Illuminated chess board

[DaOld Man]

This looks pretty neat.
http://www.instructables.com/id/LED-Chess-Set-Simple-Version/

However, I think we could come up with a way to do away with the ugly wires on the board.

[HaRuMaN]

Like this?

http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/wireless-power.htm

[DaOld Man]

Yeah, I was thinking along the same line.

[NiN^_^NiN]

Heaps of ways you can make it better

E.g.

Each square is split one side negative other positive

Each side of the piece is either pos or negative (you would have to ensure all pieces when you start are in the correct position to light up which isn't a big deal)

You could also have the squares light up and a magnet on each piece and all you have to do is place the piece down and the magnet turns the light on which in turn lights up the piece as well

[DaOld Man]

Good thoughts.
About the pieces having to be correctly orientated: you could include a full wave rectifier in each chess piece, so it wouldnt matter which way they turn. Im sure there is a miniature SMD full wave chip on the market, if not 4 small smd diodes would work.

[Ed_McCarron]

Good thoughts.
About the pieces having to be correctly orientated: you could include a full wave rectifier in each chess piece, so it wouldnt matter which way they turn. Im sure there is a miniature SMD full wave chip on the market, if not 4 small smd diodes would work.

Even easier -- feed the grid with AC.  Then the LED will work either way.

[DaOld Man]

Good idea.
But we still need to get away from wires or copper on the board, so it goes back to inductance, I think.

[Ed_McCarron]

Fill the pieces with neon and put a magnetron under the board.

[NiN^_^NiN]

Good idea.
But we still need to get away from wires or copper on the board, so it goes back to inductance, I think.

Depends you could make a really nice wooden board and that can house the wiring

You could also flip the way the lights are lit up by using a magnetic reed switch a led and small button battery inside the piece and just have the board have magnets under it.

Now a led would last ages on a button battery if it's used to play chess so that could be an option and if the battery will stick to a magnet (i forget) then the pieces wouldn't fall off if accidently knocked either

[protokatie]

maybe even simpler would be to have the weight of the piece close a switch to power a button battery powered led. Not as elegant as some of the other suggestions (but much safer than the neon + Magnatron one ).

I had thought of doing something sorta similar to a custom made Ouija board that would have electro magnets under each letter and a perm magnet in the pointer device. My hypothetical device would have all the letters in a circle, and the MC controlling the electromagnets would use a negative polarity on the letter you arent to go to, so the pointer would move away from the letters the program didnt want the unsuspecting superstitious morons to go to. When you got to a letter, it would be sensed by a hall effect sensor, and would trigger the next letter. I figured some good preprogrammed messages in this thing would be along the lines of "Kill youself" or "I will send you to hell!". Then again, this would prolly be a bad idea...

[EightBySix]

I'd like to see a board with pressure sensitive squares, each with an led for the chess piece to sit on. Then you could light up pieces programatically, and use it as computer chess, so the pc player can indicate it's move....

[DaOld Man]

Sounds like a neat project.