Someone used four LED strips to create a 'screen' by spinning them around really quickly

Credit: camander321 Published Aug 20, 2026, 4:37 AM EDT Simon is a Computer Science BSc graduate who has been writing about technology since 2014, and using Windows machines since 3.1. After working for an indie game studio and acting as the family's go-to technician for all computer issues, he found his passion for writing and decided to use his skill set to write about all things tech. Since beginning his writing career, he has written for many different publications such as WorldStart, Listverse, and MakeTechEasier. However, after finding his home at MakeUseOf in February 2019, he would eventually move on to its sister site, XDA, to bring the latest and greatest in Windows, Linux, and DIY electronics. Sign in to your XDA account Summary Four spinning SK9822 LED strips and a Teensy 4.1 make a POV "video" display. Four 32-LED strips offset into 128 rows and 360 columns; each LED updates 360×/rev at ~1500 RPM. Hall sensor syncs refresh to rotation, keeping the illusion alive regardless of speed. The DIY community is always finding cool new ways to display things in ways they weren't originally meant to be displayed. For instance, there was that one time someone made a playable version of Doom on a volumetric display, which made the game look like it was running on a 3D hologram. Now, someone is showing off a Teensy 4.1-based project that creates videos out of four spinning LED strips, and it's probably the coolest way I've ever been Rickrolled before. This Teensy 4.1 project makes videos out of LED blurs Because why watch things normally when you can instead spin LEDs at 1,500 RPM? Over on the Arduino subreddit, user camander321 gave us a peek at what they're currently making. It's a system that turns four LED strips into a video by spinning them around very quickly. With some clever engineering and some really fast rotations, you can make it so the blur of light the LEDs leave behind creates the illusion of a video playing on a screen. Here's how camander321 describes it: "This is a "Persistence of Vision" (PoV) display driven by a Teensy 4.1 and SK9822 LED strips. There are 4 strips of 32 LEDs, each slightly offset in order to give me 128 addressable pixel "rows". So each strip is responsible for every 4th row. 360 pixel "columns" around the perimeter makes for roughly square pixels, so that's what I went with. Each LED is updated 360 times every revolution...at around 1500rpm." There's a Hall sensor at the top of this device that automatically detects how fast the apparatus is spinning. With this information, it can properly adjust the LED refresh rate to maintain the illusion. The creator says they'll show off more if there's enough interest, so be sure to show them some love if that sounds like something you'd want.