I built a hardware quantum RNG and wired it into a Magic 8-Ball
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Gday, author here!I've wanted to hack together a "real" quantum random number generator for another upcoming project, and I got carried away a bit, and went down the 'over-engineering' cliff. So, for your nerdy enjoyment, I have documented it all up, and I added something cool for fellow "Multiple World Interpretation" followers in the Quantum Mechanics debate.This QRNG uses sexy bits: Each is the decision of a photon to go left or right after hitting a 50:50 beam splitter. Standard kinda device, where you attenuate a light source down to single photons, offer them semi-mirror to bounce off, and see which PMT detector they hit (or which universe we ended up in ;) ). Basically, Through → bit=0. Bounce → bit=1.As I take the MWI interpretation of Quantum Mechanics (its the more fun options), I have also built a Quantum Magic 8-Ball. Ask it a questions, and you get and receive exactly one answer here, plus every possible answer across the multiverse.https://quantumlever.stream/oracleEnjoy!
HN · launched Jun 26, 2026 · 13 upvotes (top 33%) · 0 views
Niche: open-source hardware and maker electronics · 180 launches, 3 in the last 7 days ▼ -73% · Explore this niche →
Category and tags
- Horizontal
- Hardware & robotics
- Prosumer
- Not AI
- Hobby / open-source project
Visit website ↗ Source listing ↗
More like this: all 180 launches in open-source hardware and maker electronics →
Could you build this?
No Building a true hardware quantum random number generator requires physical electronics, particle radiation or photon detection sensors, analog signal conditioning, and FPGA programming.
What it would actually take: This project requires custom hardware engineering: assembling a physical entropy source (e.g., radioactive alpha/beta emitter with a Geiger tube, or single-photon source with a beam splitter and photomultiplier tube). The signal must pass through analog-to-digital front-end amplification, followed by an FPGA or microcontroller implementing von Neumann debiasing and randomness post-processing. Finally, physical enclosure fabrication (wiring into an 8-ball shell) and NIST SP 800-22 statistical test validation are required.
Discussion
1 comment analyzed.
Competitors
Other products that read as similar to this one : 192 launches clear the similarity bar, closest 8 shown.
Attention rank: #74 of 193 (itself plus its competitors, highest first, normalized so YC and Product Hunt are compared fairly).
Launched 238 days after the earliest competitor.
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