Are 64 reed switches possible to wire separately?

[Restok]

You seem to be forgetting this point.

The new idea now, is to create a reed switch matrix that supports scanning from a microcontroller. I know, checkers only took up half the board, but since the goal was to create a a LED matrix screen that displayed the checker's live location on the board during a game, every single square has to be interactive for the magnets on the checkers piece.

[Grumpy_Mike]

Even if they are never used! It is such a waste.

[dougp]

Is it required that the LED matrix indicate the color of a piece on a given square?

[Jiggy-Ninja]

So, what do you mean when you say I don't need to know the status all the time? I planned on having the LCD screen(now leaning towards the matrix as mentioned by promacjoe) act according to the status of each and every reed switch on the board. Is this the wrong way to go about it?

What he means is that you don't need a very rapid polling rate for the reed switches. Something in the range of 100 ms maximum response time will feel instantaneous to any human, so scanning one row of switches every 10-15 ms leaves a huge amount of time left to process other things.

A matrix of MxN elements will use M+N IO pins. The LED and reed switch matrixes would each use 16 pins if connected directly to the microcontroller. You can reduce that pin count by using external chips like port expanders or shift registers.

[Jobi-Wan]

[...] I know, checkers only took up half the board [...]

Half of the 10x10 board.

[INTP]

Half of the 10x10 board.

In what country is checkers played on a 10x10?

[INTP]

I know, checkers only took up half the board

Checkers takes up the whole board. Checkers only uses half of the spaces.

You are quite amazingly missing the point.

[Jobi-Wan]

From Wikipedia:

The most popular forms are English draughts, also called American checkers, played on an 8×8 checkerboard; Russian draughts, also played on an 8×8; and international draughts, played on a 10×10 board. There are many other variants played on an 8×8, and Canadian checkers is played on a 12×12 board.

International, so I guess 'everywhere else'.

I live in the Netherlands. Did not know this was different in different places.
Over here it is very common that boards have 8x8 on one side for chess and 10x10 on the other for checkers.

[INTP]

Lol, Canadians.

[Restok]

Is it required that the LED matrix indicate the color of a piece on a given square?

I was thinking about that, but that means harder coding. I was just thinking of having the same color throughout, but is there a simple way to achieve color indication?

[dougp]

Reverse video? A lot depends on the display device.

[Restok]

For the arduino type, I was thinking of the arduino Leonardo.

Oh and will resistors be required for the reed switches?

[Grumpy_Mike]

Oh and will resistors be required for the reed switches?

It depends on how you wire them. If you use an 8 by 8 matrix then you would need 8 resistors.

Note their is no way to distinguish between the playing pieces if you use a reed switch, you have to infer what they are from software starting at a known point.

[Restok]

Note their is no way to distinguish between the playing pieces if you use a reed switch, you have to infer what they are from software starting at a known point.

I have no idea how that's done. I get how you can make color indication in the beginning, but to maintain the color status through the entire game?

[Restok]

It depends on how you wire them. If you use an 8 by 8 matrix then you would need 8 resistors.

Do resistors have to be built into the matrix? Or can they be attached through connecting the matrix to the arduino?