Fluid Simulation Pendant: A Hardware Deep Dive from Concept to Production

This article meticulously documents the author's journey in designing and crafting a fluid simulation pendant. The pendant utilizes an STM32L432KC microcontroller to run a real-time FLIP fluid simulation, cleverly employing diagonal charlieplexing for the LED display to significantly simplify the circuit. The author details the entire process, from initial prototyping and PCB design to metalworking, assembly, testing, and iterative design improvements, sharing challenges and solutions encountered along the way. Multiple pendants were successfully produced, and the article concludes with a discussion on potential mass production.