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Scott Bezek has a great video on "How a Split Flap Display Works" [0]. He also sells blank "flaps" on Tindie [1]. The documentation on how to build the Split

Scott Bezek has a great video on "How a Split Flap Display Works" [0]. He also sells blank "flaps" on Tindie [1]. The documentation on how to build the Split Flap is also really awesome [2], including how to cut your own flaps [3]. I've been following this project for a while. It's pretty awesome. I estimate about $10 per character (as opposed to the $180/character (!!) another poster mentioned through Alibaba), with a large portion of the cost being the custom cut "flaps" (in small quantities). It seems like the cost could get in the $2-$4 range per character but I couldn't figure out how to do it without a significant amount of labor involved in cutting the flaps. FYI, there's also a company called Oat Foundry that sells large split-flap displays [4]. I seem to remember the cost being in the $10k+ region but I don't see a price and I could be way off base. Oh, interesting, I see Vestaboard also has a (smaller) one for around $3k [5]. [0] https://youtu.be/UAQJJAQSg_g https://youtu.be/UAQJJAQSg_g [1] https://www.tindie.com/products/scottbez1/blank-split-flap-display-flaps/ https://www.tindie.com/products/scottbez1/blank-split-flap-d... [2] https://github.com/scottbez1/splitflap/wiki https://github.com/scottbez1/splitflap/wiki [3] https://github.com/scottbez1/splitflap/wiki/Cut-flaps https://github.com/scottbez1/splitflap/wiki/Cut-flaps [4] https://www.oatfoundry.com/split-flap/ https://www.oatfoundry.com/split-flap/ [5] https://shop.vestaboard.com/products/vestaboard https://shop.vestaboard.com/products/vestaboard

murderfs 6y ago
> I've been following this project for a while. It's pretty awesome. I estimate about $10 per character (as opposed to the $180/character (!!) another poster mentioned through Alibaba), with a large portion of the cost being the custom cut "flaps" (in small quantities). It seems like the cost could get in the $2-$4 range per character but I couldn't figure out how to do it without a significant amount of labor involved in cutting the flaps. Laser cutting a bunch of sheets at once could be one option, but material selection might be a problem: PVC releases chlorine when laser cut, which will do all sorts of horrible things to optics/the meatbag operating the machine. Maybe a cutting plotter will work, since you're using really thin sheets?
- abetusk 6y ago
  Laser cutting is straight out for the hobbyist, because of the chlorine, as you correctly point out. I think the way to do this is either with a CNC or with some die punch solution. Doing a single cutout of PVC with a CNC would be fine, but doing 40x23x7 is probably not. Doing a die punch is maybe possible but I don't really know how to create a custom punch and what tooling to use.
  - atrus 6y ago
    It's too bad there isn't a bigger market for this, steel rule dies aren't too expensive to get made. And used clickers are pretty cheap too. But only if you were doing a bunch of signs!
  - jiveturkey 6y ago
    > Laser cutting is straight out for the hobbyist, because of the chlorine Just don't use PVC blanks.
- mschuster91 6y ago
  > Laser cutting a bunch of sheets at once could be one option Use a waterjet cutter instead. You'll have some issues with microplastics in the water, but these can be filtered.
  - abetusk 6y ago
    Show me a water jet cutter that's priced at the hobbyist level (and isn't a full time job to upkeep) and I'm there.
    - jiveturkey 6y ago
      I don't understand. Just send it to a service. You don't make your own PCBs do you? There's lots of things a hobbyist cannot do in-house, and even if you can just make far more sense (at hobbyist scale) to contract out. There is the wazer, but it doesn't live up to its hype.
    - 6y ago
thunderbong 6y ago
This HN post has been submitted by Scott Bezek linking his github source code

murderfs 6y ago

> I've been following this project for a while. It's pretty awesome. I estimate about $10 per character (as opposed to the $180/character (!!) another poster mentioned through Alibaba), with a large portion of the cost being the custom cut "flaps" (in small quantities). It seems like the cost could get in the $2-$4 range per character but I couldn't figure out how to do it without a significant amount of labor involved in cutting the flaps. Laser cutting a bunch of sheets at once could be one option, but material selection might be a problem: PVC releases chlorine when laser cut, which will do all sorts of horrible things to optics/the meatbag operating the machine. Maybe a cutting plotter will work, since you're using really thin sheets?

abetusk 6y ago
Laser cutting is straight out for the hobbyist, because of the chlorine, as you correctly point out. I think the way to do this is either with a CNC or with some die punch solution. Doing a single cutout of PVC with a CNC would be fine, but doing 40x23x7 is probably not. Doing a die punch is maybe possible but I don't really know how to create a custom punch and what tooling to use.
- atrus 6y ago
  It's too bad there isn't a bigger market for this, steel rule dies aren't too expensive to get made. And used clickers are pretty cheap too. But only if you were doing a bunch of signs!
- jiveturkey 6y ago
  > Laser cutting is straight out for the hobbyist, because of the chlorine Just don't use PVC blanks.
mschuster91 6y ago
> Laser cutting a bunch of sheets at once could be one option Use a waterjet cutter instead. You'll have some issues with microplastics in the water, but these can be filtered.
- abetusk 6y ago
  Show me a water jet cutter that's priced at the hobbyist level (and isn't a full time job to upkeep) and I'm there.
  - jiveturkey 6y ago
    I don't understand. Just send it to a service. You don't make your own PCBs do you? There's lots of things a hobbyist cannot do in-house, and even if you can just make far more sense (at hobbyist scale) to contract out. There is the wazer, but it doesn't live up to its hype.
  - 6y ago

thunderbong 6y ago

This HN post has been submitted by Scott Bezek linking his github source code