DIY USB Chess Board

[mephisto]

For anyone interested in a bit of DIY, I have designed two easy and cheap USB Chess Boards that connects to the Dream Cheeky USB Chess Board Control Unit that enables you to play against chess programs like Fritz, Arena and Chessmaster.
The first board a full size wooden chess board, uses momentary switches. The second board is a full size vinyl press sensory board that uses self adhesive aluminium foil tape to relay the moves.
As you will see, you won’t need any electronics experience but if you’ve done a little bit of soldering that might come in handy.
Here’s the link:
http://usbchessboard.yolasite.com/
Regards
Bryan

[Murat]

Very nice, thank you Bryan.

[stevemulligan]

enables you to play against chess programs like Fritz, Arena and Chessmaster.

So it works with Arena & WinBoard? Does that mean I can play against any engine that talks xboard or UCI? That would be pretty fun

Is this the USB board? I don't see it on the Dream Cheeky website.

[mephisto]

Hi Steve
Yes that is the Dream Cheeky board that comes with a very weak chess engine. Unfortunately they apparently don't produce it anymore but you can pick them up pretty cheap on eBay. I have a few and my last one cost only £2.50.
It is possible to play on the Dream Cheeky board with Fritz etc but you will need the new USB software which hopefully can be downloaded from my site when I've sorted out how to do it.
I've added a video showing my wooden board in action (don't take any notice of my chess as I was more concerned in showing it worked rather that showing how good my chess is.
Also the first board built by someone else appears in the Gallery section.
Regards
Bryan

[stevemulligan]

The link I posted earlier is sold out, so I bought one from ebay. Looking forward to the software so I can play against some engines that are closer to my level. Fritz and Chessmaster are way out of my league :p

[mephisto]

I have updated my site with a new 'Modern' style board.
The boards are compatable with Fritz and Chessmaster but unfortunately Matt the software engineer can't get Arena or Winboard to work 100%
If anyone has any ideas how we could do away with the Dream Cheeky USB control unit and use another cheap alternative, please get in touch.
Bryan
http://usbchessboard.yolasite.com/

[Thomas Mayer]

I have updated my site with a new 'Modern' style board.
The boards are compatable with Fritz and Chessmaster but unfortunately Matt the software engineer can't get Arena or Winboard to work 100%
If anyone has any ideas how we could do away with the Dream Cheeky USB control unit and use another cheap alternative, please get in touch.
Bryan
http://usbchessboard.yolasite.com/

very nice project ! I think something like that: http://www.cleware.net/produkte/p-usbio16.html should be useable - I believe the dream cheeky board works as well with 16 contacts. The unit in the given example has even 8 output boards which might be used to switch some leds on or something like that...

Greets, Thomas

[mephisto]

Last year I found a software engineer who had written some software that enabled you to play against Fritz on the Dream Cheeky USB chess board. 
As I already had designed a full size press sensory chess board that could connect to any dedicated chess computer, I found that it could also connect in the same way to the Dream Cheeky USB Control Unit. 
I therefore decided to produce a web site with a step by step guide on how to build this board and as time progressed, I've added a couple more board designs using different ways of relaying the board moves, http://usbchessboard.yolasite.com/
Unfortunately the Dream Cheeky board is no longer produced so Matt the software engineer has written a new piece of software for the Teensy USB Development Board that acts the same way as the Dream Cheeky.  The nice thing about the Teensy is that once you have programed it with Matt's software your computer will always recognize the Teensy software automatically.  You can therefore build a USB chess board as described on my website then go over to Matt's site to download his software for the Teensy  
Matt has named his new software 'Sish Chess' and his site can be found here http://sishchess.blogspot.co.uk/?m=0
With Matt's original Dream Cheeky software there where a few issues with certain chess programs like Arena but the new Teensy software works ok with any chess program that accepts keyboard move input like Fritz, Chessmaster and Arena. 
Have a look at our sites and build yourself a cheap full size board, I'm sure you will enjoy it. 
Bryan

[mephisto]

Our next project over the next twelve months is to incorporate the new Raspberry PI credit card size computer into our boards. This will contain it's own chess program plus have the ability to communicate with PC chess software plus also give us the opportunity to add LED's around the board to indicate the computers moves and an LCD.
Exciting times ahead.
Bryan
_________________
Mephisto
http://usbchessboard.yolasite.com/

[mephisto]

Website updated for 2013.
New software to make your own auto sensory reed board.
http://usbchessboard.yolasite.com/
Bryan