For more details visit Circuit Digest: https://circuitdigest.com/microcontroller-projects/diy-pov-display-using-ESP32-Arduino

Working Video: https://youtu.be/gkemkTWuw_Q?si=Co7B--rIj7Q62uKU

Persistence of Vision is a fundamental principle that allows our eyes to perceive continuous motion from separate images, a concept crucial to the illusion of motion in cinema. When I was a kid, I was always fascinated with it. So, in this project, we are going to use this fascinating optical phenomenon to create a cool-looking POV Display. You must have seen a lot of such projects on the web, but most of them are limited to very low resolution and just display some texts and geometries. We plan to create a POV display that is not limited to just texts or simple shapes. Ours will be able to display images and animations with a resolution of 128 pixels. We have settled with this resolution because it's the sweet spot where we can get decent image quality and it would be easier to build.
We settled on the ESP32 module as the brain of this display, because it is cheap, easy to get and powerful enough to run the display. The display will have two rotating arms, each outfitted with 64 LEDs, to create a total resolution of 128 pixels. The display will rotate at a constant speed, with the LEDs flashing in meticulously orchestrated patterns, controlled by the ESP32 microcontroller. This synchronization allows the display to generate images or text that appear to hover in mid-air, producing a smooth, continuous visual experience.
Features of our POV Display
• 128 Pixel resolution.
• Frame rate of 20 FPS.
• Easy to build.
• Easy to control.
• ESP32 based.
• Fully open source.
• Companion web app to easily convert images.