The FrznChessboard

What is it?

This is a nascent project to create an open source software/hardware digital chess board. The main goals are:

• Low cost: keep well under the price of commercial chess boards
• Easy to assemble: you should be able to order the parts and assemble yourself
• Portable: usable without a phone or computer for practice or play with friends
• Interactive: easy to use, with online matchmaking integration and coaching/practice modes
• Robust: Nice-looking, but safe for kids to shove in their backpacks

Current Status

The project is split into multiple pieces to make each one a bit easier to tackle. So far, the main pieces are:

1. The main chessboard "detection" PCB that will sit under the playing surface and keep track of pieces, as well as illuminate important squares, etc.
2. The microcontroller board, which will attach to the main board via a board-to-board interconnect. The microcontroller will keep track of the state of the board, control all the LEDs, communicate with a PC or phone (if attached), and also manage the small OLED displays & buttons the players will use to interact directly with the board
3. The phone/PC app: this will (likely) be written in Dart/Flutter so that the same codebase can be used across OSes, phones, and the web
4. Smaller prototype PCBs that are used before paying for the large ones to be made. The single row prototype board falls in this category

So far, most of the work has been done on the MCU code and the schematic/PCB capture and design. There is still quite a long way to go before a working demonstration.

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The Detection Board

The MCU Board