projtitle
Electrical Flow
Click the chesspieces to see Chesster's electrical flow!
Player moves chesspiece with a magnetic bottom onto a square.
A reed sensor underneath the square senses the magnet's field and sends a 0 volt signal through a connected wire.
The wire carries the 0 volt signal to one of the multiplexers, which is in turn connected to the Arduino.
The Arduino recieves the signal, and the Chess AI calculates which square the player should place their piece next. The code outputs the LED index of this new square.
The new index information is sent out of the Arduino through output pins, which are connected to wires. These wires transfer the output to the LEDs.
The LED at the new square lights up red!
Materials List
  • Reed Sensors
  • Count: 64
  • Soldered underneath the chessboard squares and to wires that connect to multiplexer(s)
  • Sends signal current to multiplexer(s) if magnetic field from chesspieces is sensed
  • 16-to-1 Multiplexers
  • Count: 4
  • Bridge between electrical hardware and software
  • Each one takes input from 2 rows of the board
  • Arduino Mega
  • Orgiginal plan was to use Arduino Uno Rev3, however it did not have enough memory, hence the switch.
  • DC 5521 input for direct powerbank connection
  • 12 Volt Power Bank
  • LED Strips
  • Other Materials:
  • Wires, Wire Clips, Male Headers, Soldering Tools, Ribbon Cables, 2 Breadboards, Buttons

BRINGING THE BOARD TO LIFE: Electrical


Testing whether the reed sensors could process 5 volt signals.

Testing the magnetic sensitivity of the reed sensors through the plywood.

Mysha posing while displaying the underside of Chesster's chessboard top with the reedsensors attached.

Mylinh setting up to solder the multiplexer wires to the reed sensors.

Mylinh posing with the both parts of Chesster's board. Pictured on the left is

the bottom box with the underlying chessboard grid structure inside. Mylinh holds

the top plank; the reed sensors and their respective wiring are attched to the exposed underside.

Our father Keven Cai comes to the rescue! Pictured to the right is him helping debug the multiplexers and Arduino.

The body of Chesster. The medium-sized green chip is our Arduino. Wires connect the Arduino to our 2

breadboards; breadboards that are housing our 4 16-to-1 multiplexers.

Testing the LED’s accuracy when displaying the move the Chess AI wants to output.

The lights pictured display the knight moving.

Look at those beautiful lights!

Here is a demo of our LED system in action!