Picochess Evolution to v3.0 video

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Scally
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Picochess Evolution to v3.0 video

Post by Scally »

Hi all,

I have posted my first video on YouTube.

It’s a bit raw and has sound issues from my DGT Pi speaker which I had too low, but it shows some of the Engine types we now have on Picochess & the DGT Pi, including MAME engines.

https://youtu.be/jI2gvkfx42o


Cheers,

Al.
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fourthirty
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Post by fourthirty »

Thanks for sharing Al. I think the video quality is fine, especially for the first one!

I was involved with Picochess early on. Back in 2014, I was running v0.18 with a Rikomagic MK802II and actively providing feedback to the developers. I eventually upgraded to a Pi 1 B+, but became frustrated with the project due to the frequent bugs.

It appears that it is significantly more stable now, so I may need to jump back in!

A couple of questions:
1. Can I run V3 on my Pi1 B+, or do I need to upgrade to a Pi 4?
2. Do I need to add a Pi display, or can I utilize my DGT XL display?
3. Where can I download V3? I only see 2.01 on the download page.

Cheers,
Greg
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blaubaer
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Post by blaubaer »

Hi Al,

thanks for sharing that nice video!

Raspberry fields forever Regards Michael
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Scally
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Post by Scally »

Hi Greg,

Thanks for your feedback.

Answering your questions:

1. v3 is running on Raspbian Buster, aka Raspberry Pi OS. Although it runs on most RPi’s some of the v3 chess engines don’t. So you will need at least a RPi 3, personally I have a RPi 3b+ running standalone and a RPi 4 4gb ram inside a DGT Pi.

2. As you know, Picochess started with 1 chess engine and soon grew to 8 engines which could be selected by the spare queens on a DGT board. v3 comes with 46 engines so you will need some way to select these. A DGT Pi with 11 a character display is best, next down is a DGT 3000 and a separate RPi which will show 8 characters. We do support the XL clock but only 6 characters can be displayed. Within the code we try our best to show the engine name etc within the confides of the screen display, so using stockfish 12 as an example, here’s what it would look like on the various screens (after the =):

name = Stockfish 12
small = Stf 12 <<<< DGT XL
medium = Stocf 12 <<<< DGT 3000
large = Stockfish12 <<<< DGT Pi

Personally I’ve never seen a DGT XL clock.

If you have a DGT Revelation II, then this can emulate the DGT Pi, so you would only need the RPi.

3. You can download v3 here:

Desktop:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EGGWDQ ... sp=sharing

Lite:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/13m_5F3 ... sp=sharing

Documentation for v3 can be found on the forum here:

Part 1
https://groups.google.com/g/picochess/c ... y7TV9ACAAJ

Part 2
https://groups.google.com/g/picochess/c ... jOvv45AAAJ

Part 3
https://groups.google.com/g/picochess/c ... eUdzC8AAAJ

Part 4
https://groups.google.com/g/picochess/c ... 9Gva98AAAJ


Cheers,

Al.
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Bryan Whitby
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Post by Bryan Whitby »

Great tutorial Al
One of the best computer chess videos on YouTube.
Regards
Bryan
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fourthirty
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Post by fourthirty »

Scally wrote:Answering your questions
Thank you Al! This is great information. I do have a Rev II, so perhaps I will start with a Pi 3 B+. They seem to be a bit cheaper than a 4.

Appreciate you help.
Greg
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