Have a look at Tabutronic Sentio. They use a simple USB serial protocol where you get the current board state at a certain rate. The Sentio boards don't have piece recognition so you only get the information if there's a piece on a square or not.
If you need full piece recognition then have a look at the Chessnut e-boards. The protocol is a bit more complicated (HID device instead of USB serial), but in the end, again you get the e-boards state at a certain rate.
I am looking for an e-board with chess pieces that:
1. is inexpensive
2. sends position of a piece to the usb port when the piece is moved
3. does NOT require the engine to play
4. has a documented protocol for the format of transmitted positions.
I've looked at some of the available options, such as chessnut and banksia
I have a program already that I wrote.
I just want to be able to update the position of pieces of each player on the board
on my program, then save the whole game to a file for replay.
Don't need the engine, don't need the Board to record the game.
Anyone have any ideas?
Thanks.
Bruce