31 ms·

Have you considered Kickstarting this? Your pitch could be: "like Regium, except it's not vaporware and actually works." I mean that company had nothing and t

Have you considered Kickstarting this? Your pitch could be: "like Regium, except it's not vaporware and actually works." I mean that company had nothing and they were well on their way to raising 50k, before they were stopped. You have a real product. That $50,000 should've been yours. https://thehustle.co/03092020-chess-kickstarter-regium/ https://thehustle.co/03092020-chess-kickstarter-regium/ https://www.reddit.com/r/chess/comments/fcfcpi/the_regium_eboard_kickstarter_has_been_suspended/ https://www.reddit.com/r/chess/comments/fcfcpi/the_regium_eb... https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/soontech/regium-automatic-chess-e-board-0/description https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/soontech/regium-automat...

jstanley 6y ago
Thanks, but it's really not a consumer-quality product, and I don't think I have the engineering chops to turn it into one. The frame is made by hand out of plywood. A lot of the wires inside are just taped in place. The Raspberry Pi takes several minutes to boot up to the game screen, during which time you can't interact with the board in any way, and you just get a load of Linux nonsense on the touchscreen. It's also extremely time-consuming to assemble because of all the wiring required for the magnet sensors, and if you short one of the power connections, there's quite a lot of binary-searching over possible joints before you work out which one needs fixing. I would not like to make another one :). If you want to buy a commercial one you should check out https://squareoffnow.com/ https://squareoffnow.com/ - it has the advantage that it is actually a product you can buy, but the disadvantages that it has no clock display, no button to confirm your move inputs, doesn't support lichess, and requires use of their smartphone app.
- acs4u 6y ago
  Working with a contract manufacturer should be able to alleviate those issues you're mentioning. Feel free to DM me if you have more questions. Awesome project!!
  - quickthrower2 6y ago
    That said I think the prototype doesn’t give you much more than starting with nothing in terms of a kickstarter. Other than the marketing advantage of being able to show what the eventual gameplay will feel like. But no head starts on the product itself that would need to be designed for bulk manufacturing.
  - jstanley 6y ago
    I'd be interested in learning about how contract manufacturing works, although not necessarily for this particular project. Hacker News has no DM function.
- bonchicbongenre 6y ago
  Just wanted to chime in saying I'd be very interested in purchasing one/supporting a kickstarter for a lichess-connected board — even if a bit hacky, it would still be wonderful
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

jstanley 6y ago

Thanks, but it's really not a consumer-quality product, and I don't think I have the engineering chops to turn it into one. The frame is made by hand out of plywood. A lot of the wires inside are just taped in place. The Raspberry Pi takes several minutes to boot up to the game screen, during which time you can't interact with the board in any way, and you just get a load of Linux nonsense on the touchscreen. It's also extremely time-consuming to assemble because of all the wiring required for the magnet sensors, and if you short one of the power connections, there's quite a lot of binary-searching over possible joints before you work out which one needs fixing. I would not like to make another one :). If you want to buy a commercial one you should check out https://squareoffnow.com/ https://squareoffnow.com/ - it has the advantage that it is actually a product you can buy, but the disadvantages that it has no clock display, no button to confirm your move inputs, doesn't support lichess, and requires use of their smartphone app.

acs4u 6y ago
Working with a contract manufacturer should be able to alleviate those issues you're mentioning. Feel free to DM me if you have more questions. Awesome project!!
- quickthrower2 6y ago
  That said I think the prototype doesn’t give you much more than starting with nothing in terms of a kickstarter. Other than the marketing advantage of being able to show what the eventual gameplay will feel like. But no head starts on the product itself that would need to be designed for bulk manufacturing.
- jstanley 6y ago
  I'd be interested in learning about how contract manufacturing works, although not necessarily for this particular project. Hacker News has no DM function.
bonchicbongenre 6y ago
Just wanted to chime in saying I'd be very interested in purchasing one/supporting a kickstarter for a lichess-connected board — even if a bit hacky, it would still be wonderful

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]