I’ve been wanting to make a 1:220 scale megacity diorama and don’t know what options I have. I’m projecting I’ll need to control the speed of two motors, some LEDs, and maybe a dozen or so tiny screens as digital billboards. It’s the screens I’m worried most about.
I’d like to scavenge digital displays from e-waste, group them by type/resolution, and have a slideshow for each group that rotates throughout the city.
My initial idea was to use digital photo frames, but they’re too big, and used ones are still too expensive for the quantity I need.
I’m assuming I will need multiple controllers(/processors?), but I don’t know enough terminology to find what I need. I’m still thinking out the diorama, so if it’s too hard/expensive I can just do backlit decals, but that’s boring.
The main thing is that (as a relative novice) you’re going to want something with a good community around it. Therefore, you want either Arduino, ESP32, or Raspberry Pi Pico.
There’s a bunch of different ones with different features that may have varying usefulness for your particular situation, so nobody can tell you exactly which ones to get down to the model number. You’re just going to have to read the data sheets to figure out which to buy.
Regardless, any reasonable choice ought to be obtainable as off-brand clones in a multi-pack from Aliexpress for single-digit dollars per unit.