DGT Pi and Chessnut Move

[Cyrus Mosaferi]

Hi guys, 

I test chess boards on my YouTube channel. I have been trying to get Chessnut Move to work with DGT Pi. The board recognizes my DGT Pi but unlike other Chessnut boards that work fine, this one says "Battery Exhausted" on the DGT Pi. The battery is clearly not because I get it to work with other boards like Chessnut Go, Por, Air and Air+. 

Any ideas about this? I read on Graham O'Neill's website that DGT Move is slightly different and needs a different driver. 

Thanks for any help in advance. 

[gkalab]

I added support for the Chessnut Move in Picochess 4.

What version did you use?

Gerhard

[Francois Vannier]

Hi,

I missed that picochess v4 was also supporting the Chessnut move board. I played several games with picochess 4.2.2 & the board with its latest firmware. That's awesome !

This will be my preferred setup from now on 🙂

Thanks again to all contributors who made this possible.

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[BillyC]

Hello everyone,

I’ve been following this group for a while now. 

I would like to use my Chessnut Move with PicoChess.What is the easiest way to get them working together? 

I would appreciate a quick tip on how to set up the connection.

Thank you!

Best regards,

[Francois Vannier]

Hi,

1) Picochess v4 general setup : https://github.com/JohanSjoblom/picochess
2) Edit picochess.ini, set 'board-type = chessnut' in the appropriate section (Type of e-Board)
3) Restart picochess. Power on the board
4) BT Connexion is automatic, no need of pairing - Allow a few seconds to get ready. Enjoy

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/picochess/1aa3e9ac-6363-4287-afa7-c3fbcc4f55c7n%40googlegroups.com.

[Cyrus Mosaferi]

I had issues with DGT Pi running later versions, so I downgraded to 3.3. It was locking up. Maybe it's my device. I will try again! Thanks so much. 

[Cyrus Mosaferi]

Hey guys,

Just to update, I spent all day today trying to get this to work. 4.2.1, version 4. The board is recognized. When I move the pieces, it lets me play but it doesn't move the pieces. I guess I was wondering if there was a way for the DGT Pi to command the pieces to move when it is it's turn? 

[gkalab]

I just tried with the latest v4 master branch and this still works for me. The e-board moves the pieces when it is it's turn. I can even let it play against itself on the e-board when I push the lever every turn.

The Chessnut Move can be a bit picky when a client connects too soon before the green ready light appears. When PicoChess connects to the e-board before the green light appears, no pieces are reported by the e-board. When this happens, what I do then is to turn off bluetooth on the e-board and turn it on again. This fixes any connection problems for me. But since you can play on the e-board this does not seem to be the issue in your case.

When you start a new game, make sure to manually set up the starting position before starting the game - this is not done automatically by PicoChess. I did not find an easy way to report the position to the e-board when you start a new game, so the e-board does not set up the position on the e-board for you.

When it's the opponent's turn, you should see LEDs for the move on the Chessnut Move. Do you see these LEDs on the e-board? The same code path for the LED indications also sends the position after the move to the e-board after lighting up the LEDs which should cause the board to move the pieces accordingly.

Gerhard

[Cyrus Mosaferi]

Thanks for getting back to me. So when I connect it, I wait for the board to come on and everything green, and blue flashing before turning on DGT Pi. It connects and recognizes moves. However, I do not see the light for the opponents move. I see the move on DGT Pi's display. I guess you could be right. I just completed a game on it but it never moved a piece. The board recognizes the moves, so it is clearly connected to DGT Pi. 

[Cyrus Mosaferi]

I tested it again tonight. It is Picochess 4.1 from the Info section. I did it like you said, and just does not work for me. Not sure why. I have never had issues with Chessnut boards but with the Move, the board is recognized, it is clearly connected, the pieces are recognized when I move them. When I put them back, the game resets. These are fine. But no auto moving. That does not work. When I pick a piece up, it says put it on square that it was removed from. Everything works as it should but the board doesn't move. What is the exact link for the image you used? This version I have also has very problematic Bluetooth issues. I tried doing a board vs. board video for YouTube and in the middle, it lost Bluetooth connetion, I set up the position, lasted for another 5 moves and lost connection again. Haha. To be expected but maybe my DGT Pi is messed up. It works with older versions (3.x) pretty well though

[gkalab]

I don't use any image, I use my own OS install (DietPi) and checkout whatever I need, in this case the master branch.

But the code did not change. In your case, everything you mentioned points to an issue in the code that tries to determine the version of the e-board (regular Chessnut or Chessnut Move). Your e-board seems not to be recognized as a Chessnut Move. That's why LEDs are not working and the e-board does not move. The rest of the Chessnut Move protocol is similar to regular Chessnut e-boards. That's why the pieces are recognized.

I will try to find a different/better way to identify the e-board type. This might take a while.

In the mean time, what you can do is try to fix your Bluetooth issues: First, make sure you have the latest firmware installed on the Chessnut Move. Then disable Wifi on the e-board. Both can be done in the official Chessnut app. If you can disable other Blootooth/Wifi devices, this might improve your Blootooth connection as well.

Gerhard

[orlando vargas gonzalez]

Hello everyone, greetings from Colombia. I would like to know if it is possible to implement the Square Off Pro board in PicoChess, so I can use it?