For the ESP’s Next ESP Trick…

It is a pretty stale dad joke to tell someone you have ESP when you mean you have an ESP8266 or ESP32 in your hand. However, [Naufil Metkar] uses an ESP device to pretend — via a magic trick — that he does have ESP. The trick requires a bit of 3D printing, an MPU6050 gyro sensor, and a lot of showmanship.

We hate to spoil an illusion, but you can probably figure it out from the list of things you need. The die has a gyro in it and uses a small ESP module to transmit its current orientation out to a display. There is a small reed switch that lets you turn off the device with a magnet. Without it, the battery dies quickly.

The receiver is another, larger ESP8266 and as a proof of concept, it only outputs the coordinates from the die via a serial port. To really make this a winner magic trick, you should probably have it beam the top-most die face to your smartwatch or something clever like that. So there is a bit more work to do.

Frivolous? Sure. But still fun. Building something like this into a better-looking die with wireless charging could probably make a product you could sell in the magic stores. As it is, though, it would be a neat project to do with a kid or just for the fun of it.

We thought about LEDs on the die face but then realized that would really zap the battery. If you can’t get enough dice, check out electronic farkle.