Hardware
Unfortunately, the assembly of the flip dots is not documented on the website, but as I have not been the first person facing this issue, I found this video explaining some crucial elements. It is German though. I took the advice from the video and added placeholders in between to get the height right.
After having them assembled, I was able to run the example script. To see how the dots are actually flipping, I wanted to record them in slow-motion. I have been mesmerized! The beauty of the flip dots first appeared completely in this video. Each dot flips mechanically (duhh) but they also flip slightly off-timed, bringing exactly this kind of unpredictable humanness into this digital communication realm that I aimed for. But see it yourself: