-in screen it has ten tiny lightbulbs to illuminate ten different regions of a single transparency. These devices can each display one of ten different pre-printed messages or images, so for several months, I toyed with a few ideas: a steampunk magic eight ball? a cocktail drink recipe maker that illuminates the mixers, the liquors, and the drink name if you’re feeling indecisive at happy hour time? some sort of unique infinite color projection device given the display’s ability to blend multiple “images” together simultaneously? In that research, I found a listing for a group of four “Single Plane” displays on eBay, and purchased it out of curiosity and the hope that I might come up with some idea on how to use them. In fact, I first came across the display technology at the heart of this device in doing the research for a post last year about a few interesting pre-digital display technologies. ![]() ![]() ![]() This project was spawned not by my vision of the finished project, or even of the idea itself, but initially, by my interest in some older technology. I hope it gives you a little inspiration for some of your own unique projects, or at least a little chuckle. In this post, I’ll share some of the challenges and milestones in building this piece, along with - of course - plenty of photos and a video of the finished product. My Shakespeare Insult Generator is one such project that, with the “shelter in place” orders around the COVID-19 pandemic, I’ve finally had the time and opportunity to bring over the finish line. Some projects take an unexpectedly long time to come to fruition.
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