usb chess board 101

Give it a rest.no comment.

Pleasure working with You and Matt, I am thankful.Its like i have been working  at Apple . looking for a new way to use the usb board, are make it.

That isht is baller dude.  I can't believe this man is just at home on some mad scientist steez.  That is a bombass little project you got there homie

Thanks all, we've had a great time building (and using!) these boards. Soon I'll be putting the software on a single site for easy access. In addition since it appears Dream Cheeky has decided to not produce additional usb interfaces I'll be working on a simple hardware design. I'll be sure to post here as I get closer.

Enjoy!

Matt

Thank you.

To Jimmy Patterson,

Your first photo in this thread, that shows your work on the DIY board, has some kind of sensors(?) in the photo. The sensors are round and look pinkish in color and have what looks like greenish leads going to them.

If these are sensors that go under each of the chessboard squares can you tell us what type of sensors they are, where you got them and maybe speak about their quality as to their performance?

Thank you in advance,

Charles Browne

They are the sensors that came with board. and the wires are from a strand of wire.the best idea is foil tape. look up diy usb chess board.

So I just bought a Dream Cheeky board off ebay to make modify a board.  I love your RJ45 connector idea that will allow several different boards that I can use the USB connector with.  I want to make a couple different boards one that will be portable that I can use at my local chess club with a standard vinyl board and set and connect to my andriod tablet with a USB port.  Has anybody attempted to make a software app for the droid that will read the USB input to make this much pore portable?  If not is anybody willing to work with me on this?  I have a comp sci degree but my programming days are long since behind me.  Thanks for any help that can be provided.

Also does anyone have experience with membrane switches?  Looks like they are super thin .8mm and I am thinking about putting them beneath the vinyl of a board to act as my switches.  Anybody know why this wouldn't work?  Do they require a power source?  Thanks.

TJer99 (Robert)

Robert,

Matt here, I wrote the Windows interface for the board. While I've looked at duplicating it in Android that's going to be tough. You see Android earlier than the 3 series does not have native USB hid support. Since the DreamCheeky (DC) is a USB Hid device we'd need hid control.The 3 series is those high priced tablet models, at that point why not just buy a laptop? Ahh well I digress.

Membrane switches? Never heard of them. Sounds very scifi though. :)

Matt

Matt,

Thanks for the reply.  How can I get the interface for the board from you?  Would you be willing to give the source code on it should I decide I want to take a stab at putting it on the Android platform?  I have a ways to go before I get to that point so you can consider it.  Maybe I show some real signs of progress and then we talk again.  Anyway I believe the membrane switches would work.  I think I can get a bunch of them for cheap so I will give them a try.  I think it is basically a "high-tech" version of using foil tape with a membrane but I want to try it so here goes.  Also I am thinking about taking a stab at an RFID board.  Anyone tried this at all?  You can get the passive RFID tags for ~80 cents each in a bulk and a reader for $20-$30.  I am not yet sure how the 64 external antennas can be multiplexed but seems it might work.  Then it will be back to the software writing to use the inputs from the RFID reader.

TJer99 (Robert)

Robert,

Currently the source isn't available, but I can help you through the process if/when you get there.

Where are you sourcing membrane swiches and RFID antenna so cheap? Alibaba.com?

Remember the hardware of the DC is very low-tech. It basically has 16 pads, each one corresponding to a number and letter, ie.. e2 d4, etc.

The values run on the columns and rows, so closing the circuit from column "a" and row "2" will result in the value for "a2" being sent. 

It's a bit more complex than that (it's all in binary and accessible via shifting) but you get the basic idea. There's really nothing to handle position in a piece manner, in other words tracking the position of the bishop via rfid is amazingly bitchin, but the DC just isn't built to understand that.

Thanks, let me know if I can help you further.

Matt

http://youtu.be/2IeI23qcNJo

Thanks for the videos, Jimmy.  Matt, the membrane switches I found doing a search on ebay for membrane switch.  Just the pushbutton pieces are available in lots of 100 from some sellers.  I just purchased a lot of 100 for $10.99 (including S&H).  So the DC should be here in a day or two and those hopefully by early next week.  Then I will start working with the hardware part of the board.  As for the RFID stuff if you look at digikey.com they have the RFID stuff.  Also several other websites but I don't have my notes with me at the moment.

My thought on the RFID board is to use a reader and multiplex it to 64 antennas (1 to a square) via two 1x8 multiplexors (just like the DC board hookups).  I would poll the squares one at a time with the reader cycling through all 64 over a set period of time.  I am not sure the duty cycle on the RFID reader in terms of how long it requires to broadcast and read before it can move to the next square.  Obviously if it can't read the entire board quickly enough (something like 1/sec or something) it would maybe require multiple readers responsible for a portion of the board.  I think I need something like a 10-15ms duty cycle to get through the entire board in 1 sec.  Still trying to determine the feasability of that portion of the equation.  A slightly cooler (but many orders of magnitude more complex and probably still technically not feasible) would be to use several antennas that could collect RFID broadcasts from the entire board and use the time difference of arrival (TDOA) of the different RFID tags to each antenna to trilaterate the position on the board.  The problem is that I need to be able to differentiate the time difference at something like the picosecond level (due to the speed of light) and the distance travelled.  There maybe some tricks to how this could be done but right now I am just reading about this and would be awesome to employ but I think would be something like a doctorate thesis project for me (and I am not currently working on a doctorate).  Maybe some day.  In the meantime I think I am going to order some of the RFID stuff just to toy around with and see what I learn through "Hands on Experimentation."  Will appreciate any help you guys provide along the way.

Robert

This is all very cool stuff. Congrats to all involved.

I have an old Sensory Chess Challenger with an aluminum, pressure sensitive board. The sensors quit working years ago but the computer still seems to work correctly every time I experiment with it. I envisioned marrying the electronics to a wooden board using hall-effect switches but if the pieces are weighted with lead they may not activate them. The things you guys have come up with have both inspired me and shown me there are other options available. Maybe I'll dig out that old thing this winter and see what I can do.

For anyone that has constructed the "Vinyl Sensory Board" as shown on Bryan Whitby's website:

http://usbchessboard.yolasite.com/vinyl-board.php

What is a good adhesive to use to glue the vinyl board to the cardboard membrain? For glue adherence and avoiding the glue bleeding through the vinyl?

The below vinyl board is considered to be used in regards to the above question:

http://www.uscfsales.com/product_p/combo2.htm

An elementary question I know but with so many adhesives on the market...
 
Thank you for any recommendations.

Why glue it? I didn't, as long as the "holes" in the cardboard aren't big enough for pieces to "fall" through under their own weight you don't need to glue it.

Trust me, the vinyl board is dead simple, don't over think it! ;)

Matt

Robert i tryed some switches like that got it working but hard to soldering leads its in the garage now,the best would be printed board enlarged.i look at it as 128 connects i got down to 16 with wire or foil tape

jimmy

Thanks, Jimmy.  I was thinking about that.  And I am not the world's best solderer.  The thing that I am sure won't work but just have to give a try is to use some magnetic wire.  Its almost as thin as thread and I was thinking I will try to "sew" it in to the back of the vinyl board and then scrape just enough of the wire to solder to the switches.  If that works it might still preserve my favorite part of a vinyl board, its portability (roll up and put in my chess bag).  I'll let you know how that works as soon as I get my switches.

Robert