Custom Designed PCB Smart Chessboard

The Smart Chessboard is a custom-designed printed circuit board (PCB) with magnetic sensors that detect chess pieces on the board with addressable RGB LEDs that light up all possible legal moves for a piece. You can play against another player remotely with a physical board or play against a chess engine (computer player).

Smart Chessboard connected to the main controller using a flat ribbon cable. The main controller reads sensor information from 64 squares and lights up LEDs in specific squares using addressable RGB LEDs. It also has chess clocks and buttons.

Smart chessboard unplugged. Each square has one addressable RGB LED with a hall sensor that detects the magnetic field from the magnet on the bottom of each chess piece. I/O expanders are used to read in 64 sensors using I2C protocol to get the sensor state. Also, an ambient light sensor (not shown on this board but on the next iteration board) is used to measure the ambient light to adjust RGB brightness based on how bright the room is.