{
  "id": 3765847,
  "title": "Make a Portable Wide-screen Mechanical TV",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/27/make-a-portable-wide-screen-mechanical-tv",
  "topic": "tech",
  "section": "Tech",
  "published": "2026-08-27T14:46:56.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "IEEE Spectrum",
    "slug": "ieee-spectrum",
    "url": "https://spectrum.ieee.org/mechanical-tv-2677767814"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "In the 1920s, John Logie Baird pioneered electromechanical television using a Nipkow disk, which featured a spiral arrangement of holes. As the disk rotated, these holes would pass one by one in front of a light source, with varying brightness enabling the display of one scan line of a video frame. As technology advanced, cathode-ray tubes eventually replaced these electromechanical systems in the 1940s. However, modern hobbyists have continued to build and enhance these original designs. In recent years, James Provost has been experimenting with a pocket-sized wide-screen electromechanical TV known as the Scanwheel. This device boasts a resolution of 4,096 by 20 pixels, or 4K by 20. A 3D-printed drum, powered by a motor controlled by a Raspberry Pi Pico microcontroller, drives the display. The RP2040 chip, featuring specialized input/output (PIO) silicon, handles the real-time modulation of five LED sources to create multiple areas for hours, minutes, and a second separator. By utilizing this advanced technology and clever design choices, such as the smaller drum size and high LED modulation rates, Provost has managed to achieve a high horizontal resolution while maintaining a compact, portable design.",
  "summary": "I never intended to join the cutting edge of electromechanical television. I just wanted to make a nice clock. But sometimes you have to go where the engineering takes you, and in my case it took me to the Scanwheel, a pocket-size wide-screen electromechanical TV with a resolution of 4,096 by 20 pixels. Yup, that’s 4K by 20. The 3D-printed drum [top] is spun by a motor controlled by a driver…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}