LED Monopoly Project - Help/Advice Needed

Thread Starter

RageMonkey

Joined Feb 7, 2014
9
Hey Everyone,

This is my first post on the forum and I will try to keep it as straight forward as possible.

I am considering a hobby project that would involve wiring many (100-200) LEDs into a Monopoly board. I want to have a single power supply if possible but am open to advice on what would be best to run the whole project.

All of the LEDs will need to be switch activated, 110 of them will have x1 switch per LED (1:1) and will need to be switched independently from all other LEDs. Then there are small sets of 3 LEDs grouped together that will also need to be switched independently (3:1), these x3 LED strings will be grouped into x28 individually controlled sets.

summary:

110 individually controlled LEDs (ON/OFF - not dimmed)
84 bulbs as individually controlled clusters of x3, 28 clusters (ON/OFF)

I have not decided what rating LEDs to use, i will select whichever makes the most sense for the whole project and I assume I will be using resistors etc. I have a rough understanding of the formula to use but not with any degree of confidence for a project involving so many lights.

I am after any advice or warnings that an expert eye might immediately spot from the description above.

Please feel free to contact me for any further detail as I am sure i have not been specific enough.

Thank You !
 

GopherT

Joined Nov 23, 2012
8,009
Could you draw out what you exactly want to do, how will they be switched, why/why will the light be on/off at any given time. Can all the 100 be on at any given time or will only one of the 100 be on at any given time.

Also, what experience do you have, soldering, programming, pcb etching, Microcontroller programming, arduino, ???


 

spinnaker

Joined Oct 29, 2009
7,830
Looks right to me too.

I can't figure out how the OP is going to do this with LEDs. A better choice might be a graphics display but to get resolution high enough for a decent board that would be an expensive display.
 

bertz

Joined Nov 11, 2013
327
It would help if you told us what the LEDs are supposed to represent, e.g. houses, hotels, which players own what property, etc.
 

crutschow

Joined Mar 14, 2008
34,285
It sounds pretty straight forward. One resistor and switch per LED. But where the heck are you putting some 138 odd switches? :confused:

It would likely be a lot cleaner to use a keyboard to enter which LED is going on or off and use a microcontroller driving electronic switches to control the LEDs.
 

Thread Starter

RageMonkey

Joined Feb 7, 2014
9
Hi All - Thanks for the replies so far, The board layout is the same around the world pretty much so the property names do not matter so much. As it happens I am using an English version of the game. Park Lane / Old kent road etc..

'Spinnaker' - I am not planning to recreate the entire board with LEDS, but I see your point when suggesting digital display. It shouldnt be necessary in this case.

I am going to draw up a rough idea of the desired outcome with the LEDs and post later today, that should make my intention a little clearer. I like the idea of a microcontroller to virtually control switches rather then lots of actual toggle switches however there is benefit either way for me.

Drawing to follow soon - thanks again !
 

Thread Starter

RageMonkey

Joined Feb 7, 2014
9
So, This is by no means the final design/layout but it should give a general idea about what I am trying to achieve in this first phase.

Diagram should be self explanatory but to summarise:

Start of the game, all 'property' LEDs are ON. As players purchase properties they are switched off to show they are no longer available.

when house building occurs, houses are lit up, when houses are replaced with hotels, the hotels are then lit up and the houses switched off.

I am not looking for any clever logic that automatically switches off the houses when you illuminate a hotel, just an individual switch for each action. all switches to be independent and the whole project should in theory be able to be fully illuminated (although for that to happen in an actual game is very very unlikely).

I will also probably illuminate the other properties (Stations / Waterworks/Electric company) but they don't require houses /hotels)

I would also be illuminating other areas of the board but for the duration of the game (they don't need switching on/off). things like the jail for example I plan to build a mini search light overlooking the 'pen' . and other little enhancements of that nature.

my primary concern is power. if i run individual wires to each LED with a resistor and a switch I have no idea of the best way to power the whole thing.

secondary concern but not essential is swapping the bank of switches for some king of micro controller ? my knowledge of this area is still very novice - I suspect and Arduino would play a part ? not sure ...



Thanks again !
 

spinnaker

Joined Oct 29, 2009
7,830
Now this is really cool. I never considered you were considering moding an existing board.

Instead of just all switches why not consider a mcu? The learning curve will be greater but I think it would make your project easier in the long run. It would make the project more flexible too. You could add an LCD and logic to keep track of banking and properties.


For your switches lookup up "calculator keyboard or keyboard matrix. That might help.

With a mcu you have more options for the buttons. First they can easily be momentary contact. You can also use a trick where you wire a bunch of them all to the same analog input with various resistor values. Different voltage reading identify the resistor pushed. That might help you simplify your wiring.
 

SgtWookie

Joined Jul 17, 2007
22,230
Spinnaker, If the property LED(s) is/are lit, the property is not owned; available for purchase.

You have 8 LEDs per property; coincidently a 74HC595 serial-in parallel-out shift register has 8 outputs. You could use one 74HC595 per property, and shift in the LED lit/dim bits using a microcontroller. Roman Black's website has a tutorial on how to use a single I/O pin to drive a '595.

