For DIY-er, inventor and maker Jason Poel Smith, the Magic 8 Ball was an amusing toy, but it could only respond to questions with 20 possible answers. So he decided to give it a serious upgrade.
In his Instructables project, Smith provided detailed steps for removing the 20-sided fortune die inside the Magic 8 Ball and replacing it with a digital picture keychain. Tweaking the toy this way enables it to generate up to 60 different image responses, or fortunes.
Image: Instructables
The hack involved sawing the ball in half, removing the tube that contained the 20-sided die and blue liquid it floated in, placing in a clear plastic to shield the digital keychain and putting in a section of a PVC pipe to hold the digital keychain in place. Smith also included button extenders and a USB port to enable access to the keychain and change the image responses any time.
Image: Instructables
Check out the video above to see how Smith rewired the classic toy.