LED Chess Set

Step 12 Making the pieces

When I purchased the original copper sheet for the board I decided to buy a spare, in case one was jenky. It turns out that it was a good idea since one of them was kind of crummy. I made the board from the nicer of the two, but then I had an extra sheet laying around. I figure instead of buying very specifically sized conductive washers for this last step, I would waterjet the extra copper sheet I had into washers. No access to a waterjet? No worries, just buy some copper washers online. They have very specific sizes

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Gluing the LEDs - Using the gel superglue I glued sixteen blue LEDs into the clear pieces (I chose blue for the clear pieces because it would resemble ice), and sixteen green LEDs into the frosted pieces. While gluing try to make sure the negative lead (the longer one) is directly in the center of the piece because it will be making contact with the magnet that is in the center of the square.

Trim the leads - Bend the positive lead to the rim of the base and clip the excess, as shown in the picture. Clip the negative lead so that it is just slightly extending past the bottom of the piece, and bend the excess at a 90 degree angle, so it will have some area that comes in contact with the magnet.

Glue the washers on - I covered 3/4ths of the bottom of the chess piece with glue. The remaining quarter was the area near the positive lead. I left it unglued because I did not want to risk ruining the connection to the washer. Firmly press the washers onto the glue (but do not rotate!) and let sit undisturbed until the glue is dry.

Solder the lead - Solder the positive lead from the LED to the inner rim of the copper washer. This will be a delicate, slow going operation, but be patient and do each one carefully.

YOUR FINISHED!!! - Plug the board in, and put the pieces on it to make sure they all work. Sit back and bask in your awesomeness which is a direct result of my awesomeness.

Comments

[projectbronco]

Very cool! This would be so sick using glass insulators off of telephone poles! It may take a while to find them all, but you would have a huge chess set and it would look sick!

[karnold70]

Annnnd just had another thought. You could cast the peices with the led's inside... although if you got them 2/$10, it's probably not cost effective.
On the other hand, this would allow you to use colored plastic with all white leds, or use the 'superflux' type of leds, especially if using the copperclad board I suggested earlier.
Again, hats off to your inovation.

[karnold70]

Just had an interesting thought.. instead of a copper 'washer' and the little 'lead' just kind of hovering in the center of the peice, why not cut the washers out of copper CLAD IC board, and simply etch it?
All in all, however, a MOST excellent idea and instructible.

[peabnuts123]

As far as I know (and I who knows, it may be different in some cases) the longer lead on components is positive. Whereas in this instructable it states the the longer lead is negative. Just thought i'd point this out...

[Sagar Gondaliya]

that is true

[Dan-Technician]

perhaps they wired the input power supply the wrong way?

[chisaipete]

It really depends on whether they are common anode or common cathode LEDs. They could swing either way.

[godofal]

erm, that's only true in bicolour or RGB LED's
in single colours it's always long = + short = -
so dan is prolly right, (s)he wired the power suply backwards

[fergieunrelated]

Its seems since you bought two chess sets, you should have used the same type of pieces(both clear or both frosted) instead of both textures and and colour. It looks awesome either way.

[dirkovic2112]

true, but if you want to play chess and don't have a free power outlet you couldn't play. but of course, who would want to play with unlight chess pieces if you have such an awesome chess set...