Re: AW: Mess Emulator für diverse Schachcomputer ist fertig!
 

Hi,

Why not CERTABO chess board? :)

I believe that right now is the ideal electronic chessboard to develop this project, for its open communication protocol, availability of source code under GPL V3.0 license, ...

Open protocol: This means that the information about positions, names of pieces and commands for the leds are available on the USB port in ASCII format and can be read by any software with serial interface. In other words it means that the board can be controlled by other hardware and software platform as you wish.

Certabo software: We would be pleased to give! Certabo® software source codes for PI and PC are available under GPL V3.0 license, this means that as buyer and user of the Certabo® platform you have the right to receive them together with the binary code if you ask for them and do whatever you want but under the same license terms.

More info: https://www.certabo.com/faq/

Regards,
Gerardo (aka berger)

AW: Mess Emulator für diverse Schachcomputer ist fertig!
 

Hi Franz

Many thanks indeed for your kind update and it will now make my life much easier 😀

Unfortunately I don't contribute whatsoever to the coding of the Teensy USB Development Board as this is kindly provided by my friend Berger, so I am not in a position to comment on the communications of the board.

The interesting comment by Berger about communicating with the Certabo electronic chess boards is that I own one and to be able to use it with your software would be the ultimate chess board for me personally 👍

Many thanks again for the update

Regards from England
Bryan

Re: AW: Mess Emulator für diverse Schachcomputer ist fertig!
 

Hi,

This code is for my SolusChess board, which does not have LEDs in the squares, and which emulates a keyboard in order to send the moves, and therefore its communication is unidirectional. Certabo is a much more suitable platform for this.

Regards,
Gerardo

AW: Re: AW: Mess Emulator für diverse Schachcomputer ist fertig!
 

Well, building such full (bidirectional) communication is nothing for me, this would definitely be a task for any MAME developer -
only they know the MAME system very well, have good hardware knowledge and can write the necessary C code much better than me.

And for this they won't even need my CB-Emu version (or its source code) - since all moves are displayed (by LEDs) and made on the external board,
the original (official) MAME version without my enhancements would be sufficient, because in this case the display of chess pieces on the MAME screen
is not needed at all.

Regards,
Franz

AW: Mess Emulator für diverse Schachcomputer ist fertig!
 

Nothing against Linux or Virtual-Box. But starting an emulation (like VirtualBox) to start another Emulation-Program sounds a little bit strange for me. Maybe someone can make changes for this plugin to get it to work on windows too...

I guess the problem is, that this plugin doesn't use XBoard like it was planned before but KDEChess which is a Linux-Program. Maybe someone can get it to run in Arena or something like that.

Nevertheless... I am looking forward getting your tutorial. With such a plugin, my emulator tournament had been much easier

AW: Mess Emulator für diverse Schachcomputer ist fertig!
 

Hi Franz

Many thanks indeed for the new update which I have just downloaded and tried.

All I have to do now is just press the corresponding square on my SolusChess board and it automatically updates.

Regards

Bryan

https://solusmessboard.yolasite.com/...C0s800x518.JPG

Re: Mess Emulator für diverse Schachcomputer ist fertig!
 

Nice!! :)

AW: Mess Emulator für diverse Schachcomputer ist fertig!
 

Hi Bryan,
yes, this works of course, because your board is just sending the right key codes for this square.
But I don't think, that this is easier than using the PC keys, because you still have to use the PC keyboard for scrolling through this list and pressing [Enter], so you would always have to switch between the PC and your Solus board.

There's one thing about your Solus board, that I still don't understand - in CB-Emu there's a difference for capture moves between devices with pressure sensory boards and (most) magnetic sensory boards:
for pressure sensory boards you need only 2 mouse-clicks for capture moves in CB-Emu (one for the source and the second for the destination square), but if you make the move on your Solus board, you first lift the source piece, then the destination piece and finally put the capturing piece on the destination square.
So in this case the board sends actually 3 events (i.e. key codes) to CB-Emu, but CB-Emu is only expecting 2 clicks!?
How do you solve this problem, i.e. how do you execute capture moves on your board for such a device with a pressure sensory board?

Regards,
Franz

AW: Mess Emulator für diverse Schachcomputer ist fertig!
 

Hi Franz

For me it is a lot easier to input the squares by my board because doing it via the keyboard quite often results in errors due to you having to type two inputs nearly simultaneously. When you are as old as me your fingers don't work the same as when I was younger say in my forties or fifties 😀

Now how to make a capture using the SolusChess board.

