The acrylic zones were then glued in, sitting slightly lower than the board: Then it was time to start constructing the undersides properly:
The cylinders to go under each zone were then fixed to a bigger pieced of foamed PVC. Between the cylinders there is the Pi itself, a USB powerbank that's running the Pi, a breakout board that makes it easier to connect all the Pi outputs to the MOSFET transistors, the board with all the transistors and a battery holder for eight rechargeable AA batteries that power the LEDs. Plus all the cables. It's a little cramped in places. Plus the first games on the lit board, with a phone screengrab showing the control interface during the game. In the long run, all the scoring will be kept track of on the screen interface, so that a scoreboard isn't needed.
Then, a couple of months ago, the board got it's first public outing at a small convention called Bonescon, where it attracted a lot of attention: I also used some strips of foamed PVC to make some advertising hoardings that the A! postcards would slide into:
The next step is to add VPs, Frags and an Underdog indicator to the web interface so that a tablet can be set up next to the board to act as a combination scoreboard and interface for the zone colours.
Exactly! Earlier on I'd considered digital displays on a scoreboard, but ended up needing too many of the output pins for the LED control anyway, so that'll all be on the tablet, integrated into the side of the board in some way.
where does this live? at a local game store? at your house? do you have to build it and break it down every time you want to use it? how long does that take and how's transport?
Yeah, was going to say, it'd be a perfect place to put a digital picture frame! Though running everything through the tablet is probably easier.