The Nuclear Option is my Magic: The Gathering war chest with magnetically-activated animated edge-lit deck boxes. Learn how I hacked together this nerdy showpiece.
Most pictures in this post were taken with Google Glass. It’s the best tool to document a project – nothing sucks more than wasting precious project time dicking around with a camera.
All the low-tech hardware came from Harbor Freight. The project was inspired by a Reddit commenter who used the same toolbox. I bought some foam mat and diamond-tread foam to add some structure.The box was lined with some cheap, gnarly foam. I ripped it all out.I cut a long strip of diamond-tread foam and used 3M Super 77 to bond it in place. The clamps prevent the top edge of the foam, which people will see, from curling.I laid out the decks on my block of pluck foam and marked the corners with toothpicks. Chalk or marker would spoil the finished look.I pulled out holes for the decks, and toothpicked out the playmat slot.Also one for the dice. Early planning let me keep its borders even, so the whole thing looked consistent.I test-fitted the contents and traced the outlines into the bottom foam.I used programmable WS2812 LED’s left over from a client, which come pre-soldered to circuit tape. I cut the tape to fit the outlines I traced earlier.Then I soldered the tape back together into one continuous strip. What a pain in the ass.I traced the deck cutouts onto a slab of foam. The frames will prevent the deck backlights from bleeding into each other.A few sticks of hot glue will keep that shit locked.Everything fits, but will it work?Spoiler alert: It doesNow let’s glue it all down!I cut a block to fit into the center of each LED sub-strip. These will support the decks and hold the magnetic sensors.I melted a channel into each block with a soldering iron. This produces toxic smoke and you should never do this. I then glued a reed switch into each channel. The switch detects the deck magnet and activates the lights.I soldered the driver to some Veroboard. The processor is an Arduino Pro Mini. The relay closes at 4V, and draws only 30mA, which an Arduino pin can sink without a switching transistor. We still need a flyback diode, or the Arduino will be crispy barbecue. The capacitor stabilizes the rail as the batteries die.Why use the relay? Even when they’re totally off, each WS2812 LED draws 1mA of quiescent current. If the relay didn’t break the circuit, the 32 LED’s would drain the AA batteries in a week with the lid closed. The WS2812’s, Arduino, and relay use nominal 5V but work fine on 4.5V.I glued thin styrene sheets over the LED’s to diffuse the glow. When you look into a deck slot, you see smooth plastic instead of raw electronics.I used a utility knife to carve into the foam. This will make room for the electronics without exposing them to Cheeto-dusty poking nerd fingers.I cut some foam into risers, so the dice and playmat are in easy reach.Stackin’ em up!The diamond-tread foam looks manly as hell.I forgot to take a picture, but the case came with a pocketed tool-card-holder-thing with a nice toggle clip. I decided to repurpose this to hold my binder.I cut off the toggle clasp……and bolted it to a slim three-ring binder.A bumper protects the cards from the other end of the screws.I cut a card-sized foam slice for each deck and glued on a super-strong neodymium magnet.A magnet-foam thing goes inside each deck box so the reed switch can detect when the deck is removed.The final reed switch will detect when the lid is closed. I disguised it in foam for maximum subtlety.I mounted two fat-ass neodymium magnets on the upper lid. These bastards will make sure this case knows its damn job.I glued some scrap pick-n-pluck to some scrap foam and cut out a notch to make a lid for the dice box.Fits in real purdy.Test fit is a success.What up, Quagsire?We got that jankDat edge doeHear me, O nerds, and tremble!
I'm the hardware hacker from the near future, building tomorrow's electronics for fun and profit. I'm a pro hardware prototyper specializing in connected devices and wearable technology. I also cofounded the Hoboken MakerBar hackerspace, where I build a lot of my projects.
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Zack Freedman 