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Step 2Materials
This project uses a wide range of materials and tools, so I separated the two lists into individual steps.
The materials include:
Glass chess set - I got mine at Walgreens. It was a two for $10 deal. I bought a couple so if I broke some of the pieces I would have extra. The chess pieces should have a small cavity in the bottom covered by some circular felt stickers, to prevent them from scratching the glass chess board.
LEDs - Twenty 5mm blue and twenty 5mm green LEDs. I ordered mine from superbrightleds.com.
Magnets - I used 1/8" tall 1/16" diameter cylindrical neodymium magnets. Since three were used in each square on the board, 192 were needed all together. Of course the magnets could be 3/8" tall and only 64 would be needed.
Wood - A thin sheet (~1/4" thick) with the same area as the copper plate, used both as an insulator and as a structural backing for the copper. Thicker pieces of wood are also needed to make the final box / enclosure for the chess board, but the dimensions do not matter too much, as almost any scrap wood will do.
Copper plate - A square copper sheet around 1/16" or 1/32" thick, and with an area at least that the size of the original chess board. I found mine on Ebay.
Copper washers - The outer circumference should be the same size as the outer circumference of the base of the chess pieces. The inner diameter is not as important, but should be large enough to easily wire an LED through.
Steel plate - Should be exactly the same dimensions (length and width, thickness doesn't matter too much, but around 1/16" or 1/32" would be ideal) as the original chess board (only the 8 x 8 grid of squares, not counting any extra border). If each square on the chess board is 1" by 1", then the steel plate should be 8" by 8".
Copper foil tape - Again the exact specs change depending on the size of your chess board, but a few feet (~6') of tape should be good. The width of the tape should be half the width of one square on the chess board (1" chess board squares = 1/2" copper foil tape)
Acrylic sheets - It doesn't really need to be acrylic, but that was the building material available to me at the time. One square will be to sandwich the steel and copper plates together, and to hold the wires in place. The other square I used as a bottom to the chess board box.
Power supply - I used a wall wart with a 120V AC input and 3V 300mA DC output to power the chess board.
Gaffers tape - To tape stuff in place
Glue / epoxy - To hold the copper plate to the wood sheet. Wood glue is also used to make the box.
The materials include:
Glass chess set - I got mine at Walgreens. It was a two for $10 deal. I bought a couple so if I broke some of the pieces I would have extra. The chess pieces should have a small cavity in the bottom covered by some circular felt stickers, to prevent them from scratching the glass chess board.
LEDs - Twenty 5mm blue and twenty 5mm green LEDs. I ordered mine from superbrightleds.com.
Magnets - I used 1/8" tall 1/16" diameter cylindrical neodymium magnets. Since three were used in each square on the board, 192 were needed all together. Of course the magnets could be 3/8" tall and only 64 would be needed.
Wood - A thin sheet (~1/4" thick) with the same area as the copper plate, used both as an insulator and as a structural backing for the copper. Thicker pieces of wood are also needed to make the final box / enclosure for the chess board, but the dimensions do not matter too much, as almost any scrap wood will do.
Copper plate - A square copper sheet around 1/16" or 1/32" thick, and with an area at least that the size of the original chess board. I found mine on Ebay.
Copper washers - The outer circumference should be the same size as the outer circumference of the base of the chess pieces. The inner diameter is not as important, but should be large enough to easily wire an LED through.
Steel plate - Should be exactly the same dimensions (length and width, thickness doesn't matter too much, but around 1/16" or 1/32" would be ideal) as the original chess board (only the 8 x 8 grid of squares, not counting any extra border). If each square on the chess board is 1" by 1", then the steel plate should be 8" by 8".
Copper foil tape - Again the exact specs change depending on the size of your chess board, but a few feet (~6') of tape should be good. The width of the tape should be half the width of one square on the chess board (1" chess board squares = 1/2" copper foil tape)
Acrylic sheets - It doesn't really need to be acrylic, but that was the building material available to me at the time. One square will be to sandwich the steel and copper plates together, and to hold the wires in place. The other square I used as a bottom to the chess board box.
Power supply - I used a wall wart with a 120V AC input and 3V 300mA DC output to power the chess board.
Gaffers tape - To tape stuff in place
Glue / epoxy - To hold the copper plate to the wood sheet. Wood glue is also used to make the box.
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