Electronic LCD Settlers of Catan Tiles

This RP2040-powered Catan prototype tiles use circular LCD displays.

Jeremy Cook
2 years agoGaming

The board game Settlers of Catan is played with hexagonal tiles that represent resources like lumber and grain, via icons and numbers printed on top. Many find the game quite entertaining as-is, but software developer and hardware tinkerer Colin Luliano decided to take things up a notch with a collection of electronic LCD tiles.

While not a full set, it’s quite an interesting proof of concept, with each hexagonal piece displaying resource information on a circular LCD screen. Tile hexagons are 3D-printed, with a custom PCB in the middle that interfaces with the screen as well as an RP2040 microcontroller.

On the sides of the hexagons, six magnetic pogo pins are implemented in such a way that pieces can fit together in any orientation. This is accomplished by using a symmetrical arrangement for the power, ground, and data pins, and having three female pins opposite to three male pins on each.

At this point it appears that there are only four of these custom pieces in existence, however, per discussion here Luliano does plan to make the design open source in the future. Perhaps someone will pick up the reigns and make a full set, or even something that can transform between different hexagon gaming setups at a whim.

His post does note a few improvements that could be implemented, such as a mesh networking protocol to allow the tiles to feed information back and forth, better graphics handling, or even animated tile art. Let's hope we get to feature an enhanced, and possibly even complete, version in the future!

Jeremy Cook
Engineer, maker of random contraptions, love learning about tech. Write for various publications, including Hackster!
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