More soon

Been busy with other projects and my OU work, so work has slowed (ok stopped) on the chessboard.  I will look at returning to this after Easter.

First nine connected to the pi

The first nine boards have now been tested and connected to the pi.  I have decided to build my own chessboard, so will start to build a small 3 x 3 board first to test the fit of the boards on the underside.  This will require yet more ebay :-).

First ten done!

First ten detector boards have been built ready for testing.  Not quite the same as the first plan, as I've made the board square.

Chess Set

After a no show for my first Ebay purchase, another was ordered and arrived the very next day!

This set is not as good quality as the first, but will do to create the prototype.

The chessboard folds in half so this should help with getting the board under my pilar drill to create the 64 holds needed for the LED's

New LCD

Yes the bargain £2.84 LCD has arrived, ready to connect to the MCP chip

LCD

Got a serial LCD unit from an old Firewall I had. Attached it via a level shifter to the pi's serial port. Didn't have much luck with getting it work. I will also need to create my own LCD routines. I think a LCD connected to another MCP chip may be the way to go. Wiringpi should make the coding easy. One on order from eBay for the sum of £2.00 post free!

Still waiting for the chessboard :-(. Looks like first class post from Birmingham takes more than a week!

Stripboard

The strip board has arrived, just waiting for the chessboard.  Once I have the chessboard I can look at cutting the strip boas into the correct size for mounting the LED and reed switch.