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.

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.

Also one for the dice. Early planning let me keep its borders even, so the whole thing looked consistent.

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.

I traced the deck cutouts onto a slab of foam. The frames will prevent the deck backlights from bleeding into each other.

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 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.

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.

Test fit is a success.

What up, Quagsire?

We got that jank

Dat edge doe

Hear me, O nerds, and tremble!