DIY DGT-compatible pieces

I may have already discouraged myself from trying this, but I'm interested in trying to add DGT-compatible gear to 3d-printed pieces. I say gear since I don't actually know what's in a DGT piece. Having dug around here, there, and everywhere for other DIY projects like this I've found answers ranging from "piece-type and piece-color specific passive LC circuits with a resonance frequency of 90 to 350 KHz" all the way down to "a magnet" and several variations in between.

Honestly, what I'm looking for is more along the lines of buying a bag of thirty-four sensor-thingies, epoxying them into the printed pieces (hoping the weighting and balance is somewhat consistent), et voilà! But in my looking around that doesn't appear to be anywhere close to a possibility. I have very little electronics knowledge, no Pi or Python, and no Arduino, so this may just a pipe dream -- but a fellow can hope. Anyone in possession of this evidently arcane knowledge?

I'm assuming you mean a DGT eBoard and not a DGT Pegasus or DGT Centaur. 

What you want is a "DGT Resonator Set".
A set just sold on eBay for $155, three weeks ago.

That is exactly what I was looking for, thank you. I didn't know what kind of mechanism or tech they were using or what they were called, and this is it! (And I wasn't aware that there was a difference between the regular e-boards and the Pegasus/Centaur types? This appears to be quite a rabbit hole.) But now that I do a bit of searching, "DGT Resonator" and variations thereupon bring up essentially nothing. The only result I can find is the eBay listing you got that image from, and that only when I look at the cached results. Weird. Am I looking for a product that doesn't exist (anymore)?

I mean, I know that DGT is probably in the same situation as every other outfit that makes anything chess related these days, i.e. low/no stock, long back-order times, etc., but given the fact that DGT doesn't even have any orphaned or cached pages for these resonators, that Ebay listing is kinda looking like a unicorn, especially since the install doc in the image has a last-update of more than seven years ago. I may give up this chase before I get frustrated not getting anywhere. It was just kind of a what-if lark anyway. Thanks for the info, though!

EDIT: I should add that I dropped DGT a note on their Contact Us page, as well, so we'll see. But if a 7+yo set of resonators going for US$150+ is an indicator of how much they might be going for (if I can get them at all), this is going to be a cost prohibitive little project and thus a no-go for me. Thx again.

I'm guessing that DGT Resonator sets are not typically sold at retail. And may be a special order product through DGT only. NOJ uses them in their sets as an option so they are available. Good luck with contacting DGT

I contacted DGT 3 years ago asking them about these resonators and this was their answer:

Indeed the sensor set can be purchased and would cost around 115 Euro ex. Shipping.
Shipping to Mexico will be around  32 Euro.
PayPal payment has a 5 mark-up.
Please also take note of see attached the instruction how to assemble the resonators into your pieces.
 If you want to buy a set then I just need your full address details and how you want to pay for the parts.

If you're interested, I can email you the PDF showing the assembly instructions mentioned above

Thanks, @havb1961. It appears the price has gone up a bit in the last few years. I heard back this morning from DGT and they're €153.95 including VAT, and shipping wasn't mentioned but €25-40 sounds reasonable based on a couple other of my purchases. The customer service rep included the install manual and given the number of constraints and warnings, it sounds like it's easy to do wrong if you're not VERY precise with the install. Given the costs involved and my lack of both experience and a DGT board on which to test and use the pieces, this is a pretty solid no-go for me right now, sadly.

nice

Hello, I´m new on chess.com. I want to install my DGT-Board (Bluetooth). Therefore I need help, I think.  Are there any informations about this in this forum? Thanks.

Welcome! And yeah, this is the correct forum. There may be an existing thread already, so maybe do a search for the specific thing with which you need help. If not, start a new thread with the green "New Topic" button and be as detailed as you can. Lots of folks here have experience with DGT boards; I'm sure you'll find the help you need. 

Bump to see if anyone has had success with DIY DGT compatible pieces.

It looks like all the info you/they would need is in the pic posted above. I’d have them drill out the correct size holes (12 x 27 mm for kings, queens, and rooks; 12 x 14 mm for all other pieces) and then I’d probably do my own assembly to make sure the pieces are going to register correctly.

If your idea is to dismount the resonators from the plastic pieces, to save some $$, instead of buying them new, I've read from a person who tried this, that the whole process is not that simple. Looks like the resonator are glued inside the pieces with a very strong compound, that makes it difficult to extract them without damaging the resonator. And you need to do it 34 times..

Did Royal Chess Mall give you a turnaround time for preparing a set of pieces for the resonators? Cost?

No, I did not proceed that conversation with them so I don't know timing and price, however, the guy seemed pretty much interested in the thing. He mentioned he had already done a similar thing for a different brand of chess pieces/board, however I warned him that the DGT ones require a specific drill and "procedure" to fit the resonators. This is the point at which he asked me if I had those instructions from DGT on how to drill the pieces and fit the resonators.
I did have that pdf file myself, but unfortunately I can't find it anymore.

Send him the pic above. Not as pretty as a pdf, but it’s still readable.

That's a great idea! I think I might do the same, but for the Chessnut pieces, specifically for the Air.