Different style pieces?

So my board was sent a defective queen, and me being me I opened it up by removing the felt on the bottom. The problem was resolved, a new piece is on it’s way, ect… but, seeing the id chip on the bottom of the piece, and the way it interacted with other pieces on the same square, gave me an idea. Other issues with an “noisy” power supply indicate that the touchsense pieces work similarly to a touchscreen with some cool and complicated interactions with the plastic of the piece and not some scale on each square.

It got me thinking: could you 3d print (or otherwise manufacture) pieces of a different style? A different look for the pieces? I don’t wish for that to take priority over new updates, but 1-2 years out, It might be great. I don’t imagine creating them would be too hard, but mass producing them might be. So, I just wanted to hear the community and team’s standpoints on this.

We may in the future offer the set of sensor discs for sale, in which case there probably would be more mod efforts. But selling those is not a for sure thing, just a maybe.

Currently, removing them from the piece ruins the felt. On a bad piece, no concern of course.

I am not sure if anyone has ever modified a set (at least not that I know of yet).

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In the future, selling the sensors and making the firmware semi-open source ( Core functionality protected:) would be amazing and would make this product way more interesting than the competitors. I totally understand that making it completely open-source could be detrimental in context of competitors but opening it up a little could also make a specialized niche. I love this board either way and can’t wait for the updates. You guys have the best customer support than any other crowdsourced project I’ve backed, and I’ve backed hundreds of them :beers:

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Cool! Glad I asked!

There is an API and programs like Chess Connect work with ChessUp

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If sensors are sold, that would be awesome. Then I could make a custom Isle of Lewis ChessUp set.

I second that. Having the sensor discs sold separately will create a whole new world for customization given the fact how many people are into 3d printing nowadays. I would love to be able to print my own chess pieces.

If there is a market someone will supply it. Some 3rd parties make chess pieces with space reserved for Chessnut sensors. Competition the mother-of-invention.

Would touch detection still work with just the sensor and generic pieces?

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