The D20, or twenty-sided die, is most commonly known in the shape of a regular icosahedron. It’s a fantastic, enchanting geometry, and one that has held the balance of fate in innumerable tabletop roleplaying games over the years. It was this sacred geometry that [Greg Davill] chose to bless with the glory of glowing RGB LEDs. Now, [Greg] has shared the files so you can build your own.
The development blog of the D20 is a great read, highlighting the challenges of creating such a compact item that glows so brilliantly. The design uses a full 2400 1.5 mm x 1.5mm LEDs, in the old-school RGB style, split evenly between the twenty sides. That’s right, there’s no fancy self-addressing smart LEDs here — each LED is manually controlled directly by [Greg]’s hardware. A SAMD51 and ICE40UP5K FPGA are put to work running the displays. Each panel is held together in a barely-there 3D printed frame, linked together with ribbon cables to keep things compact. A Sony camera battery is slotted inside the tight confines of the frame to supply the necessary power.
We first covered the project late last year, and it’s great to see it out there now in a form that’s readily reproduced. Assembly of such a board is not for the faint of heart, however, with plenty of fine SMD parts to tangle with. We suspect this is just yet another salvo in the ongoing arms race of LED glowables, and we can’t wait to see what [Greg] — and the rest of the community — comes out with next. If you’ve got a lead on the new glowing hotness, let us know. Video after the break.
Thats awesome. This one came a long way.
More of a product or kit now than a hack. Lol
One of the highlights of SuperCon2019 for me was seeing this!
That is super cool looking. The nerd in me wonders how fair the die roll is (as I wonder with all electronic dice), though I suppose here the labels could simply change to even it out. Video for the watch list…
That’s one serious multidisciplinary hack. Mechanical, electronic and software all done well. Kudos.
https://gregdavill.com/blog/d20
It would be helpful if you read the docs and you would find the above link.
Thanks for sharing but it leaves more questions for me on the build so I won’t attempt.
Only half done.
Needs accelerometer and the smarts to always come up 20 (or 1) as needed.
“That’s not my dog!”
(Mine would have chewed it up!)
got some LEDs out there…..