Enormous Fluid Simulation On Flip Dots Is Also Enormous Amount Of Work

Flip dot displays are cool, and more people realize that after [mitxela]’s fluid simulation on flip dots installation was on display at EMF 2026. As glorious as the result is, it was also an amazing amount of work!

Not only did [mitxela] need to source a large number of flip dots, he also needed to find a solution for driving them that didn’t end up more trouble than it was worth. Just about everything about the surplus flip dots — from electrical requirements to mounting — was a pain to work with in one way or another. Even his optimized method of integrating a custom backpack-style driver board into the existing PCB involved a staggering amount of soldering. This project was a long time coming, and the work never really let up.

The payoff, however, is exquisite. Check it out in the video (embedded below) which really shows it off. Flip dots are like nothing else, and the subtle rippling of sound that accompanies their physical movement is oddly soothing.

The installation at EMF 2026 had a GRAVITY CONTROL joystick that allowed folks to interactively shift the display, but [mitxela] also has an accelerometer mounted so that the display physically reacts to being moved. It’s a fantastic spectacle, even more impressive in light of the work it involved.

Unsure how, exactly, flip dots work? We’ve covered all the details about how these devices function. And while a large number would be prohibitively expensive for most projects, if your project can get away with only one dot you’re probably in luck.