Hello Bryan,
yes, thanks for your explanation!

I've also already experimented with this method long time ago (when I tried to allow entering moves with the PC keyboard instead of the mouse),
but the problem is, that you always have to press 2 keys at the same time on the keyboard (e.g. A and 2 for a mouseclick on a2),
and that's not really comfortable. But for your external board this is indeed a very clever method.

Since your way to find out the correct square for these 'Unnamed Key' entries in the Tab menu is very time-consuming, I've now added the right square names to the board sensors in ALL devices, i.e. now you see "Square A1", "Square A2" etc. instead of 'Unnamed Key' in the Tab menu. Of course you still have to make these assigment manually, but at least you see now the board square in the list and can immediately enter the right keys.
So it will be much easier for you to add more CB-Emu modules to your external board.

Here is this new Update3:
https://www89.zippyshare.com/v/V8LRJfR4/file.html
(apart from these new square labels nothing has changed, so you can just use these new EXEs without having to change anything in your existing configuration).

Now I have one more question:
With your method moves made on your external board are sent to CB-Emu on the PC, but the other direction is not possible, right?
IOW, when the chess module in CB-Emu makes a move, you still have to look at the PC screen to see this move, i.e. the board LEDs on your external board do NOT show this move, right?
Or have you even found any additional trick, so that your external board 'gets' the moves from CB-Emu?

In principle this should be possible, especially now with the new PGN feature in the last versions, because whenever CB-Emu writes a move into 'gamelog.pgn', it could also send this move to any other target (file, console, screen, USB etc.).
So in fact a 'full' communication (only for moves of course) between an external board and CB-Emu should be possible -
only the direction 'CB-Emu to external board' would have to be solved.

Regards,
Franz

The correct question should be: is it possible that all chess emulations can play automatically? And the answer is YES

Through the MAME plugin chessengine created by Sandro Ronco, at least in Linux Ubuntu.
And, of course, save the games in pgn format.


A couple of examples:




And if you want to see it in action you can see the following video:



Saludos,
Luis

Hi Luis

The question is, is this plugin also available for windows or only for Linux? I guess most of us don't want to install a second system on their computer. And some of us might also not be able to do that.

__________________
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https://www.iccf.com/player?id=89948&tab=3

It should work on windows too, but I did not find any gui where it works.

But it is not necessary to install another operating system on your computer, with VirtualBox you can emulate it with already created disks.

Ubuntu is not a problem, they are some details. I had never used it and I started using it for the chessengine autoplayer. I'm preparing a "tutorial" explaining the details.

Regards,
Luis

Well, going back to the whole 'bill' issue, I am certainly in when it comes to this. If it were in fact possible to connect CB-Emu to a Millennium Exclusive Board or a DGT-board, it would definitely be a HUGE incentive to buy one of those....

But Franz, believe me, I am a very happy man already if CB-Emu should stay as it is!

Greetings,
hyppyp

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)

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

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

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

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

__________________
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