I built the ultimate tabletop gaming gadget

We all love dice, right? They roll, they uh... roll more. They're great, but they've been the same for thousands of years, let's mix it up a bit and build Mr. Dice, the ultimate digital dice rolling gadget.
In this video I use a Rasperry Pi Pico along with a custom PCB, some off the shelf components, and a bit of 3D printing to bring this thing to life.
PCB Production provided by NextPCB.com
Historical photos provided by The Metropolitan Museum of Art and WikiCommons.
Licensed assets and music provided through MotionArray.com

[@abetoday]

A few quick corrections: 0:36 - I managed to spell both “Egyptian” and “resembled” wrong in the same paragraph. I am deeply ashamed of this. 7:06 - I said “angle” fish I meant “angel” fish. I am ashamed of this as well, but not quite as deeply. But seriously, issues like this are the exact same problem I had with the screen wiring. I get too distracted with the big picture and forget to go back and double check previous work. These are all small mistakes but there’s definitely a lesson for me in here about slowing down and checking the details!

[@GRAS_gadgetsRepairAISimulators]

I have the same problem

[@user-wc5yd1zz3c]

what was the oled module u used ?

[@papyrussemi2848]

MARIO WONDER TYPO

[@Mika43344]

why you didnt put usb out from pi directly from box? ...

[@abetoday]

@@user-wc5yd1zz3cIt's a SSD1351 from Amazon

[@TheLostSorcerer]

Next version needs "Shake to Roll". Looks great.

[@victorscarpes]

Honestly, that's a pretty cool idea and probably isn't that hard to implement.

[@jeffhaas9577]

@@victorscarpes Just use a cheap tilt sensor. Search "vibration metal ball shaking switch" or similar.

[@LazyBunnyKiera]

I was thinking this too.. select your dice, then shake it to roll.. Eventually I'd probably also animate the dice rolling.

[@jackpaxton9391]

yes.

[@Halford_Steel]

​@@victorscarpesAdd an accelerometer and have it press an input after it reaches a certain threshold.

[@blindmanflamingfishdafeesh]

For those wondering about the d10, the case itself is already a ten. Great video!

[@abetoday]

:) thanks so much

[@JoZaHandle]

Wouldn’t the case by a d6?

[@machi_dev]

@@JoZaHandle10/10 :)

[@frostbite3756]

@@JoZaHandleno, there are technically 10 sides

[@K0D0R0]

@@frostbite3756that’s a box. More simply, a cube. A cube has 6 sides.

[@aricwood869]

“Dice are one of my favorite objects, they are up there bananas and trucks.” Thank you for clearly establishing your autism credentials up front, now I can fully trust you on this videos subject matter.

[@DMZZ_DZDM]

Nothing more trustworthy than a dedicated autist that needs to spill their hyperfixation, honestly

[@razerow3391]

Fun story: in school we made our own PCBs using sharpies and an acid bath. You got the PCB and drew the traces on with sharpie and put it in the bath. Then when it comes out the acid has taken away the copper leaving where you drew untouched. I believe it’s called Acid Etching. This was for Electronics. I felt so baller cause mine had a lil pokeball Easter egg and also the words “I miss it. The steel sky” as reference to my two favourite games at the time. Ah to be a child again.

[@unknown-otter]

Oh, didn't know you could just use sharpie. We made such PCBs in uni with a laser printer

[@AcornFox]

i did this too! one of my favorite classes

[@fltfathin]

@@unknown-otter the industrial approach is for better replication, sharpie was the old way tho, that's why old electronics have squiggly smooth lines instead of parallel straight lines

[@michhubbard7097]

I’d honestly pay for this if it was a product, yes more expensive than actual dice but definitely a conversation piece at the table and the convenience is cool!

[@TheRogueBro]

Same, I actually hate lugging my bag of dice to my DnD games, this would make life so much easier!

[@hobbinsjogsohn9996]

I agree, this would be great for dnd, you'd just need to be able to roll more dice ​@TheRogueBro

[@Brenden-H]

I like physical dice. They feel nice, are tactile, they just work, and they are pretty and work as collectables. If you want digital dice, there are many websites or apps that have this function. Even just google the search engine will take dice commands and roll dice for you right in the search area

[@StealthfiretheHexagonal]

I'd like one!