Say I play against the Fidelity Designer 2325, to capture a piece only takes two presses of the board as the destination square automatically removes the captured piece.

If however I play against the Fidelity AG v10, to capture a piece takes three presses because the destination square doesn't automatically remove the captured piece.

It works exactly the same as using a mouse.

Regards
Bryan

AW: Mess Emulator für diverse Schachcomputer ist fertig!
 

Hi Bryan!
Hmm? Now you are confusing me!?
From what I've seen on the Internet this SolusChess board is a magnetic (but not a pressure) sensor board, so you don't need to 'press' any square, but just take away a piece from or put it down to any square.
And usually a magnetic sensor board sends a signal for both events (lifting a piece or putting it down). So if the Solus board sends a keycode for both events, then CB-Emu will be just as confused by capture moves as I am now by your explanation. ;)

Maybe a simpler question would explain, what exactly the Solus board is doing:
If you simply lift a piece from a square (on your board), does then the corresponding piece on the CB-Emu screen become marked (grey/highlighted)?

Regards,
CBF

Re: Mess Emulator für diverse Schachcomputer ist fertig!
 

Hi Franz,

SolusChess code interprets any change in the matrix of magnetic sensors, in order to send only the correct move (origin/destination square), also solving special situations such as castling, captures in any order, en passant, etc. It is designed to play against any chess program that allows the entry of moves via keyboard, on any hardware/software platform. That's why I decided to emulate a USB keyboard. The version used by Bryan is a simplified version and right now I can't remember what changes I made.

Regards,
Gerardo

AW: Re: Mess Emulator für diverse Schachcomputer ist fertig!
 

Hi Gerardo,

I still don't understand how this should work with CB-Emu (as keyboard emulation) - let's take a simple example:
There's a white pawn on e4 and a black pawn on d5 and white makes the move e4xd5.
On the Solus board you have to do the following to execute this move:
1) lift the white pawn on e4
2) lift the black pawn on d5
3) put the white pawn on d5

So which keys does the board now send to CB-Emu?
a) either 3 keys: E4 D5 D5
b) or only 2 keys: E4 D5

Since the Solus board doesn't know which program is running in CB-Emu, both of these methods a) or b) will lead to problems in CB-Emu, depending on whether the emulated program expects 2 clicks/keys (for a pressure sensor device) or 3 clicks/keys (for a magnetic sensor device).
So in fact I can't imagine how such capture moves can work for Bryan (for BOTH kinds of emulated machines in CB-Emu)!?

Regards,
Franz

AW: Mess Emulator für diverse Schachcomputer ist fertig!
 

Hi Franz

First of all my special Solus Chess board isn't an auto sensory board but uses tactile switches and I think this is where the confusion lies.
It is probably my fault as I have referred to it as a sensory board instead of a tactile switch board. So pressing down on one of the boards squares is like pressing two computer keyboard keys together or just clicking on the screen with a mouse.


First photo is of one of my tactile switches that lies underneath my very flexible plastic board.

The second photo is the wiring diagram that I used for the switches that connect to the Teensy USB Developement Board that contains Bergers code.

The third photo is the underside of my board showing the wiring and Teensy Board and how simple everything is.

Regards
Bryan

https://solusmessboard.yolasite.com/...C0s800x600.jpg


https://solusmessboard.yolasite.com/...s%20wiring.GIF


https://solusmessboard.yolasite.com/...C0s800x600.jpg

AW: Mess Emulator für diverse Schachcomputer ist fertig!
 

Hi Bryan,
aah, now everything is clear - I thought it would have magnetic sensors, because this is what I've found on Gerardos website about his Solus board.

So if you really have to press down the piece on the square, then it's clear that you can of course choose between 2 or 3 keys being sent to CB-Emu depending on which chess program you're using.

Regards,
Franz

AW: Mess Emulator für diverse Schachcomputer ist fertig!
 

Hi Franz

I'm glad you now understand and sorry for the confusion.

I have just made a quick video showing the board in action.
https://youtu.be/54_qcyHMNVI

Regards
Bryan

Re: Mess Emulator für diverse Schachcomputer ist fertig!
 

Hi,

:doh: It's true. I didn't remember, because we did this years ago.
But then Bryan... I did this code from my 'Sish' chessboard inspired by Matt Shannon's, remember? It's not a genuine SolusChess. :D

Sorry about the mess, Franz.

