Print the Board and Pieces

Use a color laser or inkjet printer to print the file linked here onto a piece of white cardstock. Be sure to print without any image scaling so that the parts will align.

The game board file looks different (better!) than the one used in some of these photos.

Mount the Board

 

  • Cut out the board image
     
  • Glue it to the top of a cardboard box. An Adafruit shipping box may be large enough or find another box approximately the size of the board or larger.

Cut the Openings

 

  • Use a hobby knife to cut out the board image and cardboard lid of your box at all of the indicated "incision" points
     
  • Also cut out the holes for the Circuit Playground Express mounting points and touch pads so we can connect alligator clips to them later from below the board

Add Copper Tape Contacts

The copper tape is what we'll use to detect errant tweezers touches, by running it around the edges of each incision hole. Each tape site will be connected to the Circuit Playground Express via an alligator clip lead.

  • Cut out a piece of copper tape that is just a bit bigger than the opening
  • Press it down to fit and to indicate the hole below
  • Slit the tape along the top and bottom edges
  • Slit the tape vertically up the center as shown
  • Push the two flaps down into the hole
  • Repeat for each of the seven part holes

Tape Connector Tabs

 

Inside each taped hole, connect another short strip of copper tape as shown. This is where each alligator clip will connect.

Inner Boxes

 

  • Next, cut out the papercraft boxes from the printed sheet. (Yours may vary in color from the ones shown here)
  • Cut along the solid lines
  • Fold along the dotted lines -- the outer set will be "mountain" folded to form a lip, the inner set a "valley" fold to form the walls -- see the picture for proper fold directions
  • Tape the boxes under each hole as shown

 

Add Circuit Playground Express

You'll now add the Circuit Playground Express by fastening it to the board with four medium screws and nuts.

Connect the Alligator Clips

Follow the images here to connect the Circuit Playground Express capacitive touch pads to the copper tape tabs.

Game Pieces

 

  • Glue the game pieces section of the printout to a piece of scrap cardboard
  • Cut out the pieces with a hobby knife or scissors
If you'd like to 3D print pieces instead, you can download the attached model file.

Next, we'll program the Circuit Playground Express in CircuitPython, or you can skip ahead to program it with MakeCode.

This guide was first published on Aug 17, 2018. It was last updated on Mar 17, 2024.

This page (Build the Operating Table) was last updated on Mar 08, 2024.

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