Author: Robert Hyatt
Date: 12:23:38 11/25/98
Several have been asking me about this board, so I thought I would write a quick summary of results to date. The unix interface is done and works. I have played games against Crafty as both black and white, and have also used this to "watch" a third-party game (a game played on the board with crafty in "analyze mode" to give analysis for each side as the moves are made). This works perfectly. I have also been able to set up any position I want, and then when I tell crafty to "enable" the dgt interface, it correctly loads the position automatically. You can also modify the position after crafty is connected to the board, whenever you want, and just enter "dgt set" to set the current position up internally. Promotions work well (so long as you don't have more than two queens or two of any other piece, since you can't invert a rook for a third queen). If you do this frequently, you can order an extra of each piece type (it comes with two queens for each side already). Minor issues for USA buyers: 1. Mine came with a European power supply. You need a 9 volt DC power supply that produces at least 500 milliamps. The power connecter should be + on the inside, - on the outside. The radio shack gadget is changable (you just reverse the tip). 2. The cable is incorrect for USA PC's... it has a DB-9m on the board end, which is fine. On the other end, it terminates in a db25f which is wrong. You will need a db25f to db9f converter (this will have a db25m [with 25 small pins visible] on one end and a DB-9f [with 9 small holes] visible on the other end. In addition, you will need a null-modem adapter as well. I bought a db25f to db25m null-modem gadget from radio shack as well. So I now have the stock cable, attached to the null-modem adapter, to the db25-9 adapter, and this plugs right into the normal serial port (this works on my ALR machine and my notebook equally well). Other things: You can confuse crafty if you "slide" pieces too slowly. IE when I see a pawn moving from e2 to e3 I grab the move then, yet you might be sliding it to e4. I have a built-in 500ms delay so that I won't "scan" a move until there has been no board activity for 500ms. This time is "variable" however, as you might want to tune it smaller for fast blitz, but you might want to make it longer for a standard game so you can move a little lazier. 500ms seems fine to me in blitz games. As I mentioned last time, the board gives me no way to display a move, so at present you have to watch the screen for that. Might try to add some audio to crafty so it can speak moves to eliminate this. Then, if you are playing your friend using this, you can wear headphones to hear the moves and make them for crafty without having to watch the screen nor annoying him with computer "chatter". I will try to look at the windows port of this soon. I don't know exactly how to read a serial port under windows, so that will be a new experiment for me to try. In unix it is trivial. If you are interested in the board itself, or if you are interested in buying one and would like to help me test the windows port, by all means let me know. I haven't seen the "Shacom" board and know nothing about it at present. I'll see if I can contact them to borrow something so that I can make it work as well, if they are interested. If you have any questions, let me know... here are the "statistics" for those so interested... 2.25" squares, simulated wood surface... looks like a clear-grained light oak color for light squares, something close to medium-dark cherry wood for the dark squares. Board has a 1.75" dark wood-grained border around the squares, although the border is lighter than the dark squares to maintain contrast. Pawns are almost 2" tall, kings are 3.5" tall, pieces are solid wood. Nice thing is that the board is right at 5/8" high counting four very thin rubber feet... so it isn't obtrusive sitting on top of a table. What would *really* be impressive would be to do this in a *real* wood surface rather than this simulated solid wood. I'm impressed. For you programmers out there, I have made this interface a separate program under unix that I start via a fork/exec call. This program manages the board, the clock, and so forth, and has a very simple protocol. It sends the "ugly" type moves (e2e4) or (f7f8=Q) to the program, plus the program can query the clocks whenever it wants by just sending "time" to the interface. I did forget to mention the clock... it is a digital clock, plastic case, with a wide "rocker" switch on top. Supports all sorts of time controls with increments, no increments, sudden death, and so forth. And the computer can read the clocks whenever it wants, as well as find out which side is on move, and so forth. All in all, a winner for having fun... Bob -- Robert Hyatt Computer and Information Sciences hyatt@cis.uab.edu University of Alabama at Birmingham (205) 934-2213 115A Campbell Hall, UAB Station (205) 934-5473 FAX Birmingham, AL 35294-1170
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