This Real-Life Minecraft Compass Points the Way to the Nearest Lodestone — Or Your House
Maker chaosgoo created a real-life Minecraft compass that can point towards any physical location in the real world.
The last time I played Minecraft, almost 15 years ago, it was a pretty basic game, like the digital equivalent of a set of LEGO bricks. You could mine and you could construct basic things to aid in mining, but that was pretty much it. Apparently, things have changed dramatically in the interim and current versions of Minecraft have all kinds of advanced functionality. You can even craft an in-game compass that points towards a lodestone or the world spawn point! And now you can make a Minecraft compass in real life, thanks to this project by chaosgoo.
This DIY device is a delight. It looks just like the pixelated, blocky compass in Minecraft, but it actually functions in the real world. Move it around, and the needle will compensate and rotate to remain pointing at the destination. And that can be a legitimate destination, which the user sets using a map in the companion app. That might be the user’s home, a store they want to visit, or a suspiciously mineral-laden square rock they found in a local park.
That was no small achievement and to make it happen, chaosgoo had to design a completely custom PCB to handle the functionality. That PCB looks really nice and the backside even contains a printed crafting recipe for the in-game compass, along with some associated code.
The PCB is pretty complex and at the heart of it is an ESP32-C3-MINI microcontroller, which has both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth adapters built-in. Other components include a USB connector, a lithium battery charger, and a digital compass.
Importantly, the PCB also hosts a matrix of 42 TX1812IJA-F01 RGB LEDs. Based on the board schematic, it seems that those are individually addressable RGB LEDs, similar to the popular WS2812b. Thanks to the clever use of PET LGT075J material as a light diffuser, the compass needle doesn’t look like glowing LEDs. In daylight at least, it looks like it is made of voxels that magically move around the surface — a really neat effect that I haven’t seen done this well before.
The enclosure is 3D-printable and is about the size of the palm of a hand. It appears to be slim enough to tuck into a pocket.
If you want to build your own, it is going to be a little tricky, as the documentation was written in Chinese and it mostly covers the software. But you can find the 3D models on MakerWorld, the PCB files on OSHW Hub, and everything else on GitHub.
