Viewmaster Project
Client:
Unit22
Project Type: Hardware, Unity Development
In mid 2025, Unity22 a production house based in London, asked me to be involved in a interactive scaled up model of a 1965 Viewmaster 32 , for one of their clients. The talent team at Unit 22 would work on the physical build and I was tasked with finding a solution for both the mechanics of the physical spinning disk, and the duel displays inside each of the viewports. The entire project was to be build over the course of 5-6weeks, but be offsite for spraying and painting for around a week.
To kick off the project I decided to use a large steeper motor to power the disk with a direct drive to a light 3mm acrylic disk, couple with a Mini PC running a simple unity app that would turn the digital display around the same amount of the physical disk. The entire system was made to be modular so we could fit it in the limited spaces and modify each competent.
The build
Orginall I was planning on using both a motor and PC software to be linked together, however this turn out to make the set up harder, and due to the limited physical access I didn’t want to relay on the solution that would require any onsite team to have to remove the disk to turn on and off the computer. Eventually I settled on building around two systems inside the same housing, bound together using a momentary switch to operate two circuits.
Circuit A, is the PC behaviour and has two sensors for it to operate, the first being the button the user presses, this connects to number pad that inputs a key press for the number 9, Allowing me the know when to spin the disk. The second sensor is a limit switch places at the top of the physical spinning disk, that helps me align physical start point with the digital one, once every rotation. This means every user passing the 7th image, also re-centres the digital and physical disks encase theirs any issues through-out the day.
Circuit B, is the motor behaviour and also has two sensors for the its operation, the first is also connect user switch but on the momentary NC loop, with means on a circuity break I also spin the disk a certain amount of pre programmed degrees, using the stepper motors on board encoder to check its past it amount of steps. The second is limit switch the set a 0 point on the encoder when the disc is physical in the correct positon.
Outcome
This approach allowed me to hand over the motor solution to the team in around a week, allowing them to work on the mounts and internal spacing , while I developed the software and maintenance documentation separately. Unfortunately I didn’t have much contact with the client, but the viewmaster is currently on display somewhere in Amsterdam, and is running strong.