User manual

E-boards:

• Square Off Pro - rollable LED e-board

• Square Off Neo - robotic e-board

• Square Off Swap - robotic e-board with parking (for taken pieces)

E-board apps:

• Latest Android and iOS apps from Chessnut (leading e-board manufacturer).
  Recommended: Their latest Chessnut Next app.

Third party apps (that support the Chessnut Move e-board), including:

• Jörn Gehring’s Chessconnect Chrome extension and apps.

• Gerhard Kalab’s Chess PGN Master and Chess Dojo apps.

• Khadim Fall’s WhitePawn app.

The ‘brains’ behind BillyGate is low-level software called firmware that runs on the Pico2W board. When you purchase BillyGate you will be sent a link to its latest firmware. To install or update BillyGate firmware on the Pico2W:

1. Download the BillyGate firmware to a Windows, MacOS or Linux PC.

2. Obtain a data-capable micro-b USB cable that you will use to connect BillyGate to your PC (and later to a power supply). NOTE: some cheap USB cables only carry power, not data.

3. Connect the cable to the Pico2W but not to the PC.

4. Locate the little white BOOTSEL button on the Pico2W.

5. While holding down the BOOTSEL button, plug the Pico2W into the PC and release the BOOTSEL button.

6. A new disk drive should appear on the PC - just like plugging in a USB thumb drive. It should have a name like RP**** and be empty, apart from a couple of informational files.

7. Drag and drop (or copy) the BillyGate firmware file onto this RP**** drive.

8. On some PCs you may see a warning message that the installer may contain harmful content. Make sure you are copying the firmware to the RP**** drive and ignore the warning.

9. If the firmware installation/update is successful the Pico2W restarts, the RP**** drive disappears and the green Pico2W LED starts flashing (see Appendix A).

10. The procedure for updating BillyGate firmware to a newer version is exactly the same (and preserves your set-up and settings, so you don't need to do it again).

Try a bot match first in the Chessnut client app. Game play will vary slightly, depending on whether you are using an LED or robotic e-board:

• LED e-board (Square Off Pro):  The client app highlights squares for opponent moves using the e-board LEDs and you make moves for both yourself and your opponent. BillyGate also uses e-board LEDs to highlight things like out-of-position pieces and incomplete moves.

• Robotic e-board (Square Off Neo or Swap):  The client app makes opponent moves on the e-board, using its robotic actuators, and you make your own moves. BillyGate also uses e-board LEDs to highlight things like out-of-position pieces and incomplete moves.

Two not immediately obvious aspects of BillyGate-mediated game play are corner LED hints and pawn promotion, so to avoid surprises please read the Features > Status and Features > Promotion/under-promotion sections in this document.  TLDR: if all four corner LEDs stay on your e-board position is out-of-sync with the client app and if a pawn reaches a promotion square and you forget what the pulsing LEDs mean, just wait 5 seconds and it will default to a Q promotion.

When you have bot games working you're ready to play vs humans on chess.com and lichess.org!

Starting/restarting games

When you have finished one game and want to start another you need to reset the pieces to their start position before starting the new game. While you reset the pieces you will probably see lots of LEDs lighting up on the e-board (on squares that differ from the final position of the finished game) but when you have returned the e-board to its default start position these LEDs should disappear and BillyGate should flash the startup ‘goat horns’ LED pattern. If you do not reposition the pieces before starting another game BillyGate will be stuck on the final position of the finished game.

IMPORTANT: When this all works as described it is simple. But things can go wrong, so please read the Avoiding/fixing common problems section below.

BillyGate also supports starting games from custom positions, using its web UI.

Status

BillyGate synchronizes e-board (player) moves with opponent moves from a client app. Both BillyGate and the client app use internal models of the game position and sometimes these get out of sync, the most common symptom being BillyGate suddenly not accepting your move in a game (because it thinks it is not a legal move). In almost all cases this is because one or more pieces are off-centre on their squares and no longer visible to e-board sensors, leaving the e-board in an illegal position.

BillyGate uses per-square LEDs to highlight out-of-position pieces, but the Square Off Neo and Swap occupancy sensors are sensitive (small off-centre displacements can read as empty squares), their LEDs are dim and their robotics are not super accurate, so robotic moves sometimes settle out-of-position or disturb other pieces - so you may need help to quickly spot and fix out-of-position pieces.

Square Off Pro

Has a dedicated status LED which shows steady green when in-sync, pulsing green during promotion piece selection and red when out-of-sync. If red, look for per-square LED hints that show you how to fix the game position or set a custom position.

