DGT Board

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DGT Board,
a sensory board developed and market by Digital Game Technology. The board in conjunction with a digital chess clock is connected to a host computer and its chess gui or control program via USB, serial interface, or Bluetooth, and acts as a real-time move input device during game play, to monitor or broadcast the game, or to give chess engines a whiff of dedicated chess computers.

Contents

Piece Recognition

Sensor Technology

The patent-registered DGT sensor technology ¹ recognizes pieces containing piece-type and piece-color specific passive LC circuits with a resonance frequency of 90 to 350 KHz, the coil on ferrite core. Squares and their respective pieces (if any) are scanned by 2 x 8 silver-ink printed trace loops on a polyester film placed under the board, file and rank sequentially selected by analogue switch multiplexers, feeding back the output signal of an amplifier via the selected inductive coupled LC circuit to its input, forcing oscillation in piece specific resonance. Measuring the signal frequency or its period via a digital input port by the controller firmware to convert it into appropriate piece codes takes about 3 ms per square ² .

Inside the Board

Inside the DGT Board ³

Scanning the Board

void scanBoard(char *board) {
   for (int rank = 0; rank < 8; rank++) {
      switchRankMultiplexer( rank );
      for (int file = 0; file < 8; file++) {
         connectFileMultiplexer( file );
         int f = measureFrequency(); /* e.g. in a 0 .. 35 range ~ 3 ms */
         *board++ = pieceTable[f]; /* includes empty (0) */
      }
   }
}

Applications

Chess GUIs

The DGT Board can be used with most GUI's ⁴ , such as Fritz GUI by ChessBase, Chess Assistant and Aquarium by ChessOK, Shredder GUI, Arena, PocketGrandmaster, WinBoard ⁵ and XBoard. The open source dgtdrv library by Pierre Boulenguez under GPL Version 2 or later, can be used to adapt almost every GUI to interact with the DGT board ⁶. Since v5.7 (2018), Chess for Android can connect to a DGT chessboard over bluetooth or USB (including older DGT models that use the RS-232 connector) on devices with Android 6.0 and up (or even earlier for USB) ⁷ ⁸ .

Watch on YouTube Chess for Android and DGT Board Connection, YouTube Video

Gavon

Josu Bergara Ede's dedicated User Interface for various open source chess engines, dubbed Gavon, based on the Raspberry Pi is able to interface with the DGT USB or Bluetooth Board.

Watch on YouTube Gavon Bluetooth DGT Board Connection, YouTube Video

PicoChess

Jean-François Romang's PicoChess is a dedicated chess computer based on Stockfish on Raspberry Pi and the DGT Board ⁹ . The display of the digital chess clock acts as output device of a command line interface.

Watch on YouTube PicoChess on a DGT eboard by Jonas Žnidaršič, BCE, YouTube Video ¹⁰

Revelation II

DGT technology ¹¹ is involved in the Revelation II dedicated chess computer, developed by Ruud Martin's company Phoenix Chess Systems in cooperation with DGT ¹² ¹³.

Watch on YouTube Revelation II Test by Jonas Žnidaršič, BCE, YouTube Video

DGT LiveChess Software

DGT LiveChess Software allows live broadcast of chess games via the internet ¹⁴ , as used for instance in recent ICGA and CSVN computer chess tournaments served by DGT employee, CSVN chairman and tournament director Jan Krabbenbos. Participants are advised to don't use the board for analyzing purposes, as it was quite usual in over the board computer chess with ordinary chessboards.

DGT Board in action for live broadcast at PT 45, round 4, Kallisto - The King
Bart Weststrate and Johan de Koning, Marcel van Kervinck and Stefan Meyer-Kahlen ¹⁵

DGT Pi

DGT Pi is a dedicated chess computer expansion hardware for the DGT Board integrated into a DGT3000 digital chess clock, released in October 2016 ¹⁶. DGT Pi consists of a Raspberry Pi 3 with built-in Bluetooth and Wi-Fi functionality, and multiple chess engines included.

Forum Posts

1998 ...

To Bob H.: A Puzzlement about the DGT Board? by Steven Schwartz, CCC, October 28, 1998
DGT sensory board update by Robert Hyatt, CCC, November 25, 1998
DGT vs Novag Universal by Michael Ginat, CCC, January 19, 1999 » Novag Universal Electronic Chess Board

2000 ...

Does someone (Amir?) know the software used in Dortmund with DGT board? by Sylvain Renard, CCC, July 12, 2000
A question to other users - DGT board by Peter Berger, CCC, April 11, 2001
Your thoughts on the DGT electronic chessboard by Gerald Grimsley, CCC, December 10, 2001
How electronic chessboards works by Ben Bulsink DGT Project, rec.games.chess.misc, February 19, 2004
Crafty, Winboard, DGT and Move Annoucement by Mike Byrne, CCC, April 24, 2004

2005 ...

CEBoard now supports DGT Board by Alain Zanchetta, CCC, November 27, 2005 » CEBoard
DGT Board with Robot Arm by Alfredo Delacruz, CCC, January 21, 2006
On the DGT piece recognition chessboard by Steven Edwards, CCC, December 07, 2008

External Links

References

Up one level

Patent US6168158 - Device for detecting playing pieces on a board - Google Patents ↩︎
How electronic chessboards works by Ben Bulsink DGT Project, rec.games.chess.misc, February 19, 2004↩︎
DGT presents: new clocks, technology – and Vladimir Kramnik, ChessBase News, January 10, 2008↩︎
Which programs support the DGT e-Board?↩︎
DGT Winboard interface by Jan Krabbenbos, Winboard Forum, June 19, 2012↩︎
dgtdrv: An input engine for the DGT Digital Chess Board ↩︎
Aart Bik's Website - Connecting Chess for Android with a DGT Chessboard ↩︎
Chess for Android and Electronic ChessBoards by Aart Bik, CCC, December 14, 2018↩︎
PicoChess by Jean-Francois Romang ↩︎
Video: DGT board and modern pieces by Steven Edwards, CCC, September 01, 2013↩︎
DGT presents: new clocks, technology – and Vladimir Kramnik, ChessBase News, January 10, 2008↩︎
Revelation II from DGT↩︎
DGT starts delivery in december, Phoenix Chess Systems, December 01, 2013↩︎
CSVN Live ↩︎
Photo's PT45/GT27 day 1 ↩︎
DGT Pi - Chess Computer for DGT e-Boards - Digital Game Technology ↩︎