hanoi cosmic-ray classifieds
Reservations

Reserve a numbered unit from the first run.

Muon Sortes is a desk clock that consults the sky. A high resolution e-ink face up front, Geiger-Müller tubes behind it watching for cosmic ray muons. Ask it a yes or no question; it waits for the next muon to pass through and answers with whatever the universe sent.

The first production batch is 100 numbered units. A $5 hold reserves your number and your price. The hold is credited toward your Kickstarter pledge and is fully refundable.

Not available yet

Reservations are not open yet.

This page is staged. Pricing tiers are not finalized and the product renders are still coming. Sign up by email and we will notify you the moment reservations open.

Build updates while we get this thing real, then the launch alert when reservations open. Unsubscribe in one click. We do not share your email.

Muon Sortes cosmic ray decision clock, industrial design render of the wedge-shaped desk unit with a large e-ink face, a control knob, and a button.
First enclosure render. Industrial design in progress; the circuit behind it is running on the bench right now.

Reserve your unit for $5

No shipping address required now. Reservations expire 14 days after the Kickstarter campaign closes if no pledge is made.

/tiers

Early Backer

Units 030 to 099 / 70 total
Price TBD
Final pricing announced when reservations open.
  • Numbered unit, engraved on the back plate
  • Ships in the first production batch
  • Kickstarter price locked

Standard Reservation

Unit 100 onward / no engraved number
Price TBD
Final pricing announced when reservations open.
  • Same hardware, no engraved unit number
  • Ships in the second production batch
  • Kickstarter price locked
of 100 numbered units claimed Units 001 to 009 reserved for press review, beta testing, and a campaign giveaway.
/how it works
What does the $5 actually do?

Holds a numbered unit (or a Standard slot) and your tier price. When the Kickstarter campaign launches, you pledge there for the rest. After you pledge, your $5 is refunded, so the hold is credited toward your unit.

Is it really fully refundable?

Yes. Reply to your Stripe receipt and we refund within a few days, no questions. If the Kickstarter does not launch or does not fund, every reservation is automatically refunded. You cannot lose money on this.

When does the Kickstarter launch?

The hardware prototype is on the bench right now. Date is not locked yet, target is later in 2026. Follow the dev log for the running build story. Reservations remain open until the campaign closes.

What if my tier sells out?

The Founders tier is capped at 20 units. Early Backer is capped at 70. After those sell out, only Standard reservations remain. Higher tiers will be shown as sold out on this page. Standard reservations have no unit cap.

Why a muon detector?

Because every random number this thing produces is sourced from a particle born high in the atmosphere when something from deep space hit Earth. Same idea as Cloudflare's lava lamps for hardware entropy, just at a different scale. The clock keeps time, the sky keeps the verdict.

Can I email instead?

Yes. Reach the founder at allanj.binder@gmail.com.

/background reading

What is a muon. Where they come from, why they reach the ground.

Cosmic ray random number generators. Why muons make good hardware entropy.

How coincidence detection works. The two-tube trick that isolates muons from background.