[feature request] resume / abort game, safe firmware flashing, help page, serial output on the web, bluetooth app connection

[m4rtini2]

Hello, i have build your version of the chess board from makerworld and run v1.0.6 the firmware. I have some feature requests i can not implement myself but can help with software / hardware testing.

• feature: status / abort game
  Still having some minor hardware problems to solve i can not easyly abort a game when testing the board. Especialy when the board does not connect to the wifi and stays offline. It still trys to resume old games.
  Can you add a "Abort Game" button to the "View Board" and maybe a statusline about the current game / game in progress and a "Resume game" and "Abort game" button to the GameMode selection?
• feature: safe firmware flashing
  Would it be possible to make the flash prozess safer by making it independant from the npn / pnp settings? I have made the control board folowing the schematics from your build guide and have the pnp version soldered into the chess board. As the firmware defaults to the npn version, reflashing may damage the board.
• feature: serial console web version
  To make debugging easier a serial console on the webserver would be helpful. The usb connector on the chess board frame provides power only, so to see the console you have to open the chess board and connect a cable. Maybe the "Sensor Test" section from "GameMode Selection" could be extended to a sensor / led test and a calibration section containing the console output. On the test page the detected fields coud be colored/lit (like they are now). Also calibration would be also easier.
• feature: doku page on the webserver
  A short description of the play modes, list of servers which need to be accessible for the board to work online, board gestures, would be great. Or links to online resources if the resources on the esp32 are to limited.
• feature: bluetooth connection to android / ios
  My most desired feature is the possibility to connect the chess board via bluetooth to an android phone and play "chess for android" (https://www.aartbik.com/android_manual.php#chess) on it

Thank you for the professionality and effort you put into providing and supporting that great but complex project.

[joojoooo]

Sorry for the late reply, I saw this only now, glad you like the project.

• there are already buttons in the "View board" webpage to resign or draw a game. If not connected to wifi, you can abort a game by lifting both kings at any point
• firmware flashing is already safe, flashing doesn't erase NVS, the PNP config and GPIO are preserved. If for whatever reason you do a full erase, the NPN setting alone on a PNP board won't damage anything but will just cause wrong sensor readings. Many other ESP32 projects, like WLED allow changing GPIO pins on the fly from a web interface, it's a common thing, that's were I took inspiration from for that feature. It's only unsafe if you do something stupid, but that's just your fault, there is a big warning. How do you suggest making it safer?
• web serial console will come soon. Turning LEDs on during calibration to show where to place magnets is impossible cause ... they're not calibrated.
• I don't have time to write documentation, I prefer working on more important features. I think there is enough instructions in the readme and buildguide already, the issue is it's scattered and not in one dedicated place. for example lift kings to abort game is mentioned on the readme and how to choose a gamemode in the buildguide. A dedicated webpage on how to use everything would be cool.
• Even better, ChessConnect support is coming, maybe this week

[m4rtini2]

Thank you for considering my ideas.

• I could not abort a game when beeing connected to wifi but having no internet access by lifting both kings or resign on the "view board" page so i asked for a hard abort gesture. Maybe it would still be a possible to implement that gesture / button with a confirmation / abort move (green square / red square) when the other features are done. Also maybe a (configurable in the options screen) confirmation for important gestures would be useful?
• If erasing flash and reflashing regardless the npn / pnp configuration won't do any damage then my request is unfounded.
• Great news on the web console
• Sorry i was unclear about calibrating leds. My idea was to add a led calibration routine so one could find the best brightness for the light and dark squares. Like a grid of the most used colors like dim white (10%) on a1b1 getting brighter (100%) to a8b8, magenta 10%c1d1-100%c8d8, cyan 10%e1f1-100%e8f8 ... (sorry if this is probably more confusing)
• Documentation describes the greatness of the work you have done! But it is still work and i totaly understand your point :) Maybe i can help.
• ChessConnect support sounds great
• Regarding Bluetooth support. I mean no offense. Connecting code downloaded from the internet to your network with full internet access is frightening at least. Or maybe not even possible. A local option would be great. The actual chess app is not important but it would be great to play against a non internet chessengine via a low power protocol like bluetooth on ios or android. The suggested "chess for android" supports the Universal Chess Interface (UCI) and the Chess Engine Communication Protocol (WinBoard and XBoard). May be it would be possible to implement that at some time in the future.

one more idea

• feature: blink and light(10%) the squares with the pieces of the player whos turn it is when resuming a game after disconect or reboot.

[joojoooo]

ChessConnect works over Bluetooth. The ESP32 will emulate a ChessUp board over Bluetooth, technically the ChessUp app could be used too and it has an offline engine. You don't have to connect the ESP32 to the internet.

If you couldn't abort the game with web ui buttons and not even with the lift both kings gesture, that's a bug, it's probably stuck for some reason, provide reproduction steps, create a new issue