Brugo Electronic Go Board
Table of contents |
Inspiration
About 5 years ago (around 2010) I (BramVandenbon) started with the development of a prototype of an electronic go board.
Part of the inspiration comes from the Hikaru no go manga which contains animations of Sai playing go in a virtual environment. It looks like Sai is playing go in space. The board is glowing and emitting light.
I have a background in software development. Before starting this project I knew nearly nothing about hardware. It has been a big challenge for me personally. And I am creating this page to reach out to other people with similar experiences, insights or maybe sponsoring.
Status
Initially the project got interrupted because of a lack of experience and high component cost. Fortunately costs of electronic components have decreased a lot during the last years. Finally in June 2015 I soldered a prototype and posted this video on youtube.
This video shows a working prototype of the hardware that is necessary to create an electronic go board. The board communicates with an arduino. The arduino can steer each led individually, and registers individual keypresses. The arduino can be connected to a computer and to an LCD screen. Basicly a lot of hard work is done already. But it needs a finishing touch (software and decent casing).
The demo shows the use of push buttons and bi-color leds. But it is still a big challenge to scale this to a 19x19 board:
- a high component cost (361 intersections)
- assembly time increases (about 4000-5000 soldering points)
- casing introduces new design challenges
- power usage will increase
While writing this, I know that the chance that this ever gets finished is small.
The problem of casing
Unfortunately the product is not finished without the casing. I am refering to the actually box around the technical components which should create a visually appealing product. This could be in wood (like a traditional goban), or in glass.
The casing has a big influence on how moves are made. Once you put a box around the electronic components the buttons cannot be reached anymore. So, the casing implies that also the user-input has to be redesigned or adjusted. There are 3 ways to go from here:
- magnetic stones. Holes are drilled in the surface of the goban. These holes contain leds.
- a plexiglass surface that gives a modern look to the board. The plexiglass uses touch technology on the surface and has led-lights underneath. The electronics are still visible but add to the modern look.
- the pushbuttons are lifted to be reachable from outside the casing. Probably holes have to be drilled in the surface to let the buttons stick out.
All 3 technologies are possible. The third option (push-buttons) is the cheapest option, but also the least impressive one. The first option (magnetic-stones) is the most expensive one and probably what most people would expect from an electronic go board. The second option requires more experimentation.
Reducing costs
The prototype board does not really use a PCB. It is just soldered using a prototyping board. The production of a PCB can save some time and will also help in the appearance of the product. Also the assembly can be outsourced and even automated. However, both introduce high setup costs.
Time decreases costs of components and introduces new technologies. Touch is still expensive now, but will probably become really cheap in the next 5 years. Also 3D-printing is opening the door for 3D-PCB creation and automated home soldering tools.
RGB leds are very attractive and do have an influence on the available functionality. Colors could be used to play 3-color go, or could help during analyzing of played games. Bi-color leds are cheaper (and also use less energy).
The high setup costs raise the idea to start a kickstarter project for this.
Power usage
The fact that each led needs to be steered individually increases the current usage. You would probably need a charger comparable to the kind used for laptops.
Software
Note: it is irrelevant to discuss about software and functionality in this stage. There will be an open API that will open all functionality to the developer community. As long as the board is able to communicate through USB, if leds can be turned on/off, if moves can be registred, then a really wide range of functionality is possible. This project does not focus on software, just on the hardware.
Reactions
Let's put comments here ...