Week 4: 3/30 - 4/5

Weekly Objectives

Electrical: Finish the wiring and finalize all aspects

Software: Test the software with the complete board

Mechanical: Combine all the components and complete the finishing touches

Challenges

Electrical

We ran into issues with sensing so we replaced the broken/finicky reed sensors. Additionally, the chess pieces' magnets weren't strong enough so we decided to use two magnets at the bottom of each chess piece.

Software

It was difficult for the LED's to represent what as happening on the board because some of the sensors were broken.

Mechanical

The dividers are letting more light bleed to other squares than anticipated so we have to add some more wood to corners.

Week 4: 3/30 - 4/5

Progress

Electrical

(1) Finished all the wiring underneath the board.

(2) Connected all the reed sensors to the multiplexers.

(3) Taped all the reed sensors to the top of the board using electrical tape.

(4) Tested all the reed sensors through the wood.

Software

(1) Added setup led method to check if all the pieces are sensing at start of game

(2) Tested playing a game with the full board and it worked!

Mechanical

(1) Drilled holes in the corners of each square

(2) Drilled 3 holes for the battery pack

(3) Drilled holes for buttons

(4) Added hinges for the top

(5) Fixed up painting and added finisher

(6) Glued down LEDs and dividers on top

Week 3: 3/23 - 3/29

Weekly Objectives

Electrical: Continuing debugging and completing the circuit with all of the components

Software: Finalize LED coding as well as the code for the buttons

Mechanical: Complete the grid by fitting all the dividers together

Challenges

Electrical

We had some issues with sensing inputs but fixed with adding some code to the arduino script.

Software

Sensing capturing pieces seems to be an issue. For example, if a pawn can take two pieces at once the code has trouble detecting which piece it has taken.

We also had some issues with initializing LED and with the AI taking too much memory and crashing our Uno. In order to remedy this situation, we decided to switch to an Arduino Mega as it has more memory and the issue was solved.

Mechanical

The dividers at first were too loose fitting together (like jigsaw pieces) so we had to redo laser cutting them so they fit tighter.

Week 3: 3/23 - 3/29

Progress and Next Steps

Electrical

(1) Finished debugging multiplexers and finished grid system

(2) Tested every multiplexer to ensure it senses correctly

(3) Finished building the circuit with all the components including the LEDs, multiplexers, and buttons

Next Steps: We need to connect the reed switches to the multiplexer system and ensure the magnetic chess pieces on top causes correct outputs. We also need to configure the wiring inside the chess box so that it remains neat and everything is connected

Software

(1) Added LED lighting up for AI moves

(2) Added LED for startup and ending a turn/inputting an invalid move and winning/losing a game

(3) Coded buttons for ending turn and resetting game

Next Steps: We need to write the code and implement a new button for capturing. We also need to ensure the AI can play a game to completion.

Mechanical

(1) Painted the top of the board

(2) Finished creating dividers and ensured they fit together

Next Steps: We need to drill holes in the corners, glue dividers to the bottom of the board, and attach the hinge to the top of the board and the box

Week 2: 3/16 - 3/22

Weekly Objectives

Electrical: Work on Reed Sensor Grid

Software: Work on LED coding

Mechanical: Build the box of the chess board

Challenges

Electrical

We ran into issues with testing multiplexers. We are not sure if the multiplexers are bugged or if we are testing incorrectly.

Software

We don't know if the AI is making valid moves and choosing the right squares because we cannot do visual confirmation right now without the board.

Mechanical

We had issues with choosing wrong dimensions but fixed by recalculating.

Week 2: 3/16 - 3/22

Progress and Next Steps

Electrical

(1) Soldered ribbon cables to multiplexers

(2) Soldered ribbon cables to reed sensors and wires to other end of reed sensors for input voltages

(3) Tested all reed sensors, LEDs, and arduino with battery pack to ensure they all work

Next Steps: We need to debug the multiplexers and solder headers and connect the multiplexer to arduino and its various inputs

Software

(1) Understood main arduino code file for sensors

(2) Marked code segments to be deleted and kept other components that we needed such as invalid moves, AI moves and more.

(3) Understood how to program LED and how we plan on utilizing LED in physical design

Next Steps: We need to finish laser cutting the divider system and start gluing the parts together. We will also begin painting the top of the board.

Mechanical

(1) Finished outside of the chess board

(2) Started laser cutting dividers

Next Steps: We need to code the LED to respond to AI output

Week 1: 3/9 - 3/15

Progress

(1) Ordered materials

(2) Started reading up on Chess AI and how it worked

(3) Planned electrical component design with reed sensors and multiplexers

(4) Planned physical design with wood and laser cutting