--- title: Scanwheel: A Pocket-Sized POV TV | daily.dev description: The Scanwheel is a pocket-sized mechanical TV built by maker 'Ancient' using a Raspberry Pi Pico, an A4988 stepper motor driver, five LEDs, and a 3D-printed... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/scanwheel-a-pocket-sized-pov-tv-otkna0caj twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Scanwheel: A Pocket-Sized POV TV | daily.dev og:description: The Scanwheel is a pocket-sized mechanical TV built by maker 'Ancient' using a Raspberry Pi Pico, an A4988 stepper motor driver, five LEDs, and a 3D-printed... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/scanwheel-a-pocket-sized-pov-tv-otkna0caj og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/otknA0Caj.png og:image:alt: Scanwheel: A Pocket-Sized POV TV og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Scanwheel: A Pocket-Sized POV TV **[Hackaday](https://daily.dev/sources/hackaday)** · 2 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary The Scanwheel is a pocket-sized mechanical TV built by maker 'Ancient' using a Raspberry Pi Pico, an A4988 stepper motor driver, five LEDs, and a 3D-printed spinning disk with 20 evenly spaced holes. Spinning at ~900 RPM, the Pico precisely times LED activation to exploit the persistence-of-vision effect, producing a color 20×20 pixel center display flanked by two 20×20 black-and-white displays — all in a handheld form factor. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Scanwheel is a drum style mechanical television you can build yourself](https://daily.dev/posts/scanwheel-is-a-drum-style-mechanical-television-you-can-build-yourself-vtt1llsyb) · Hacker News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Someone used four LED strips to create a 'screen' by spinning them around really quickly](https://daily.dev/posts/someone-used-four-led-strips-to-create-a-screen-by-spinning-them-around-really-quickly-9bf2bwvxw) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [A Flip Disc Display That Does It Slow And Steady](https://daily.dev/posts/a-flip-disc-display-that-does-it-slow-and-steady-jzwb18xdx) · Hackaday · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Electromechanical TV Goes 3D With This Light-field Display](https://daily.dev/posts/electromechanical-tv-goes-3d-with-this-light-field-display-wfu1hakkg) · Hackaday · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [AncientJames/multivox](https://daily.dev/posts/ancientjames-multivox-36cfvyyw3) · Hacker News · 1 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#embedded](https://daily.dev/tags/embedded) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/scanwheel-a-pocket-sized-pov-tv-otkna0caj) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Scanwheel: A Pocket-Sized POV TV","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/scanwheel-a-pocket-sized-pov-tv-otkna0caj","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/scanwheel-a-pocket-sized-pov-tv-otkna0caj"},"datePublished":"2026-07-27T05:01:30.520Z","dateModified":"2026-07-27T05:01:48.276Z","description":"The Scanwheel is a pocket-sized mechanical TV built by maker 'Ancient' using a Raspberry Pi Pico, an A4988 stepper motor driver, five LEDs, and a 3D-printed...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/c9975b8a983090e8cd18910be74395de?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/c9975b8a983090e8cd18910be74395de?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Hackaday","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Hackaday","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--JhDfhy70--/f_auto,q_auto/v1767541814/logos/hackaday","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/hackaday"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/scanwheel-a-pocket-sized-pov-tv-otkna0caj","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"embedded","timeRequired":"PT2M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Hackaday","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/hackaday"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Scanwheel: A Pocket-Sized POV TV"}]} ```