This Raspberry Pi volumetric display is a new spin on LED 3D animations

Really cool Raspberry Pi projects tend to make their way around the community and this amazing creation is certainly making the rounds at extremely high speed. Maker and developer James Brown has created a Raspberry Pi volumetric display that spins LED panels at high speed, making 3D images you can view from any angle.

Brown first put this project together back in October and demonstrated it's ability to successfully animate objects in 3D space. Today, we're showcasing an update posted by Brown over the last week showing a second model along with a cool new update. The spinning panels are now protected by a spherical shield cover.

The volumetric display is built using multiple panels—each sporting an array of LEDs. The panels are spun at high speed while the Pi tells each LED when to illuminate. The end result is a 3D effect that you can see no matter which direction you're looking at it from. The framerate and spin speed has to be just right for the effect to work successfully.

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The hardware is contained inside a custom base that Brown 3D-printed just for the project. To power the volumetric displays, Brown opted to use a Raspberry Pi. It operates the panels via DPI. According to Brown, this let him manipulate 24 GPIO lines without using the CPU while maintaining precise timing.

In addition to the new glass covers, the wiring was also straightened up on the rear of the panels. After the recent changes, the displays are capable of reaching 600 RPM which provides decent enough quality without any unwanted flicker. If you want to get a closer look at this Raspberry Pi project in action, check out the original thread shared by Brown to Mastodan. Be sure to follow him for more cool projects as well as any future updates to this one.