[@SpaghettiEnterprises]

9:00 slick sleight of hand XD

[@TheDizzyVids]

I had to rewatch it to make sure it wasnt a really good cut in the video xD impressive

[@SpaghettiEnterprises]

@@TheDizzyVids lol me too. smooth

[@Jet-ij9zc]

​@TheDizzyVids there's a cut at 9:03 (unless he somehow flipped his hand faster then I can see at 0.25x speed)

[@mclama1139]

@@TheDizzyVids me too lmfao. " most replayed" for a reason that was sick

[@Hirotechnics]

Just try making a Patreon. Plenty of fans would probably love to chip in, especially if you make the print files and schematics and code of your projects available for them to test out after subscribing to it. just something to think on to maybe help prevent you from having to take a soul-sucking job to keep doing this stuff.

[@abetoday]

This is a good idea - I’ll look into it more.

[@TheMegamaster44]

And additional bug testing

[@littlekatgc]

@@abetoday yes you have a great sub count and selling a batch of your projects would or merch would get you to a better place financially. Please do this there is no reason with your sub and view count that you wouldn't be able to sustain yourself also streaming some while you work on your projects could earn you some more viewers and a bit of cash on the side.

[@mograms]

Your hand drawn sketches are really nice ✨

[@abetoday]

Thank you!!!

[@BacchusGames]

0:30 my favorite fact about dice is that the original 6 sided dice like the one shown in that photo were frequently made of animal's knucklebones, which is the reason why the phrase "roll the bones" exists. It's because they were literal bones that ended up getting markings to denote each side. People also frequently carried and used their own special dice, and they were so integral to some cultures that people were frequently buried with their own dice.

[@WebMafia]

also, in Russian dice can be called "кости" (bones) or "игральные кости" (gaming bones)

[@TheNateKtv]

I love the texturing of the front and back covers. Crazy all you need is to print it differently on the bed. I could see a lot of use cases for that.

[@wryytart]

You should called it the Dice Butler

[@user-nv1ys7vx8m]

Next version, add the D10, it will help with games like D&D.

[@huel4582]

Agreed, and the D100

[@eboatwright_]

I really like the little suit design haha Also congrats on 100k! Insane you've blown up so fast, but you definitely deserve it 🎉

[@abetoday]

Thank you so much!! I'm glad you like it and thanks for watching :)

[@eboatwright_]

@@abetoday 👑

[@Rickstau88]

Dice Butler (tm)

[@aerotraveldji]

The DnD community will build you a monument 👍

[@JackCat101]

Most of us don’t have a 3d printer with carbon steel filiment

[@JackCat101]

*fiber

[@razerow3391]

@@JackCat101yeah but 3D printers are cheap now. You can buy a decent one for $300. Considering you can spend up to $100 on D&D books and how much people spend on miniatures and stuff. And if you do get one you can print scenery and terrain for not just DnD but all tabletops. And actually a lot of people that play DnD do have a 3D printer. Also CF filament isn’t needed. You could just print in PLA+ or PETG if you want that semi transparent look. It’s like saying most DnD players won’t own a gaming console or PC. lol. Look at a Venn Diagram of people that 3d print and people that game/play DnD. Personally I haven’t been in a group for years that hasn’t had at least two of us that can print stuff. It’s not as exotic as you think.

[@razerow3391]

The only issue is that you can only do 5 dice at a time. In DnD sometimes you have to throw a lot [of dice] like Rogues that use sneak attack. Like my character ATM. A swashbuckling rogue that needs to be able to roll 6d6.

[@Rocksidion]

​@@razerow3391 A bit cheaper even on fb market place from people who want just the slightest upgrade.

[@viniciusalucas]

it would be cool to add a vibration motor, like the TapTic engine from an iPhone or the HD rumble motors from a Joy-Con, to vibrate when a dice is being rolled

[@Pallerim]

You designed that in TinkerCAD?! Holy shit, impressive work. I would never try such a feat with anything other than a proper CAD program.

[@abetoday]

Yeah I don’t know why tinkercad just speaks to me, I can’t explain it

[@Pallerim]

@@abetoday I mean, you clearly found your tool when you can create stuff like this. Awesome work, man!

[@NiSE_Rafter]

Same man I only use tinkercad for very basic modifiactions. Learned cad on inventor and solidworks so I cant even begin to picture a full project workflow on tinkercad.

[@berribeans6593]

Tinkercad honestly is the easiest to modify existing models for me. Just an easy import and no fuzz​@@NiSE_Rafter

[@marcusborderlands6177]

​@@NiSE_RafterI do 3d printed firearm frames in tinkercad. It's far from ideal, but I only ever learned Autocad, and can't get a license to it. Tinkercad just seemed simple enough that I could pick it up over a weekend. Need to switch to fusion 360 soon tho lol, running Into tinkercad a limits pretty hard.

