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Fixing a Flipdot Panel...

A project log for The Big Flipper - Four Letter Word In Flipdots

What do you get if you mash up a word association database with some flipdot highway signs pulled out of a bin?

tom-harrisTom Harris 05/28/2021 at 11:000 Comments

I took one panel and had a good look at it. As can be seen, there are quite a few breakages.

These need fixing else the yellow dot will fall out as it will not be secured properly. I tried gluing them with superglue, but it did not work well on the plastic, which is some sort of very brittle glass filled stuff. I suspect that it will need epoxy glue to do a proper job, so I'll do a whole batch at once to avoid wasting glue.

So I selected the most beat up of my five panels as a donor and started taking it apart. The rows of dots rotate on a thin steel wire, which can be carefully removed by pulling with pliers. Like so:

And then I ended up with this. All 35 dots are in one piece and rotate freely. Now to check if they actually work. I did this last as I have never found an electrical fault with these panels, somehow they are super reliable.

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