PULSE SHAPER POWER SUPPLY.
Flip-disc displays require a specific power supply, in order to flip the disc we need to supply the disc with a current pulse of about 0.5A with a precise length of about 1ms (see flip-disc datasheet) and with correct polarity. There are several ways to do this, I chose the simplest one. Each separate disc has two leads to which power is applied. Simply put, depending on the polarity (+-/-+) of the power supply on the leads, the disc rotates to the positive (colored) or negative (black) side.
Powering the display takes place in two phases, first the charge is collected and then released to power the display, then the controller built into the display directs the power to the selected flip-disc. The disadvantage of this solution is that only one disc can be powered at a time. Despite this limitation, we can still control up to several dozen flip-discs in one second.
The power module is responsible for the current pulse and the basic controller built into the display is responsible for driving the discs in the selected polarity. The entire operation can be easily managed using Arduino or any other board.
HOW TO USE.
Pulse Shaper Power Supply module required 12V external power supply. Two digital outputs PL, CH (e.g. Arduino) are required to control the PSPS module. Control takes place in the following steps:
- Charging ON
- Wait until the charge is accumulated
- Charging OFF
- Release the charge into the flip-disc
- Wait 1ms
- Turn OFF the current pulse
All the displays on this website have built-in basic controllers. The program codes for the displays have been published in github repositories. The user does not need to write the driver himself, just connect the corresponding modules (according to the instructions) and upload the code to the Arduino.
ARDUINO CODE.