[@duri616]

Holy the wave if nostalgia that this video hit me with. I had the exact same idea back in highschool to make a universal digital dice tool. Albiet mine was way crappier, used a couple seven segment displays, and an arduino instead. Watching this is making me want to remaster it. Great work on the build. Looks amazing.

[@caardappel]

Welcome back to the grind! Love your positive take, and I hope the channel continues to grow!

[@abetoday]

Thank you for the support and kind words! I really appreciate it!

[@toastielad4760]

Glad you are still able to make videos going forward 👍. The black and white on the case is SO CLEAN

[@DormantLemonGames]

Wow, great video! It’s a fun concept, and seeing it actually come to life was awesome. Props for following through and ending up with a finished product, even if you started this as a “just-for-fun” project!

[@abetoday]

Thank you so much for the kind words!

[@RegrettableDeed]

8:54 Those hand movements were smooth af, my guy. Bravo

[@badacktor]

overkill idea: settings menu lets you select the RNG algorithm being used.

[@DentedPrinter]

This looks great bud! Happy to see it work out so well for you in what seems like one shot. Super clean build :)

[@abetoday]

Thank you so much! There’s always a bit more iteration behind the scenes that can’t make it into the video, but it was definitely a smooth build over all, glad you enjoyed it!!

[@andrewbanks1175]

I need one of these like, 5 years ago. This little gadget would be perfect for DND when you need to calculate damage. If in a future software you could customize the dice pool size, that would be amazing. But man, I was not expecting to like this as much as I did. You are a true craftsman

[@masternerd64]

I don't think I've ever seen the d10 be this disrespected. Great build tho

[@ArkhBaegor]

It is the least satisfying dice to roll tbf (tied with d4)

[@samwilsonhoff6514]

This is so cool! Would love to see a coin flip added in a future version. Wish it was for sale!

[@abetoday]

Keep an eye out! I'm hoping to do a version as a kit!

[@the_average_canadian]

I'm pleasantly surprised! I was expecting an unwieldy, awkward final build, but it actually looks pretty solid and easy to use! I'm impressed with intuitive and speedy the UI looks. For me, something like this would never replace actual dice, but if you overcame the limitation of only rolling 5 dice at a time (for example, to roll damage for Fireball), I'd definitely buy a similar product just as a cool gadget to have and show off at games night.

[@nhojpodge]

That Ui and board/housing layout looks really good. Love the tips for the screen, I had issues on a project for alignment and I might be able to use this...

[@Yous0147]

You have every right to be proud of this little neat device. It's quite amazing, the whole build really is self contained and a nice bundle. I'm glad you shared this video so we could take part in enjoying it too.

[@zackvirgo3597]

I would totally buy some of these, or the print files, program and instructions to build one myself. This is really neat!

[@LordDecapo]

Spend a bunch of money on epic dice: Be happy See this: Well shit....

[@TheSuperRunner]

The display pin out issue is hilarious 😂 really cool project!!

[@MyLaundryBasket]

Super cool, I'd like to see more of these videos! You explain everything very well, and your ideas are interesting. Thank you for the content!

[@callumhadfield8454]

I think having something like this would save carrying the different die for different games. Having software to mock up and add custom die would also be cool

[@konstamoro]

Glad you are looking at working a job as an opportunity. Just came across your channel and subbed. Very cool!

[@jonasortiz1870]

nothing better than a gameboy style dice rolling handheld. this will revolutionize lunchroom gambling

[@codechimps]

Dude this is such a dope video and really informative! Thank you! I’m definitely inspired!

[@kakashie950]

This is incredible, well done! Would love a video showing how you built the UI in a bit more detail.

[@aidanzeglis]

This is so cool! This was 3 months ago, but it would be so cool to see the files or even a built version for sale!

[@ChaoticOccasus]

I've been toying with KiCAD and the idea of making a pcb for a new Pico project, I love the final dapper dice roller you came up with!

[@Swayed2087]

I hope your videos keep reaching more subscribers and you become a more successful youtuber😊.

[@brandonduggan3859]

I would love to see this developed into an app. I would definitely pay for this.

[@XionSteel]

Neat gadget that looks fun to design and make as a hobbyist, look reminds me of an old school Digivice. But just the feeling of dice is why I like them, most are polished resin or hard plastic but they almost have an ivory feel and have a fidget nature to clack around in your hands. I actually own a mahjong set for that reason, they are of similar finish and are just fun to fiddle around with.

