3D holographic display fans -- ToonFX's Journal -- Fur Affinity [dot] net

3D holographic display fans

11 months ago General

Anyone have any experience with these things? Here’s one that I found for a reasonable price on Amazon: https://a.co/d/aJs06Eg

I saw one over the weekend and it was a larger device with four blades and intended to be mounted over people’s heads and plugged into a wall outlet and I was intrigued enough to look closer into these devices to see if there was anything that might be useful for a convention table display that I could mount on my cubicle panels. The trouble is that all the search results that I’m coming across are of a similar nature: Asian imports where the reviews say the instructions aren’t in English and the item description doesn’t give enough breakdown for me to know what the electrical requirements are. Since this would be used at my convention table I would want to get something relatively lightweight with a USB power cable that I can plug into my portable battery power bank rather than going into a wall outlet. I do have a cable converter to make a USB cable compatible with a barrel jack (https://a.co/d/dejaLUI) but I don’t know enough about electrical details to be sure that any fan display I might buy will be properly powered from my battery bank and not suffer a short circuit in the process. What I would *LOVE* is to find a store that sells these so I could see them in person and ask questions from a sales person but again, all search results point to these being Asian imports so I’m left with questions. Maybe someone reading this can offer some advice?

Thanks in advance!

8 Comments

ceagle ~ceagle

Feathery

11 months ago

I don't know if they have those (pretty cool tho!).. but I used to buy a few signs at Special Signs of San Gabriel :>

DFStarfield ~dfstarfield

Commissioner

11 months ago

As far as I can tell from a cursory look at Aliexpress and a company called Lumina, the numbers are all over the place. The watts and amps vary pretty significantly unfortunately. It would like be specific to whatever model you get.

Bob M. Guthrie

A blue bubble with ripples and a white pawprint in the center

~bobguthrie

Animator, Cartoonist, Ideator

11 months ago

I bought a few for friend and bosses from both Temu (👍🏻), AliExpress (so so), but (forget) Alibaba.

Good prices, some are PC controlled only, and some work with Android phones (iPhone is kind of left in the dust, but GitHub has some third-party software for Mac)

It is a very cool effect, and I would like to try one someday. From a few steps away, it is a definite eye-catcher; you only have to worry about image clipping. The biggest home (for a work boss) displayed a holo-like Xmad tree in her office lobby.

(one of the ubits I bought for a friend: https://www.temu.com/-3d-holographi.....12774225.html)

ToonFX ~toonfx

Traditional Artist

9 months ago

It seems that whenever I log onto this site I'm only really uploading things and not replying to folks who've offered their help in the journals. I'm sorry for that. :( I checked out the link and while it's no longer available as I type this today I thought it was an interesting result. I'm still weighing what I want to do about it because the larger versions are heavy and dangerous enough that I don't think I can mount them securely on my usual convention displays, and the smaller options lose some of the "wow" factor. It almost feels like if I go with the smaller option I might as well get a little monitor. Still thinking about this.

Something I never looked into before however was the websites you mention, Temu, Aliexpress, and Alibaba. Whenever I look to online purchases I either go with Amazon or Ebay for the multitude of products, or specific online stores like Jetpens, Target, or Walmart for more specific products. Temu, etc look interesting for the variety and low cost of the items, but I get extremely wary over the loose descriptions and the concern that a lot of the offerings appear to be photoshopped mockups making it feel like I'm just rolling the dice and likely to get scammed. I guess you've had relatively good experiences with Temu though?

Stubat ~stubat

Watcher

11 months ago

Hi! I recently grabbed one of these from Amazon ($40 cybermonday or some such.) Have to admit, it's pretty stunning when it's running. I'm pretty sure it's supply is a 12V 2A wall wart, tho i don't think it needs all of that. Dang, it's hung up at work and i'm not going to be there 'til Tuesday. If I think about it, I can hook it up to my bench supply and see what it really needs. Also it's stock settings are pretty bright, sure if you back off on brightness it'll pull quite a bit less. But even the $40 unit does some really nice effects. Was not expecting that. It uses an SD card on board, or you can wirelessly mess with it as well. Been too busy to mess with it lately but have to say it's impressive. Note that if you try to run this in a typical con dealer space you'll have to be careful of the blades. They're spooling and can give you quite a whack! And it makes a rather loud 'fan' noise, tho don't think it'd be too much of a prob in the usual con hubbub... Stu the tech-bat (and LED junkie...)

Stubat ~stubat

Watcher

10 months ago

Well, I finally remembered to check the actual power draw on my 16.5" unit from Amazon. ( https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C3B8YFK....._asin_title_1) it runs on 12 volts and draws right around 1 amp. (Averages about .9, max about 1.1 amp. This is at default settings which are rather bright.) One of the small "solar generator/power bank" units out there can run it for hours. Even my smallest would go 12+ hrs. (153Wh battery.) Or many of the standard lithium car jumper packs can do it with a cig lighter kinda plug. These things really look great. Watch fingers, tho. Stay batty!

ToonFX ~toonfx

Traditional Artist

9 months ago

Hey there, sorry for the delay in replying to this, but I appreciate the info, thank you! That item you linked to really looks impressive for the price and has me considering picking one up even if I never actually use it at a convention just to toy around with it. I am concerned that the loose blades would be a problem at a convention because my table display isn't very strong and I'd fear the weight and vibration would wind up having the fan fall off at some point. My table display is really meant to mount paper and not mechanical devices. The other concern is my table display isn't tall enough to keep the spinning blades out of reach, which definitely would be a hazard. Something I should consider if I try to bring anything like this would be a stronger metal truss to mount the thing on.

Thank you so much for checking on the power requirements!

Stubat ~stubat

Watcher

2 weeks ago

Sorry for missing your reply. I've been rather lax on my FA checkins. Yes, this thing's pretty cool and capable for the price. But it's definitely not to be near touches! Could give a serious whack! And it's not quiet. probably ok on a pole mount up high. Take care, stay furry!

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