Regards,
Gerardo

AW: Mess Emulator für diverse Schachcomputer ist fertig!
 

So, jetzt aber wieder zurück zur deutschen Sprache! ;)

Eine Frage:
Benutzt jemand CB-Emu auf einem Tablet-Rechner, und falls ja, funktioniert das?

Wenn das nämlich klappt, dann würde ich mir evt. auch so ein Tablet zulegen, denn das wäre in vielen Situationen
doch wesentlich praktischer als ein Notebook.
Mögliche Probleme könnte ich mir nur wegen der fehlenden Maus beim Tablet vorstellen - kann man CB-Emu
mit so einem Touch-Screen auch vernünftig bedienen?

Grüße,
Franz

AW: Mess Emulator für diverse Schachcomputer ist fertig!
 

Hallo Franz,
nein, keine Chance auf einem Gerät ohne Maus und Tastatur. Das Problem ist der Punkt, wenn man einen Schachcomputer auswählt ... es kommt dann ja ein schwarzes Fenster und darüber ein kleines Fenster mit den Daten der Emulation. Hier muss man entweder die Maus bewegen oder eine Taste drücken ...

Der Witz: Weder die Bildschirmtastatur, noch ein "Klick" mit der virtuellen Maus oder ein Tippen auf den Bildschirm, sorgt dafür, dass es weitergeht ...

Was besonders lustig ist: Selbst die Touchpads von Notebook funktionieren in der Regel nicht ... während beim Montreux die kleinste Bewegung der externen (!) Maus reicht, kann man mit dem Touchpad machen, was man will, keine Chance ...

Das eigentliche Spiel funktioniert dann schon ... wenn man erst einmal das Schachbrett hat ...

Gruß,
Sascha

AW: Mess Emulator für diverse Schachcomputer ist fertig!
 

Hallo Franz,
ich habe CB-Emu auf meinem Windows-Tablet installiert.
Allerdings über Touch bekomme ich es nicht hin, die Mess-Oberfläche startet zwar und ich kann die Emulationen aufrufen, aber vom Startbildschirm zum eigentlichen Brett komme ich mit Touch nicht weiter.
Ich muss eine Maus anschließen und dann klicken.
Habe aber für mein Tablet auch eine externe Tastatur, so dass CB-Emu natürlich problemlos funktioniert.
LG
Mike

AW: Mess Emulator für diverse Schachcomputer ist fertig!
 

Ja, Sascha hat das noch viel besser beschrieben, genau so ist es.
Wir haben wohl zeitgleich geantwortet.

AW: Mess Emulator für diverse Schachcomputer ist fertig!
 

Hallo Sascha,
also das wäre das geringste Problem, denn da gibt's in den Optionen eine Einstellung 'Skip system info', und wenn man das aktiviert, dann kommt dieser Info-Bildschirm nicht.
Ich hab's jetzt mal mit dem Touchpad auf meinem Notebook probiert (ich nutzt das ja eigentlich nie), und es klappt problemlos, auch beim Montreux.
Aber wie gesagt, mit der oben erwähnten Einstellung hat man dieses Problem ja gar nicht.

Grüße,
Franz

AW: Mess Emulator für diverse Schachcomputer ist fertig!
 

Das ist lustig. Ich habe hier drei Notebooks und bei allen habe ich keine Chance, mit dem internen Touchpad über den Punkt zu kommen. Und ich hatte es auch mit diversen anderen Geräten versucht ... überall Windows 10 installiert. Unter Windows 7 ging das damals noch ohne Probleme, aber offenbar hat sich da unter Windows 10 was geändert.

AW: Mess Emulator für diverse Schachcomputer ist fertig!
 

Ach so, just auf einem Win 10 Tablet probiert: Der nächste kritische Punkt ... man muss immer einen Doppelklick ausführen ... nicht wie mit der Maus einmal mit der linken Maustaste klicken, um eine Figur zu wählen und abzusetzen ...

AW: Mess Emulator für diverse Schachcomputer ist fertig!
 

Okay, mit "skip system info" komme ich jetzt zum Brett.
Aber die Figuren kann ich mit dem Touch-Pen immer noch nicht bewegen.

AW: Mess Emulator für diverse Schachcomputer ist fertig!
 

Ja, wieder war Sascha schneller.
Mit Doppelklick geht es.:)