Number game power switch

So, I thought it would be cool to turn one of those simple little number grid games into a power switch, which would turn on the surrounding LEDs when you "win" the game.

Materials used:

8 - 3mm 3V LEDs
1/4" wood base
22gauge wire (red and black)
$0.20 number puzzle (took awhile, but can be found at most party stores in the prizes section).
conductive paint

Tools used:

Band saw
Hammer
Screwdriver
Soldering iron
wire cutter/stripper
Sandpaper

Step 1

The first step in the process was to remove the backside of the number game, leaving just the front side to hold all of the pieces inside.

Then the back side of the tiles were painted with the conductive paint. The inside of the red frame was coated with the conductive paint where the 1 and 15 tiles would be also. At the same time, I drilled two 1/16th inch holes in the wood where the number 1 and 15 tiles would be when they were all in order. The 8 holes along the edge of the wood base for the LEDs were drilled at this time as well.

Comments

[Zovits]

It seems that the LEDs will light up even if you have any of the 3-4-8-9-13-14 numbers mixed up, since they do not participate in conducting.
Maybe a pattern could be thought up and painted on the backsides of the tiles and the base board, where only the correct solution provides a closed circuit.

So on the completed game board the metallic paint would make a wavy path, going under all of the tiles. The path would consist of types, the board would have markings that provide connections between the individual tiles, entering and exiting the tile's space at different "heights" in order to prevent a non-fitting tile from closing the circuit. And each tile would have an unique pattern on it's underside that would only make a connection between the board's markings if the tile is on the correct spot.

[BoredRobot2703]

 With much more complicated circuitry and a random number order this wud make an AMAZING combinaion lock

[berky93]

what if you made it so 1 and 15 have conductive pain on the bottom that touch the wires, and the rest of the pieces also have cnnductive paint to connect them. but the paint in the side of each piece is in a different spot so it only connects from 1>2 and 2>3 and 3>4 etc. etc.

[black360ninja]

Yeah, I thought about doing exactly that. It was rather difficult to work with the size and low quality of the plastic toy i used for this. If I re-did this one, I was thinking of doing it in wood and using metal wires and pads at different places on each square as you suggest, so that only the real solution would set off the lights. Overall, better quality materials :) Also, a note on the conductive paint, it didn't work as well as I was hoping. It had to be touching really well to conduct across all of the tiles on this project. It's probably because it had to jump surfaces 8~9 times. It also rubs off after awhile of moving tiles around. My original plan was to just use solder across the backs of the tiles. It just melted right through the plastic tiles, lol.

[campingfreak]

this could be easily modifyed so that the first four number have to be in the right spot but not 1234 3678 1245 9101112 13 145

[mikeasaurus]

pretty cool idea, and a working concept; I like it!

It would be neat to see more traditional board games revamped to use this idea. With a little more work this instructable would have been perfect for the 'invent a sport' contest.
(http://www.instructables.com/contest/inventasport/)