Creating own e-chess board and using it to play chess.com

Hey everyone,

I'm a professional software engineer looking to get into a bit of hardware engineering. My dream has been to build my own electronic chess board for a while now. Something like DGT boards, except with subtle lighting, perhaps a built-in clock, ... ideas are endless. I'm not looking to commercialise (or even sell), it'll be my own board for personal play.

I'm looking for a way to connect this board to chess.com the same way I would connect a DGT board, however I cannot find any documentation on how this integration is achieved. Is there anyone who can help me with this? 

Are these DGT boards' connection 'signed' in any way, so only official DGT boards work? Is there software in between the board and chess.com that I may need to work with? 

Thanks to anyone willing to help.

Have a good day!

Lars

There's not a. Open API that just anyone can work with. If a company is bringing a product to market, the site may allow access to a private interactive API, with required agreements.  That would would require a ticket to support to start that conversation.

I don't believe they would allow that for personal use.

Aw man, that'd be too bad. I can imagine they wouldn't want an open API, however I'm gonna try support to see what is possible. Ofcourse I have no problem agreeing to certain rules to prevent abuse.

You realise that DGT isn't the only manufacturer of e-boatds right?

I do, however it's not about having a more cost-effectly, cheaper, fancyer, ..., e-board, it's about making my own. And in chess.com, I only see a button to connect DGT, so I'm assuming it's the only board they support.