![]() ![]() The display is a trapezoid, 21.5 millimeters wide and 13.5 mm tall at one end and 18 mm tall at the other. Prusa i3 MK3S+ printer, settling on 32 holes for 32 scan lines. I wrote software that allowed me to generate test disks with my This dictated the resolution of my display, since there’s a limit to how small you can produce precisely shaped and positioned holes. I chose to make the disk 20 centimeters in diameter, as that’s a size most home 3D printers can manage. The first thing I had to do was figure out the disk. If the illumination is varied in sync with the time it takes each hole to cross the viewing region, you can build up images in the display frame. A motor spins the disk, and each hole passes through the lighted region in turn, creating a series of (slightly curved) scan lines. A light source behind the disk illuminates a small region. The secret of a Nipkow disk is in its spiral of holes. I set about designing an inexpensive version that could be made using a consumer-grade 3D printer. ![]() ![]() In more recent years, I saw that a number of people had built modern Nipkow displays-even incorporating color-but these relied on having access to pricey machine tools and materials. I’d been interested in Nipkow disks since I was a student, trying a few experiments with cardboard disks that didn’t really produce anything. So I wondered: What was the easiest way to build such a display that would produce a good quality image? And Nipkow displays are fascinating in their simplicity-no high voltages or complex matrices. But when a mechanical TV is fed a moving image, the result is surprisingly watchable. The size and weight of a Nipkow disk makes a display with more than a few dozen scan lines impracticable (in stark contrast to modern screens with This early programming established many of the formats we take for granted today, such as variety shows and outside broadcasts. Ninety years ago in places like England and Germany, broadcasters transmitted to commercially produced black-and-white electromechanical television sets, such as the Baird Televisor, that used these disks to produce moving images. Before flat screens, before even cathode-ray tubes, people watched television programs at home thanks to the Nipkow disk. ![]()
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