Trying to use a switch per LED means one heck of a lot of switches, and multiplied opportunities for failures; so many switches that you might get about an hour of gameplay before something broke and you had to stop and fix it.

If you use a microcontroller, you could also cause it to observe the official rules of the game; like building evenly on a property, the limits of certain items like houses & hotels, etc.

However, this isn't going to be a project for a newbie to take on; there will be LOTS of opportunities for things to go wrong.
 

tracecom

Joined Apr 16, 2010
3,944
Let's see...you could add eight more LEDs to each property, one of each color to show each player's position on the board. Then you could have electronic dice to indicate the number of moves. Then you could have the position LEDs to move the correct number of spaces based on the dice roll. Then you could have each player's money accounted for by microcontroller. Then you could have the correct amounts of money debited and credited to each player's account. Then you could have the microcontroller control the entire game so that the players didn't have to do anything. Then you could speed the whole process up so that playing a game only took a few seconds. Then...

Wait. Maybe that's going too far. :D
 

spinnaker

Joined Oct 29, 2009
7,830
Trying to use a switch per LED means one heck of a lot of switches, and multiplied opportunities for failures; so many switches that you might get about an hour of gameplay before something broke and you had to stop and fix it.
Good thought.

I sort of had that in the back of my brain when I suggested a mcu. I guess you could get by with 2 tact switches. One for buy and one for mortgage / cancel.
 

Thread Starter

RageMonkey

Joined Feb 7, 2014
9
Thanks for the suggestions.

I don't want to hand over too much of the actual game play to automation. I will be including a digital/LED based dual dice but still want the player to move their own pieces.

I am also working on custom player pieces so keeping them involved in the game is essential.

For the banking I have the components from the 'electronic banking' version of the game (each player gets a credit card that can be credited or debited depending on what is happening during play) again its a manual process swiping the card in the reader, but i like that there is still a human element.

The thought of having a control board containing all the switches appeals to me. As I want the finish to be quite 'steampunk-esq'. However as Spinnaker has suggested it would be a far greater learning curve for me to challenge myself to using mcu.

What i really need to know is what my options are to power this based on what I have described?

Many thanks!
 

GopherT

Joined Nov 23, 2012
8,009
Now, just add
- a automated bank/accounting system for automatic deposit/withdrawal
&
- automatic dice rolling (random number generator)

Then some DiP switches to implement various rule modifications (eg Free Parking fund vs paying Bank for taxes and community chess and chance cards)

Once that is done, the whole game can be completed with one push of the AutoPlay button and all the fun will be completely extracted from the process.

The most fun occurred when someone would forget to charge rent when someone landed on an owned property. It actually took skill and organization to MANAGE your property. With these bells and lights, there will be no chance of an error - kind of like modern management. No need for compromise, no side deals, no common sense.

Not to be too curmudgeonly by, I don't like it. Oh, I guess that was about as curmudgeonly as it gets.
 

MMcLaren

Joined Feb 14, 2010
861
Hi RageMonkey,

I love this idea. I realize you're concerned with the power budget. I would suggest that you plan on 5 to 10 ma. current per property for a total of about 1 to 2 amps. You shouldn't have a problem finding a cost effective regulated supply for that type of demand.

I've been brain-storming this for awhile and I think that if I were to take on this project I would use a modular approach. That is, I would use a small circuit board for each property that could be mounted on the bottom of the playing board beneath each property. Each of these twenty eight small boards would contain the three "property" LEDs and the five "house/hotel" LEDs, a single push button switch, and a small 82 cent PIC 12F1501 microcontroller IC in an 8-pin package. Without going into too much detail, let me just say that the LEDs would be wired in a Charlieplexed matrix which allows connecting all of the LEDs for that property onto just four microcontroller pins. The push button switch would recognize a "short" press for toggling through all of the "house/hotel" LED combinations as well as a "long" press for toggling the "property" LEDs between "available" and "sold".

The only real wiring involved with a modular solution like this is wiring up the negative and positive supply wires from the power supply onto each of the twenty eight modules. Also, replacing a defective module should be relatively easy with this type of modular approach.

What do you think?

Cheerful regards, Mike
 
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Thread Starter

RageMonkey

Joined Feb 7, 2014
9
Hi Mike - Thanks for your input ! . Modular - That is a great idea and makes loads of sense. I also quite like the idea of the short/long press button to cycle through the LEDs or turn the property ON/OFF. I really need to move away from my obsession with toggle switches.

I guess another benefit along side replacing faults easily would be that I could introduce new features onto the board using the same modular approach?

I will have to do quite a bit of reading up to be able to work out how the microcontroller works. I assume charlieplexed matrix refers to how the controller is put to use? forgive me if that sounds dense It is a new area for me to explore.

In regards to the PCB modules, Would this be something i need to design/etch myself ir is there a kind of breadboard style PCB that could be used, like pre-made for simple circuits like these ? again - very little experience here but will also read up on that before I get this thing underway.

Very much still on the drawing board at the moment. I am finding the planning stage to be the most interesting part until the testing stage arrives.

All the best, RM.
 

Thread Starter

RageMonkey

Joined Feb 7, 2014
9
Having had a read up - I have a better understanding of how it works. I will need to spend some time becoming more familiar with programming a simple microcontroller! so much to learn!
 
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