Quote from Michiel on December 27, 2020, 3:17 pm

Quote from itismichaelames on December 27, 2020, 1:36 pm

Is the piece recognition piece specific? Like if i put the knight down in a gui will it know its a knight or are the sensors for move recognition? This is a make or break feature for me. As id like to put the sensors on my own set in time. As well as do board analysis from any position without having to set it up in a computer. Just put the pieces down.

Yes it is.

You assign each one of the chips to a certain chess piece. AFAIK doesn't really matter where the piece was in the start position, a Knight is a Knight, a Bishop is a Bishop, a Rock is a Rock regardless of from which start position it came. I have two spare chips left, labeled as White Queen and Black Queen however the pieces set I bought does not have extra / spare Queens, so these are still chips laying down next to my Certabo board.

I am sure Certabo's Pietro will answer all your questions, a big pro for Certabo (excellent customer support, very kind people, and very opensource minded)

 

He is also quick in answering direct messages via Certabo's Twitter account (see attachment as one of many chats I had with him)

 

 

Quote from Pietro on December 27, 2020, 11:27 pm

Quote from itismichaelames on December 27, 2020, 1:36 pm

Hey there! So I have been taking chess a bit seriously lately, and wanted a great tool to play against computers, for computer analysis, etc. And did a lot of searching. Spent weeks and figured the DGT Eboard was the best option possible. Paired with Acid Ape its a great tool. I quickly noticed a lack of third party support and it seemed like DGT likes to keep development rights for their products to themselves and a few developers and themselves... lame.

 

Short story. My girlfriend was the one who actually bought me the eboard for Christmas. Bless her heart she loves me and i am one lucky man. I may have told her exactly what to get but still. Well about 2 nights ago we are hanging out and i forget what brought it up but she said something along the lines of 'when you find a better board and pieces, and sell that one for it' as a joke and i reaffirmed her that this was the best option but joked back that in the next few days ill find something new.

 

Well here i am, with the ability the return the DGT eboard and buy this product. I have a few questions though before I consider.

 

Is the construction all wood? The DGT board claims to be made of wood but upon receiving the board i find out it is a high quality plastic. Not what i would expect from a $600 purchase and wasnt advertised as such.

 

Is the piece recognition piece specific? Like if i put the knight down in a gui will it know its a knight or are the sensors for move recognition? This is a make or break feature for me. As id like to put the sensors on my own set in time. As well as do board analysis from any position without having to set it up in a computer. Just put the pieces down.

 

What mobile options do i have? Atm i have acid ape on android, chess for android which still needs a lot of work, and the lack luster DGT Pi. Acid Ape charged an extra $60 just for the DGT driver add ons to use the board. Very anticonsumer (a theme surrounding dgt) Id like to be able to play computer opponents, board analysis from any position just by placing pieces, have access to opening books, and upload my own engines as well as customize them. Modularity is important.

What are future development plans? DGT seems stagnant. They have the 'best' product on the market and no one to challenge them so the product hasnt improved or changed much over the years. What improvments will this product see over time? Will i as a supporter now have access to upgrades later? Id like to know where my (girlfriends lol) money is going, and transparency is important to me, as well as supporting small businesses.

 

Do your chess computers work with dgt eboards? If so i may start there so i can support your company in a small way 🙂

Look forward to responses. Even if i do not make the exchange any time soon, my next major chess purchase will be through Certabo. I like what i am seeing here.

 

- Michael

Hi Michael thank you for message and story also thank you Michiel for explanation to first point i will add some more informations

Yes once the chips are identical you and can be configured as you like so you attach to your pieces and place on board do a setup so the association between piece and chip is made and as Michiel was explaining they will be track on board weherever you move. You can do this on as many set you want and you can just add new sets over time configure and reconfigure eventually as you need.

You can start from any position on board and do evaluate position etc.

What mobile options do i have? Atm i have acid ape on android, chess for android which still needs a lot of work, and the lack luster DGT Pi. Acid Ape charged an extra $60 just for the DGT driver add ons to use the board. Very anticonsumer (a theme surrounding dgt) Id like to be able to play computer opponents, board analysis from any position just by placing pieces, have access to opening books, and upload my own engines as well as customize them. Modularity is important.

For mobile option there is Chess for Android supporting the board and Certabodroid which is modified version of Droidfish of Peter Osterlund we added support for our board and interface to Lichess Api too. So what you can dois more or less same as o Droidfish but you cannot start from any position in that neither run analysis from position but only starting from new game. Also we are updating this Certabodroid.

Anyhow we are working to port our standard python software to Android  so it will be one of the future development. The cross platform of Python Chess is quite powerful so will have same standard features of the standard program and will be updated as it will grow up on other platforms. Our software is free and open source all upgrades are always released as they become available you can directly run the source codes as Michiel as experienced 🙂 on his custom system. Anyhow our development comes mostly from the user requests compatibly with investment required.

The DaVinci does not work with with dgt boards and we are very happy you can partecipate to the forum and that you like what you find here and maybe be a Certabo friend soon too!

We wish all the best to you and your girlfriend.

Pietro