My smart home does not need a special dashboard. Even so, eventually I’ll probably throw in something cheap just because I can. But if I had a few grand to spend on something fancy, I’d buy some less useful but ultimately nicer relics of the past instead.
Vestaboard is a flip-dot display
Flip-dot (or flip-disk) displays are mechanical devices that use physically moving parts to display information. If you’re as old as I am, you’ve probably seen them at train stations and airports, while driving on the highway, in front of buses and trams, and even on TV shows. Family feud.
These devices first appeared in the early 1960s and eventually entered most major exchanges by the mid-1970s. Unlike projection and cathode-ray tube (CRT) display technology popular at the time, flip-board displays were easy to see in any light. as E-Ink displayflip-points only need power to change the position of whatever is being flipped.
There are many different types of flip-dot displays. High-resolution versions use multiple dots to create letters or numbers, while simpler designs, such as clocks and departure boards, alternate between elements such as numbers or destinations. They all work pretty much the same way, cycling through the “deck” to find the right element to display.
If you’re wondering what this has to do with a smart home, let me introduce you Vestaboard. It is a modern flip-dot display for home and work, built on the same principle as the original flip-dot displays that were so popular 50 years ago.
Vestaboard can display messages, art and data wirelessly from a smartphone app or desktop browser. But it should not be surprising Home Assistant community also produced Vestaboard Home Assistant Integrationit lets you use the flip-disk display to send notifications, sensor readings, and whatever else you want from your Home Assistant server.
Best of all, Vestaboard has both a cloud-based and on-premises API, so you can install it locally and it will continue even if the internet or remote servers go down.
Two sizes, both expensive
The Vestaboard feels more like a home hub than a useful display. It can’t show you feeds from your cameras, you can’t touch it like a tablet, and it has very limited space to display information. It looks like an interactive piece of art, and it has a price tag to match.
The original Vestaboard is available in two sizes, the larger of the two sizes. It’s 41.2″ wide by 22.0″ wide (1046 x 561mm) and 3.5″ (89mm) deep. It has five lines of 22 characters per line for a total of 132 “bits” (each bit has 64 different characters). You’ll pay $3,499 for it.
Then the smaller Vestaboard Note measures 28.4″ wide by 12.2″ tall (723 × 309 mm) by 4.3″ (109 mm) deep. It has room for three lines of text of 15 characters each. It’ll set you back $999.
Vestaboard has a few more things to consider. Due to the mechanical nature of the necessary elements that snap together, these things are quite high. You’ll either love it or hate it, so make sure you know what you’re in for before you do.
The other thing is that these things are surprisingly popular and it’s not unusual to have a waiting list somewhere. It’s not a bargain, but it’s more like ordering a home appliance than an iPad that shows up in a few days. Good things come to those who wait and all that.
Do you have skills? Replace the old flip-dot display
Vestaboard is expensive and hard to find because it is an incredibly unique piece of kit. If you want one, there’s really no alternative. Not unless you have the ability to modify the old working model anyway.
That’s exactly how it is Here’s what Reddit user u/GenerallyOkayTimes did. Using ESP8285 and STMD32uino system-on-chip microcontrollers Flippity 210 they were able to bring to the library BUS 210 turn the screen back to life. There is a whole wiki is available with instructions on how to use this library and the equipment you need to create your own.
These displays are harder to get your hands on, although I have found a few about $100 In the Czech markets. These differ slightly from Vestaboard in that they use dots rather than printed elements, are designed to be visible in front of buses and trams, and are smaller.
Still, if you’re into gaming, this could be a fun project.
Don’t look at Vestaboard as a practical object; think of it as a kind of modern work of art. If you’re like me, “maybe I can justify a little something?” quickly turns into “but the big one is so adorable!”