Square Off Neo or Swap

The Neo and Swap do not have dedicated status LEDs so BillyGate 0.3.0 introduced a synthetic status LED which lights the four e-board corner LEDs:

• During robotic moves. This is useful to warn against moving your piece before the robotic move completes, which results in an illegal position and loss of sync.

• After a robotic move. If the corner LEDs stay lit after the robotic move appears to have completed, it has settled incorrectly or disturbed other pieces. Look for per-square LED hints and fix.

• During setting of a custom position or an Undo. Once complete the corner LEDs go out.

Remember to check the corner square piece placement too (if occupied). If you find the corner LED hints unnecessary or distracting you can disable them - see BillyGate settings.

Promotion/under-promotion

Square Off e-boards only report square occupancy (without piece recognition) so, when you are promoting a pawn, you have to tell the client app whether promotion is to a Queen, Knight, Rook or Bishop.

When you move a pawn to its promotion square BillyGate pulses board LEDs to highlight the promotion square and to select the promotion piece. Queen promotion remains the default, but you have a short time window to cycle through under-promotion types by lifting and replacing the pawn (or piece) on its promotion square. When the pulsing LEDs show your desired promotion type simply wait for 5 seconds and that promotion type will be sent to the client app. If you move a pawn to its promotion square and do nothing more, after 5 seconds it will default to a Queen promotion. Each time you lift and replace the promotion pawn (or piece) it resets the 5 second timer. When your opponent moves a pawn to its promotion square BillyGate briefly flashes the same LED promotion type hints to show you which piece your opponent selected. In both cases you must replace the promotion pawn with the selected piece.

Practise this by connecting BillyGate to your Square Off e-board (no need to connect a client app) and setting a custom promotion position (e.g. 8/3KP3/5k2/2B3p1/6Pp/7P/5b2/8 w - - 0 1).

See BillyGate settings and Appendix B: Promotion LEDs for details.

Parking

The Square Off Neo and Swap support robotic parking of taken pieces on the side of the e-board. The Neo only supports Edge parking, where taken pieces are shoved to the nearest board edge and should be promptly removed by the player. The Swap has sideline parking spaces, so it also supports Sidelines parking, where taken pieces are routed to their designated parking spaces. If you are playing white or black you must manually place your opponent's taken pieces in the right-hand sideline, in the correct free space (see the symbol and piece number etched into the parking spaces). Before starting a new game place the spare Queens in their parking spaces (as if they had been taken).

FUTURE: BillyGate will support promotion assistance and board reset from the Swap sidelines.

Undo

Undo moves from BillyGate's internal game position, usually to recover sync with the chess client app - see Accidental ‘wrong’ move (opponent) or Accidental ‘wrong’ move (player).

There are two ways to undo the last move:

• Physically undo the last move on the e-board. Undoing multiple moves requires physically undoing them one-by-one in reverse order.

• Click the Undo button on the web UI. Click n times to undo n moves (although this should rarely be required).

Reset

It may sometimes be useful to reset the BillyGate (Pico2W) gadget. Resetting BillyGate is like switching a PC off and on again: it clears out all the internal state, restarts the firmware and can solve all sorts of problems. Don’t do this in the middle of a game though! You can reset the Pico2W by either:

• Disconnecting/reconnecting it from/to power.

• Holding down the white BOOTSEL button on the Pico2W board for more than 1 second (but less than 5, see BillyGate 'admin' mode) and then releasing it.

The settings page is where you go to configure BillyGate features, WiFi networks and for troubleshooting information (as directed by helpful BillyGate technical support goats).

How to promote:

1. Move the pawn to its promotion square (forward move or diagonal take).

2. Board LEDs pulse to highlight the promotion square and promotion type (see screenshots below).

3. Lift and replace the pawn on its promotion square  (not too fast, say "up...and...down") to cycle through promotion types.

4. When you have selected a promotion type wait for about 5 seconds for promotion to occur, signalled by the board LEDs ceasing to pulse (and the client app showing the promotion).

5. Replace the pawn with its promotion piece.

Alternatively (slightly faster):

1. Remove the promotion pawn and place the promotion piece (Q, N, R or B) on its promotion square (forward move or diagonal take).

2. Board LEDs pulse to highlight the promotion square and promotion type (see screenshots below).

3. Lift and replace the promotion piece on its promotion square  (not too fast, say "up...and...down") to cycle through promotion types.

4. When you have selected a promotion type wait for about 5 seconds for promotion to occur, signalled by the board LEDs ceasing to pulse (and the client app showing the promotion).