FLIP Fluid on Flip Dots

One of the most popular fluid simulation algorithms is known as FLIP (Fluid-Implicit Particle). Originally developed to model plasma physics, it's now used a lot in special effects.

Ever since writing my own implementation of FLIP, I have wanted to run it on Flip Dots!

Flip dots are electromechanical displays. Each dot has a tiny magnet, and two coils of wire are used to flip it.

Flip dot displays are normally very expensive, but these ones were harvested from old panels used on the front of buses. To tile them seamlessly, and to get them to update much faster, a custom PCB was developed to drive them. To flip a dot, we need to give it about 500mA at 12V for a few milliseconds. There are 2912 dots on this display. To flip them all at once takes nearly 1500 amps!