Dead or Alive. LED Chess Set

thingiverse

This is a cutting-edge reinterpretation of the traditional chess set, tailored to meet the requirements of the **LightItUp Challenge** and to make it even more captivating. Each piece features an innovative 'Gravity Switch' that powers an LED light only when the pieces are upright. When a piece is captured or the King resigns, the inner lights turn off as they recline. Lights remain off during storage. The removable and standardized LED unit is powered by a small battery, which can be replaced easily. The entire unit can also be swapped out with pennies to provide the pieces with bottom weight and balance. The design of the set perfectly blends modernity and classic style. I appreciate some of the modern designs as well as some thematic ones, and others are truly stunning. However, one issue that often arises is that these sets are not easily playable because the pieces are not clearly identifiable, making it take time to learn what shapes correspond to which piece and to see the situation on the board at a glance. To address this concern, we aimed to maintain the classic look, feel, and playability of chess while incorporating a more modern twist. Unfortunately, our Printrbot Simple has been malfunctioning recently due to a broken fishline drive, resulting in prints that are slanted and lack sufficient resolution/accuracy, which is essential for the Gravity Switch to function properly. As a result, we won't be able to post pictures of the finished product on time, although I will attempt to get at least one done. If not, we'll update later with new information. A first version of all STL files has been uploaded; however, we haven't printed them yet, so there might be issues. If needed, we'll repost a revised version. The chess pieces come in two types: base pieces and LED pieces. The _base pieces are standard pieces with a chamber at the bottom to hold weight (pennies should fit snug) and a cover to close. The _LED pieces are designed to host the LED unit. The pieces are sized for large chessboards, but they can be scaled down without major problems for smaller boards.