[@Matti2ooo8]

It's really cool but there's two things I would change about the device. 1 - One of the most fun features of dice is how fidgety they are. Maybe add a rumble engine that shakes while the dice are rolling? 2 - In D&D one of the most known rolls is 8d6 damage from fireball. While it is a meme, increasing the dice limit to 8 would fit that nicely and cover most non-shadowrun use cases. I realize both of these would probably impact the size of the thing, the first requiring space in the case, and the other would need more screen space to display the dice efficiently, but I think they're worth exploring

[@Phenom_Lightwing]

The thumbnail made me think that you made a "Magic D20" to the theme of "Magic 8 Ball". Not disappointed by the build. Two thumbs up! ^.^

[@zpektar]

I love that theres a whole history lesson on the first few minutes. Would love to see more extensive research with my content creators.

[@reold]

You could have added 3D dice roll animations using some matrix multiplications. It would have made it look so awesome. Anyway the build is very COOL 😎!

[@rudolf4129]

How does that work? i'm curious cause i'm inspired to make on of my own.

[@SwizZLe333]

Dude...this is awesome, glad I found ya...what a interesting time we live in...Had to wait since 1980 though but its been a fun ride thus far...I look forward to your other stuff...

[@hiurro]

Cool build. I was worried when I saw you miss out the D10 on your planning sheet because I thought you were going to have each option be a physical button, but since it's done in software you can pretty easily update things if you every play a game that requires that die. The actual design on the case came out great; your little man is looking sharp.

[@_sica]

been here since the beginning. still like christmas when a video roles around

[@abetoday]

Thanks for the support friend!!

[@CeraRalaz]

The very first dice for a modern known game was d3 for Urd. It was made from a stick with sharpened edges in form of a triangle

[@raichirup]

I would suggest to newd a different button to exit from the "result of full die roll" screen so you dont skip the result if you are rolling a bit too fast. Other than that it looks great!

[@tokenfilipino]

This is my first vid of yours that has come across my algo, and I’m really digging your video style. I’m a teacher and a TTRPG nerd so this checked both boxes for me. Great stuff! New subscriber here 👍

[@abetoday]

Thanks for watching and giving it a try I'm glad you enjoyed!!

[@syweb2]

1:40 The name wasn't the only thing that changed, a fundamental gameplay aspect was removed. The Landlord's Game had an option for cooperative play, and that was removed in Monopoly.

[@Somestuffstudios]

I love your videos!!!

[@abetoday]

thank you for watching!!

[@roxtrox7]

Not only is this a really cool project and result but you did a great job making it feel accessible. Like I might be able to figure it out with some study and practice. Not a lot of these kind of build videos feel that way. Awesome work!

[@jeffe2267]

the best part of dice is physically manipulating them

[@ArthurKhazbs]

Shake-to-roll would be a fun feature

[@EliotHochberg]

So what I would add to this would be the ability to save a dice roll, then call it back up. I would also consider adding an option to have more total dice by instead of having each die be separate, have multiples of the same type of die ganged together. And then maybe be able to designate one die as being separate from the dice that are the same, or else when you add a particular size die, you can have as many of that type as you want, but then you can add that same kind again as a second die so that you can see it separately

[@stikosek]

Amazing modeling! I was never able to make such a design in tinkercad

[@Disorrder]

I would add one button on the side for each cube size and a reset button. I believe, d4, d6, d8, d12 and d20 would be enough. Just 6 more buttons. So, clicking them will add a throw of that cube and sum of last N throws (I think, N = 6 or 8 should be good enough) and reset button would set counter to 0. So you can sum different kinds of cubes, this is frequently happens in dnd games

[@doomerplague5331]

adding your customs dice can step this up a notch but other than that this is awesome

[@abetoday]

Yes! Maybe next version I’ll add custom options.

[@mk1k]

Would love to put one together myself. I am just in love with the whole look of the thing so cool and stylish

[@mashedmentality]

The step from banana to truck for favorite 3d objects is wild. I love it

[@ExploringNew1]

I just realised how long these projects take when I started a project. I have to wait months for the accelorometer

[@abetoday]

Yes definitely, especially with custom parts you can waste weeks. This is why getting videos out at any consistent pace requires very careful planning, it's quite tricky!

[@Salvanim]

Honestly dude if you could mass produce this thing, maybe add more features, it could be something people are willing to buy.

[@icosaedrial]

Honestly, as cool as this is, I don't see the market. Either I love the feel of rolling dice, in which case I use physical dice, or I'm too pragmatic for that and prefer to use a digital system, in which case I use an app on the phone that I carry around anyway.

[@DoubleDotStudio]

If you ever wanted to make a v2 the back plate of the case could snap on so that there are no scrubs visible on the back. Love the idea and video.

