Chess board flooring

[Jivemaster]

There are very few different styles of interlocking lugs and fewer styles of edge ramps including mitred corners used in the hotel and events industry -which hires lots of dancefloors out for the Christmas season. They are all made for use on carpet with no fixtures into the floor. Your floor will need to match one of these systems for easy hire in the party season.

[Ynot]

Well.

Thought I'd update you all on this one.

 

 

Show week for Chess is upon us, and after several weeks of planning, testing, re-planning, building, soldering and cursing (as well as several VERY late nights over the last week or so we opened on Tuesday with a (mostly) working chess floor.

 

https://vimeo.com/user5829581/review/371918625/d7e92eb45c

https://youtu.be/nbG7S_XkVkU

 

 

It's been a long and stressful road but I have to say we have a winner. The show runs til tomorrow, and we've made tweaks/fixes every day so far until today but the impact on first night was high :)

 

It is very much a custom creation - 16 frames of 3x2 timber on edge with 6mm MDF bases. Each frame gas 4 squares.

Each 450x450mm square has 48 LEDs around the perimeter in Mengcore WS2812B tape.

In the centre of each square is a section of cardboard (carpet roll) tube as centre support which then has 11 LEDs around the outer rim, 10 inside the inner. So a total of 69 LEDs per square.

 

The flooring itself is 8mm shatterproof polycarbonate in 16 900x900mm sheets - one per 4-way box. Sandwiched between the poly and the timber is a sheet of Lee 251R diffusion gel and they sit on strips of 40mm wide carpet underlay to give the structure some cushioning.

 

Control is via 4 Arduino Mega boxes - one per two rows of squares - with custom DMX software and LED assignments (That's not my bit, I'm not that good at programming! )

 

Power is from 8 x 30A 5V PSUs, with the 5v rails terminated at both ends of the tape to reduce volts drop over the 552 LEDs in the run.

 

It has been a labour of love (and hate) and we've learned a LOT as we've gone through the process.

Not cheap either - I reckon the final roundup will be around £3k - but we do have a couple of other local events that may want to hire it from us soon (I think I mentioned SNF in the OP) but we will need to make it a bit less Heath Robinson before then (June 2020).

 

It certainly does the job we want it to do and has given us conversation starters in the bar post show.

 

Edited November 8, 2019 by Ynot

[Gerry]

Your Vimoe link doesn't work.

Page not found

Cheers

Gerry

[Ynot]

Your Vimoe link doesn't work.

Page not found

Cheers

Gerry

Edited to add a Youtube link.

Vimeo works fine for me but maybe that's cos it's mine and I'm logged in.

Both versions are public though so not sure why...

 

 

 

[alistermorton]

Looks good.

[Shez]

Your Vimoe link doesn't work.

There was some extra user gubbins in the link - this one works - https://vimeo.com/371918625/d7e92eb45c

 

Looks great Tony!

[Hilary Watts]

Most impressive!

[sandall]

From the Netiquette section of the BR Guide to Posting -"Quote the minimum text necessary to give some context to your reply."

[paulears]

Moderation: Sandall's post is the key here, I've removed all the rest

[sunray]

Moderation: Sandall's post is the key here, I've removed all the rest

Noted, thanks for the action.

 

[AVO8]

Original production of Chess only had white and red in the squares, it was neon tubes back then. How about cheap LED tape and some decent DMX gear EldoLED for example. Using existing decking system particularly if you can hire it is least painful route. Building lightweight boxes under for lights is pretty easy! Plywood MDF nail/screw gun white paint on inside and gaffertape to solve light leaks. Something to provide diffusion under the floor and all is done!

 

AVO8?

 

Original production of Chess only had white and red in the squares, it was neon tubes back then. How about cheap LED tape and some decent DMX gear EldoLED for example. Using existing decking system particularly if you can hire it is least painful route. Building lightweight boxes under for lights is pretty easy! Plywood MDF nail/screw gun white paint on inside and gaffertape to solve light leaks. Something to provide diffusion under the floor and all is done!

 

AVO8?

[Ynot]

Original production of Chess only had white and red in the squares, it was neon tubes back then. How about cheap LED tape and some decent DMX gear EldoLED for example. Using existing decking system particularly if you can hire it is least painful route. Building lightweight boxes under for lights is pretty easy! Plywood MDF nail/screw gun white paint on inside and gaffertape to solve light leaks. Something to provide diffusion under the floor and all is done!

Erm, you clearly haven't read my more recent posts on this thread...

:D

 

 

 

[AVO8]

OOPS! comes of trying to do forum stuff on the phone in airport lounges with crap wifi

 

AVO8