For EMF2026, the author built a FLIP (Fluid Implicit Particle) simulation on a flipdot electromechanical display, motivated by the pun and the silent nature of LED liquid. After being denied access to a commercial flipdot display, they sourced old panels from Sam (Look Mum No Computer), who had received donations of obsolete tech. The panels, likely from Hanover or Alfa Zeta, are complex—each dot is a six-layer sandwich with permanent magnets and polarizable cores.

The project involved designing custom decoder boards, power supplies, and a joystick interface in KiCad. Despite challenges, the simulation works, and the author hopes Chinese manufacturers might eventually produce cheaper flipdot displays, which they’d consider a win.