[@luizbuscariolli3821]

Now I also want a smart e-ink GM's Shield to pair with it (maybe with auto rollable tables?) awesome work btw!

[@TRISTSM]

the transitions at 8:43 are so clean

[@GingerHead.]

Love this, you’re super underrated!

[@LegitimateComenter4Yesme-hg4dg]

Congratulations you defeated the purpose of dice! In all honesty it does look great though.

[@Christopher_Gibbons]

Fun fact: the oldest game we know the rules for is an ancestor of backgammon that used 4 sided dice.

[@cryingpoetic]

The need for this is great for a dice goblin such as myself

[@kittenmagician7416]

Super cool build!! Watching your videos always inspires me to pursue my own hobbies! I'm currently learning C# as a hobby, and this makes me want to go learn more 😂 So sorry to hear that the channel isn't stable enough to support you full time, but I love your attitude about it! I think a lower pressure environment could be a really good thing for the channel and you! Always looking forward to the next video! Keep building!

[@Solinaru]

an excellent dice companion for discerning individuals!

[@abetoday]

Thanks man! Appreciate the support as always!!!

[@theworldsworstperson]

Sell this!! I bet hundred of other table top nerds would love something like this because it's not a bad phone app, has buttons that make sense, and is better than making sure to carry your dice around to game. if you can add in logic for other types of rolls like successes in WoD games something like this could sell like hotcakes at game stores.

[@ReclaimerTyphoon]

Fun project. I'd still rather use my physical dice, or even a dice app (I use a Unihertz Jelly2, so I can one hand it, too), though. If I were designing this thing, I'd have implemented a dial or something to make it easier to select things/change things.

[@lordcommissarspartan]

No clue how viable or easy it would be, but an option to custom input dice sizes, to use like a d7 or a d13 would be a neat concept.

[@ezrakornfeld8436]

Digital Interface for Choosing Enumerators

[@gemhunter498]

For me, the ultimate tabletop gaming gadget would be a map fog simulator.

[@Zacharias_Andersson]

I have had the same idea for a while, this finaly got me to start!

[@mikewally5762]

I would 100% buy this, this is awesome!

[@technoxander4079]

I need to buy a few of these. They would be perfect for a campaign I am DMing.

[@bzipoli]

i'm sorry to hear about the little fallback. good news is the algorythm recommended one of your shorts to me last night, that's how i got here, so good luck!

[@mr_thecyborg]

Idea: when you hit “Roll”, it shows a little animation of the dice rolling around in sort of a realistic-but-not fashion.

[@tutacat]

Dig and speculate. The protective coating is called solder mask, so your solder doesn't stick everywhere.

[@joemartino8934]

love the little slight of hand you did there with the reveal! :D

[@sethazillax2553]

You should sell these! I know my group would def buy it!

[@timmehjimmeh]

Love this! I had a similar idea a bit back, but I wanted to incorporate it into a book, so that when you opened it, it rolled the dice on a screen inside. Buy my programming is rudimentary at best so it never got off the ground!

[@ferencstrommer6165]

Would buy this, it looks super cool, I love it.

[@Artemisdamm]

Cool project, and a great result!

[@theNansasa]

So cool. Never really hade a intrest in this stuff but this video kinda makes me want to look in to it. You should also have aded a coin flip. Would make it even mor versatile.

[@HumanTypewriter]

D&D people are notoriously superstitious, there is no way I would trust the RNG in this thing

[@Ogrenap]

If you sold this, I would buy 10 This is sick asf

[@sebastiandian]

Paint it orange and go full Shinegreymon, Burst Evolution ! 😂 Great Dice device :D

[@NoahGlorioso]

What application did you use to design the GUI?

[@scottangelides9237]

it looks like aseprite! its an app for pixel art!

[@NoahGlorioso]

@@scottangelides9237 I think you might be right. Thank you!

[@hummel6364]

I think it should also display the last total roll at the bottom or top right of the screen, and personally I would prefer it just outputting random numbers, the way it is now you may be able to fudge your rolls.

[@NiSE_Rafter]

It looks like it's running through random numbers so it's not really fudge-able

[@LexOnTheWeb]

The Algorithm brought me here! Love this little thing and would buy one in a heartbeat if it were available. Not super fluent in electronics, so thanks for the quick PCB overview. Could you have made that screen modular in that it could be “slotted-in” with pins instead of soldered with wire? Great video and it’s inspiring me to continue my little coding projects.

[@sergiosarmiento4233]

Beautiful! Some more animation work would really finalize the presentation.