Magnetic numbers shift and reform in amazing ferrofluid clock

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I love this, I was totally ready to order one and then…

Price: 7.500 euro (excluding tax)

I guess ripping off rich people is one way to make a living.

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My head in the past thirty seconds:

"7.50 Euro, that’s so cheap! Why is that extra zero there, I wonder.

Oh, right, Europe. Ohmigod, that’s crazy expensive."

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It is this lively hood that enables Ferrolic to show…

Hood?

Did he mean livelihood? Because I don’t think that word means what he thinks it means. Or maybe I didn’t notice the hood?

Perfect! I can now lie on my $8000.00 set of configurable balls and watch my 7.50 Euro clock ticking away the seconds until my shriveled, gluttonous, self-absorbed soul is cast into the fires of eternal damnation.

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You could do some ridiculous Rorschach cosplay with this tech

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I didn’t see a price anywhere on the site but you say it’s HOW much?? Damn, i really wanted one ):

Edit: Ah the price is hidden under their “Inquiries” page, seems like they are regarding the clock more of a luxury/art piece. Because the price listed is just the starting cost, it can go up from there if you want to customize it to your liking. And while this is currently a prototype i don’t believe that the final product would be substantially cheaper. I can only hope that someone else will come up with a more affordable, less pretentious version.

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seems like a prime candidate for an open source hardware project. Because I suspect the materials will set you back somewhat less than 7.5K

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Yes i was thinking the same. I edited my above post with some further thoughts that reflect your line of thinking. I think this might be fairly doable for someone else to make the clock/display more accessible (cost-wise).

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Isn’t this really just a liquid etch-a-sketch?
I’m curious as to how all the magnets are being moved all around, could be a cool project.

I’m 99% sure that what you’re seeing is a grid of electromagnets, 7 or 8 high, and maybe 16 across. Magnets on the lowest layer are turned on first to draw the fluid up from the base, then magnets on successively higher layers are engaged to continue the fluid’s ascent. It’s pretty clever. To get the fluid from the base to any given point, it plots a path and turns on adjacent magnets to draw the fluid around

Other than the fluid, I don’t think there are any moving parts

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That. A stationary grid of magnets, likely with shaped pole extenders.

I wonder if the AC behavior of the magnets (or the current waveform when they are powered on) could be used to infer the amount of ferrofluid sticking on them. So if too much drains from the digit, it can be “refilled”.

Of course an open-loop control can be implemented instead, using estimation when some pretty animation has to be done to drop the fluid from the display and then transfer new, known amount to the segments again.

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