Parametric Nipkow Disc

thingiverse

This is a Nipkow disc used to make your own Baird mechanical television set. Before there was 4K or HD, before ATSC or NTSC, before PAL and SECAM, before IC's, transistors and even tubes, this is how TV was done. And this, I claim, is the world's first parametric 3-D printed Nipkow disc. This has several advantages over the usual alternatives. It is lighter than metal or wood, stronger than paper or cardboard, and its accuracy is limited only by the precision of your printer. It is fully parameterized, with options in the Openscad source to easily set the disc diameter, scanning hole size, number of holes, raster height and more. The photos are of my prototype. The final version is identical, only printed in black ABS. The included STL will print a 100 mm. diameter, 1 mm. thick disc with 32 scan lines and a 16 mm. raster height. The hole size is set to 2 mm., which on my printer generates holes with a diameter of 1 mm., which is about right for this combination. While this isn't really a "work in progress", I may make modifications down the line if I think of ways to improve it. Instructions Make sure your bed is sticky enough to grab the outlines of the small holes starting off. Slowing the print helps here. If printing in ABS, make sure the bed is hot enough to prevent warping.