Portable Single Player Chess

Introduction

The Portable Single Player Chess Device is a device aimed to combat boredom and encourage individuals to learn how to play chess. The device was created by the Maples team, including Emma, Yiming, and Kira, and was personalized for the team's client Russia. Developed as a final project for Physical Computing, the Maples worked closely with CLASS, a community based organization that aids disabled adults living in the Pittsburgh community, to produce a working instrument for a client from CLASS. More information on the inital meeting and interview process can be found here.

Prototype  & Process

The prototype the Maples group created was designed to explicitly show the sizing and functionality of the final product. While not all technical aspects of the product were shown during the prototype step, the general height, width, and depth of the product were made to test. Ultimately, this allowed us to make alternations to the shape of the product to best fit the client. Additionally, the turn table and rotating board was added as a part of the prototype to better demonstrate the functionality of the product. Excluding the metal turntable, the prototype was entirely cardboard. 

Throughout the prototype process, our goal was to finalize the sizing, functionality, and any additional aspects wanted for the final product. When presented to the client, Russia, we learned of a few key functions and changes she wanted us to make. These included portablity, replacing the LCD screen with a speaker, and including only one, instead of the initial two, buttons. In response to these requests, we were easily able to adapted to the latter two, but struggled with the concept of creating a portable but usable device. For the final product, we ended up dividing the device into two seperate components. This allowed for the chess board to have the portable functionality Russia requested, while allowing us to develop a working product with the materials we had available. 

Our group ran into many issues during the prototype process, partly due to the fact that we created multiple prototypes as we could not decide on a final design. One bit of feedback we received from multiple individuals was to consider the size and shape of the product. This feedback led us to try a design that included a circular base, as this would have minimized the size while still allowing enough room for the internal electronics. Unfortunately, while the design would have beneficial for the listed reasons, the logistics of the round base design did not justify the necessary amount of materials that would have been required. After looking at many alternatives, our group returned to our orginal design with only slight adjustments on the height and custom sizing for the board we obtained. 

Conclusion

• The critics do reflect part of our project's shortage, especially about the "loose items in the base", we also disturb by it. It is quite hard for us finally make the motor at the same level of the box's button, but ultimately we don't make it fixed on it.  On the other hand, our project get a lot of positive comment, the main reason could be we are focusing on the exact function we need, and it has achieved the best goal.

• major takeawys from working with disabled cliente

• conclusing thoguhts ont the project

• (400 words in this section)

Technical Details

• schematic and block diagram

• Project code

/***************************************************************

* Project name: Portable Single Player Chess

* Project author: Emma, Kira, Yiming

* Project discription:

*     - This project is worked for CMU 60-223 Physical Computing project3

*     - This machine is aiming to help Russia to play chess by herself.

*     1. When it start, user can play chess piece and then press the bottom.

*     2. After pressed, it will rotate and play voice to notice which side is playing.

* Project Pin map:

*     2: servo motor

*    11: Botton0

*     4: voice player pin0

*     5: voice player pin1

****************************************************************/

#include "Arduino.h"

#include "DFRobotDFPlayerMini.h"

#include <Servo.h>

#if (defined(ARDUINO_AVR_UNO) || defined(ESP8266))  // Using a soft serial port

#include <SoftwareSerial.h>

SoftwareSerial softSerial(/*rx =*/4, /*tx =*/5);

#define FPSerial softSerial

#else

#define FPSerial Serial1

#endif

const int BOTTOMPIN0 = 11;

const int SERVO_PIN = 12;

int track = 2;  //2 = "Ready to Play", 1 = "White's Turn", 3 = "Black's Turn"

Servo myMotor;

DFRobotDFPlayerMini myDFPlayer;

int state;

bool isPress0;

unsigned long bottomTime;

void setup() {

  pinMode(BOTTOMPIN0, INPUT);

  state = 0;

  isPress0 = false;

  myMotor.attach(SERVO_PIN);

#if (defined ESP32)

  FPSerial.begin(9600, SERIAL_8N1, /*rx =*/D3, /*tx =*/D2);

#else

  FPSerial.begin(9600);

#endif

  Serial.begin(115200);

  if (!myDFPlayer.begin(FPSerial, /*isACK = */ true, /*doReset = */ true)) {  //Use serial to communicate with mp3.

    Serial.println(F("Unable to begin:"));

    Serial.println(F("1.Please recheck the connection!"));

    Serial.println(F("2.Please insert the SD card!"));

    while (true) {

      delay(0);  // Code to compatible with ESP8266 watch dog.

    }

  }

  Serial.println(F("DFPlayer Mini online."));

  myDFPlayer.volume(22);   //Set volume value. From 0 to 30

  myDFPlayer.play(track);  //Play the first mp3

  track = 1;

}

void voicePlay(int index) {

  myDFPlayer.play(index);

}

//This function is aiming to limit the bottom press gap larger than specific time

void bottomDetect() {

  if (millis() - bottomTime > 700) {

    isPress0 = digitalRead(BOTTOMPIN0);

  }

}

//This function is aiming to initialize bottom press and time

void initBottom() {

  isPress0 = false;

  bottomTime = millis();

}

// state0 is beginning state.

// it will automatically get into this state, and play the 1st voice message: ready to play

// and  rotate to the initial position, then play second voice: white's turn

// and goto state1

void state0() {

  voicePlay(2);

  delay(2000);

  myMotor.write(0);

  voicePlay(3);

  delay(2000);

  bottomTime = millis();

  state = 1;

}

// state1 is white playing state

// once white player played and pressed the bottom

// it will play the voice: black's turn

// then rotate to 180 degree and goto state2

void state1() {

  bottomDetect();

  if(isPress0) {

    voicePlay(1);

    state = 2;

    initBottom();

    myMotor.write(180);

    delay(2000);

  }

}

// state2 is black playing state

// similarly once black player played and pressed the bottom

// it will play the voice: white's turn

// then rotate to 0 degree and go back to state1

void state2() {

  bottomDetect();

  if (isPress0) {

    voicePlay(3);

    state = 1;

    initBottom();

    myMotor.write(0);

    delay(2000);

  }

}

// this function is for naving between different state

// there was more state, but since we removed some functions, there're only 3 left

// Although we don't need using different states since it is getting simple, but since it works well, we don't reconstruct everything

void runStates() {

  switch (state) {

    case (0):

      state0();

      break;

    case (1):

      state1();

      break;

    case (2):

      state2();

      break;

  }

}

void loop() {

  runStates();

}