Gavon is here.....

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Monsieur Plastique
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Post by Monsieur Plastique »

Hi Bryan,

Thanks very much for your excellent posts as usual :) May I just ask what will seem like obvious questions?

What is the black rectangular object to the left of the unit and board? Is this a battery power supply or similar? How does it connect to the unit? (I can't tell from the photo what sort of plugs are being used).

Secondly, when you talk about delicate soldering if you source the parts yourself, could you possibly describe how "delicate" that actually is? I'd prefer to source everything myself bar the software, however hand-soldering a large IC if the pins are very close together would probably be beyond my ability. Things like standard components, anything more than 2mm apart, etc, would not be a problem though.

Also, I take it this unit would work completely without any external board whatsoever. If that is the case, would you still need that second external unit that I referred to in my first question?

Thanks
Chess is like painting the Mona Lisa whilst walking through a minefield.
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Bryan Whitby
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Post by Bryan Whitby »

Hi Mr P

Yes the black rectangular object is the battery power supply that simply plugs into the PI just like pluging a mains adaptor in. It's actually a mobile phone backup battery but works great powering the PI and here's the one I bought.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00E0KXO86/r ... TE_3p_dp_1

Also, here's the excellent Adafruit overview and construction instructions of their 16x2 LCD kit for you to see what soldering is involved.
http://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-16x2 ... spberry-pi

The battery backup unit allows you to play Gavon anywhere but if you are near a electric mains socket you could just plug in a mains lead to save on your battery.

Originally, Gavon was designed just as a portable chess computer and you input your moves via the switches under the LCD screen. These buttons also allow you to access the options in the Menu system. Interfacing with DGT and Solus boards have now recently been added by Josu but they are just a additional option.

I'll try and put a video on YouTube so that you can see Gavon working.

Regards
Bryan
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fourthirty
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Post by fourthirty »

Chessmaster Ireland wrote: I'll try and put a video on YouTube so that you can see Gavon working.
Bryan - thank you for the detailed parts/price list. A YouTube video would be greatly appreciated!

Greg
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fourthirty
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Post by fourthirty »

Wardy wrote: Josu sells them on eBay, I think mine came across as about £100. It would be cheaper to source the hardware and build it yourself and just get the software from Josu..... I'm just impatient!
Thank you! I searched both the US & UK ebay sites and came up short. I'll email Josu to ask when he plans to sell more units.
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Bryan Whitby
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Post by Bryan Whitby »

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fourthirty
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Post by fourthirty »

Chessmaster Ireland wrote:Video of Gavon in action

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnnLZAdN9fM
Awesome! Thanks Bryan.
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Monsieur Plastique
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Post by Monsieur Plastique »

Hi Bryan,

Thanks very much for your written responses and the video. I could probably manage the soldering myself with patience and a total absence of caffeine in my system 8) .

It seems to me that so far as the hardware is concerned, the thing holding this project back are the absence (so far as I can see), of pre-fabricated, high quality, robust and attractive housings. I've seen "project" style housings (i.e. clear acrylic ones so DIY builders can show off the guts of their projects, but I think this project (and others like it), should be about making attractive portable dedicated units that look the (finished) part.

A couple of things I had not realised though until I watched your video. I can see why you would want to use a board. Even I, as someone who really likes the more laborious style of dedicated machine (i.e. original Sapphire, VIP, etc), would grow a little tired of keying moves into this device as shown in the video. That said, I only play slow games these days so perhaps it would not be so bad.

The other thing that strikes me as well is the sheer playing strength of the thing. Assuming the permanent brain can be disabled, I imagine that even at a second per move, it would still play about 300 points stronger than me at my best. Still, I suppose I would feel some accomplishment in "building" a machine from scratch that is a true pocket IM at the very least.
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Monsieur Plastique
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Post by Monsieur Plastique »

By the way, those micro-switches are commonly used in steering wheels for racing simulations (paddle gear shifts). Sadly they do wear out - on my racing simulator I'll typically get a few years life out of it before I need to disassemble the wheel and replace the switches. It would probably be a similar thing here if used via the keypad (manual input) on a regular basis.
Chess is like painting the Mona Lisa whilst walking through a minefield.
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Bryan Whitby
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Post by Bryan Whitby »

Mr P

Yes the absence of quality housing for this Adafruit LCD kit has suprised me also, that is why I had to build my own.

Josu is a dedicated chess computer collector and when he decided to start his project he initially thought that he would like a portable chess computer that emulated the old chess computers where moves where made by key entry. Obviously he could have chosen a touch screen LCD with graphics just like a modern smart phone but he wanted Gavon to be like the early chess computers.

Momentary tactile switches are very robust and should last for thousands of presses. I really don't think that you can compare the key usage on Gavon with a modern hand held gaming machine that the control buttons are frantically pressed hundreds of times per minute. Anyway all you have to do is unsolder the old switch and solder a new one in (5 minute job).

One of the nice things about Gavon is that you can change the ELO with certain chess engines from ELO 1000 to ELO 3000

Regards
Bryan
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Post by Wardy »

Yet more updates to Gavon plus a new engine in Protector :-)

At the moment Josu is issuing updates faster than I can test them, he really is working hard on this.

There are some modified Pibow elements that can take the adafruit screen, assuming that you have a Pibow case to start with. It seems a number of interested people have designs on the board so hopefully proper complete cases will start to make an appearance in the next few months.

For now I've got my Pi in one of the cheap clip together cases from ebay which I've assembled with the top plate missing which the adafruit shield then completely fills. It's rigid enough and the friction fit of the shield actually helps stabilise it and stops GPIO creep from repeated pressing of the microswitches.

I'm hoping to get another couple of Pi's one for Pycochess and one to experiment with programming myself. My brother inlaw got one yesterday to use as a mediaplayer with XBMC. The little computer is really quite impressive, for years I've wanted DGT to build a chess computer box for the DGT boards in the style of the old Tasc systems, looks like this dream is coming to reality through a couple of routes neither of which involve DGT!
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Post by Wardy »

fourthirty wrote:
Wardy wrote: Josu sells them on eBay, I think mine came across as about £100. It would be cheaper to source the hardware and build it yourself and just get the software from Josu..... I'm just impatient!
Thank you! I searched both the US & UK ebay sites and came up short. I'll email Josu to ask when he plans to sell more units.
Josu is very responsive via mail, he is based in spain I believe but does post worldwide so noy quite sure why a search for Gavon didn't show up.

Let us know if you get a unit :-)
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fourthirty
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Post by fourthirty »

Wardy wrote:Josu is very responsive via mail, he is based in spain I believe but does post worldwide so noy quite sure why a search for Gavon didn't show up.

Let us know if you get a unit :-)
Thanks Paul. Just found one on the Spanish eBay site:

http://www.ebay.es/itm/Gavon-USB-DGT-Ra ... e26&_uhb=1

Soon to be 119,90 EUR poorer regards,
Greg
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Bryan Whitby
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Post by Bryan Whitby »

New full size Solus Chess autosensory board connected to the Gavon Portable Chess System

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Post by Wardy »

Looks like yet another open source engine will be joining the Gavon fold if Josu's testing goes well tomorrow :-)
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Monsieur Plastique
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Post by Monsieur Plastique »

Anyone ever dealt with a company such as this when it comes to custom enclosures?

http://protocase.com/
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