4 hours Ago By Tom Nardi
We love unique displays here at Hackaday. If you can figure out how to show information on some weird object, we’re all about it. So when [Julius Curt] wrote in to share his work on the Pasta Analog Display, we were hooked from the subject line.
But in reading his account, it ended up being even better than we hoped for. Because it turns out, getting pasta to behave properly in an electromechanical device is trickier than you might think. Oh sure, as [Julius] points out, those ridges on the side of penne might make them look like gears — but after spending the time and effort to build a particularly slick 3D printed frame to actually use them as such, it turns out they just won’t cooperate.
You’d think the pasta makers of the world would have some respect for mechanical tolerances, but unfortunately not.This version of the pasta display didn’t work, but we love the design." data-medium-file="https://hackaday.
com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/pasta_detail.jpg?w=400" data-large-file="https://hackaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/pasta_detail.
jpg?w=800" class=" wp-image-767532" src="https://hackaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/pasta_detail.jpg?w=800" alt="" width="474" height="290" srcset="https://hackaday.
com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/pasta_detail.jpg 1104w, https://hackaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/pasta_detail.
jpg?resize=250,153 250w, https://hackaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/pasta_detail.jpg?resize=400,245 400w, https://hackaday.
com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/pasta_detail.jpg?resize=800,489 800w" sizes="(max-width: 474px) 100vw, 474px" />This version of the pasta display didn’t work, but we love the design.So if [Julius] couldn’t use the natural shape of the penne to get them to rotate, what was the alternative? First, he switched to the far larger cannelloni.
Their increased internal volume, most commonly used to hold spinach and ricotta, has in this case been stuffed with a 3D printed armature. Thus each cannelloni is physically attached to a gear, which means when one of them is rotated by a 28BYJ-48 stepper motor, the rest follow.All that’s left is to apply some artwork to the pasta (again, easier said than done), and rotate them into position.
Depending on how much you can cram onto each cannelloni, the display can be rotated to show several different messages. In the video below, [Julius] shows off three distinct images rendered at the push of a button.If you get hungry while trying to turn pasta into a workable display medium, you can always cook and eat some of your building materials.
Luckily, a couple years ago Barilla released the design for an open source device to help you cook their pasta more efficiently..
