Quote from Marc_one on December 26, 2020, 7:22 pm

Hi Lars,
first of all, I apologize for my bad English.
I have installed your GUI chess and it's a great work.
I would like to use the Certabo board to play against Maia neural networks but unfortunately I can't.
I have had problems installing Certabo UCI Engine on Arena.
I've tried with BearChess but I can't install the Maia library.
This is the procedure to install the engine (reported on the Hiarcs forum)

 

I would suggest to download the latest Lc0 version, 0.26.3, here
Choose the lc0-v0.26.3-windows-cpu-openblas.zip version, as Maia does not need any computing power - so the CPU version is the most simple one to run, and will fit any PC configuration (no need for a GPU).

Then download the Maia neural networks from here
Where the NN looks like: final_1100-40.pb.gz for Maia 1100. Repeat until you grasp the nine NNs.
Locate the downloaded files in directories organized as you wish, in order to be able to find them later on.

Now with HCE:

Menu Edit / Preferences (or gear wheel icon: configure HCE)
Engines tab / Add
Browse to your preferred engine directory
Locate and select the lc0.exe file, validate your choice, the Lc0 engine should now appear in the Hiarcs engines list - such as "Lc0 v0.26.3"
Rename it - you can't change the base name, but add information such as "Lc0 v0.26.3 M1100" for Maia 1100 (keep it short to make sure the relevant information will be displayed later on, when you will need to select the engine from a window-narrowed list).
Configure the engine, go down the list of options to change the WeightsFile attribute, from <autodiscover> to the full path and name of Maia 1100 neural network, such as (my path, to be adapted to yours): C:\Eric\Programmes\Arena 3\Engines\Maia\final_1100-40.pb.gz

 

In particular, I cannot install the ckpt-40-400000.pb file in the BearChess program.
Can you help me with?

THX

Quote from Lars Nowak on December 26, 2020, 9:43 pm

Hi Marc,

I could install Maia under BearChess. Please wait until tomorrow. I will release a new version of

BearChess. The new version improves the UCI configuration dialog. I think, your problem results

in the UCI configuration of the WeightsFile. This will be much easier in the next version.

I will add a short step-by-step discription, too.

What about the problem with the UCI engine and Arena?

Happy Holidays!

Lars

Quote from Lars Nowak on December 27, 2020, 12:50 pm

Hi,

I have released a new version: BearChess Version 0.3.4.0

There is an additional PDF file which describes how to install Maia as UCI engine. Now, you can play with your Certabo board against

this nice new engine. Have fun!

Lars

Quote from Marc_one on December 27, 2020, 6:12 pm

Hi Lars,

thank you very much for the help.

I installed Maia engine following the instructions (very clear) and now everything works!

As for Arena, I can't configure (calibrate) the board.

When I open the engine with configuration dialog a warning appears that you see in the attached image.

I still thank you for all the time you have dedicated to me.

 

Quote from Lars Nowak on December 27, 2020, 7:01 pm

Hi Marco,

I have never seen such error message before.

Maybe you can send me more details, how do you installed the engine under Arena.

It is easier if you mail to my personal account: lars [at] solanosoft.com

BTW, the engine is automatic calibrating on the first run. If the COM port is correct,

there should no problems.

Lars

Quote from Marc_one on December 27, 2020, 8:30 pm

Hi Lars,

I think it's probably a port problem.

The board is installed on COM4 and Arena looks for it on COM1.

This is the log file.

2020-12-27T20:20:47 Debug: S: Create server pipe
2020-12-27T20:20:47 Debug: S: Portnames: COM1,COM4
2020-12-27T20:20:47 Info: S: Open COM-Port COM1
2020-12-27T20:20:47 Debug: B: start calibrate
2020-12-27T20:20:47 Debug: C: Communicate
2020-12-27T20:20:48 Error: C: Error with serial port: Timeout operazione.
2020-12-27T20:20:48 Debug: S: Portnames: COM1,COM4
2020-12-27T20:20:48 Debug: S: Try to close port COM1
2020-12-27T20:20:48 Info: S: Open COM-Port COM1
2020-12-27T20:20:49 Error: C: Error with serial port: Timeout operazione.
2020-12-27T20:20:49 Debug: S: Portnames: COM1,COM4
2020-12-27T20:20:49 Debug: S: Try to close port COM1
2020-12-27T20:20:49 Info: S: Open COM-Port COM1
2020-12-27T20:20:50 Error: C: Error with serial port: Timeout operazione.
2020-12-27T20:20:50 Debug: S: Portnames: COM1,COM4
2020-12-27T20:20:50 Debug: S: Try to close port COM1
2020-12-27T20:20:50 Info: S: Open COM-Port COM1
2020-12-27T20:20:51 Error: C: Error with serial port: Timeout operazione.
2020-12-27T20:20:51 Debug: S: Portnames: COM1,COM4
2020-12-27T20:20:51 Debug: S: Try to close port COM1
2020-12-27T20:20:51 Info: S: Open COM-Port COM1
2020-12-27T20:20:52 Error: C: Error with serial port: Timeout operazione.
2020-12-27T20:20:52 Debug: S: Portnames: COM1,COM4
2020-12-27T20:20:52 Debug: S: Try to close port COM1
2020-12-27T20:20:52 Info: S: Open COM-Port COM1
2020-12-27T20:20:53 Error: C: Error with serial port: Timeout operazione.
2020-12-27T20:20:53 Debug: S: Portnames: COM1,COM4

Please, can you tell me how to change the port in the Arena with Certabo board?
Thank you very much.

Quote from Lars Nowak on December 27, 2020, 9:52 pm

Hi Marco,

if you cannot use the configuration dialog with Arena, you can edit the configuration file certaboCfg.xml and CertaboUciCfg.xml.

Change it from

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Configuration xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
<PortName>&lt;auto&gt;</PortName>
</Configuration>

to

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Configuration xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
<PortName>COM4</PortName>
</Configuration>

The files are located in

C:\Users\YOURUSERS\AppData\Local\CertaboUci

where YOURUSERS is your Windows user name (I think something with 'Marco').

Probably I will release a new version where the COM port detection works better, like BearChess.

Lars

Quote from Marc_one on December 28, 2020, 9:08 am

Hi Lars,

the problem with Arena has been solved by changing the cfg file!

Now Maia works with both BearChess and Arena.

Thanks for your help.

Quote from Graham on December 29, 2020, 12:50 am

Hi Marco,

For Arena (and LucasChess and Shredder) you can also try my DLL driver:

https://goneill.co.nz/chess.php#certabo

This talks to the board in a similar way to Lars' UCI driver, but works with the GUI directly rather than as a chess engine. It makes your Certabo board look like a DGT board to Arena, which has advantages like allowing you to take back moves (which aren't allowed in engine vs. engine games in Arena). Of course, Maia only plays up to 1900 strength so maybe you don't need take backs!!!

If you have a similar problem configuring my driver as you did with Lars' then the file you need to edit will be CER_DLL.INI in the main Arena engine (where you will also have loaded my driver, DGTEBDLL.DLL). The ReadMe.PDF file in the download gives instructions on installing and using the driver.

Graham