Hello,
I want to power a rotating POV device from a non-moving base. This is an alternative to powering the device from a battery in/on the rotating part. I've seen examples of this for very large devices, but is there a small example and component you would recommend?
Thanks for the feedback. 
I did this back in April 96 with slip rings. It's for another computer but the mechanics are the same:-
http://www.doc.mmu.ac.uk/STAFF/A.Wiseman/Acorn/RTR96.html
Look for April RTR13
LED Whizzer part 1. LEDs are rotated at high speed by a motor and rapidly switched on and off to create a pattern in space. The first part describes the construction of the hardware.
One alternative I've seen is to mount the shaft of a motor to the base, and rotate the body (with the windings in it). Then you have a generator with a rotating DC output.
I've also seen it done with a stepper motor, using one of the windings as a "tick" input to sync a propeller clock being powered by filtering the output of the other winding(s).
Ran
Check out this link:
Wayne
Another popular method is to have one coil of wire on the base, another coil rotating above it in the same plane. Then you have a simple transformer; pulse current through the bottom coil, rectify and filter the top coil. This arrangement is what I've seen on commercially produced POV devices. Depending on power requirements, you might need to add some core material.
Cheap and easy if your mechanism allows for it would be to use a TRS (ie, headphone) connector at the swivel point. Of course it means your bearing would have to be hollow so that the plug could sit at the center.
Hey all,
Thanks for the numerous replies! My picture of things is no longer pitch black. Excuse my newbness while I dig deeper. To help, I drew a primitive picture of an idea for this.
Ran,
So far I'm seeing the mounting to a base thing working out, because I want the motor to spin, rotating the entire device rather quickly. What do you mean by the windings? I'm not quite seeing the power transferring to the device on this example yet.
Grumpy Mike, Wayne,
Awesome. These look like they will transfer power great, but I'm not quite sure how I would get the motor to rotate the device with this. Any thoughts?
macegr,
I'm having a hard time picturing this. Something like this?:
ajb,
Good thoughts. I can see this, but am still having a hard time visualizing the connections and getting a motor in there.
Thanks again for your help! 
Edit:
Hmmmm. Here's kind of a 'duh!' solution... part of one anyway. Power the motor seperate from the arduino+LEDs. The battery attached to the Arduino would last longer anyway. The motor would be attached to and powered from the base the other way around. That's not a full solution though if I decide to keep something like that running for a while. Reading up some more...
Ok, getting a bit further. This article talks about brushing. ... not a very polished procedure, but it's a start:
http://instruct1.cit.cornell.edu/courses/ee476/FinalProjects/s2009/ht227/index.html#Brushing
More links as I progress:
http://www.luberth.com/analog.htm
http://www.electronixandmore.com/project/propclock/index.html
morse-code.com - This website is for sale! - morse code Resources and Information. (o_O)
http://www.rickard.gunee.com/projects/mechscan/dualpic/gamesys.php
http://www.instructables.com/tag/?sort=none&q=pov+motor&limit%3Atype%3Aid=on