wandlust

From the department of needing another project like I need another hole in my head: Build a magic wand.

There’s this story making the rounds about a magic shop that makes hand-made wands, and refuses to sell them to people who just want toys. Personally I’m down with it – if you work from the mindset of these being Real Tools for Real Magic, then it’d be like selling an AK-47 to someone looking for a water gun.

There has, of course, been a lot of snark in the various places it’s been posted. One common theme is a crack about real wizards making their own wands, damnit.

And that’s got me thinking. I have a wand already; it’s transparent plastic with glitter floating in it. I got it at a toy store for like ten bucks, and it has fit into my casual Chaos paradigm quite well. But… I could make my own.

I found myself on Adafruit, looking at parts. A Feather microcontroller (tiny Arduino, with wi-fi on the board). Some DotStar LEDs. An accelerometer. I could make it send messages to my lights. I could get a wi-fi-to-ir bridge and wave it to turn my projector and reciever on, and set it to an input. It could glow different colors to indicate compass directions for Actual Majgickghqxal Work.

This is a deep, deep rabbit hole I could fall down.