Chessnut Air - DIY Wooden pieces modification guide

Hi all, I spent the last week or so making this video about modifying (in my opinion) the best electronic chessboard on the market right now, the Chessnut Air. I swapped out the plastic pieces for wooden ones, and the experience has been near flawless so far. I hope this helps anybody interested in buying the set and making this modification themselves

#ChessnutDIYpieces #Chessnut

HeY Thanks  Kywa  , My only dislike is the  chess set is to big for the SQ's on both Chessnut air & yours , As I like the 4 pawn fit to a SQ rule , As this way you have a better over view of the board ,  Have been working on this for my set- waiting for my chips ,   Also chessnut need to update there software , For the rest great job & thank you for sharing .

This was really interesting.  I have found using cuticle cutters for trimming the felt is both looks nicer and is easier to use. Has anyone tried something similar with DGT pieces? I mean taking the DGT sensors out of the plastic pieces and installing them in wood pieces. 

@Kywa  Great video! Thanks for taking the time to post. Did you consider ordering a finished, and bottom drilled but unweighted/unfelted set of pieces from a manufacturer from India? ie, HouseOfChess? It would've saved you a few steps. And you retain the factory finish. 

@KineticPawn  I don't think boiling out DGT sensors would be a wise move. But if you do decide to proceed, GET IT ON VIDEO! Hah!

@Pawnerai DGT coils can be ordered from DGT directly, just e-mail them. On top of that, some Indian chess piece makers are willing to help you installing DGT coils (or Chessnut sensors) in their pieces.

@stevesun11001

I reached out to the DGT team for their E- coils but their answers seemed evasive. They were histant on providing the coils for use.

Which email id did you reach out to.

The drilling jobs gets a lot easier after you remove the silicon casings around the chips. Chessnut states that those silicon casings can be trimmed at the top, but it's actually possible to remove them completely.

What you get is small circuits about the size 8mm x 6mm that are quite robust. Drill holes about 8mm wide, insert the chips, put felt on it. Works perfectly .

The hardest part for me, was fixing the pawsn in a vice. I finally resorted to some free-handed drilling, well...

I found them to be quite sensitive ? other thing when you start trimming the silicon , It no longer under guarantee . What set did you chip  skinfaxi

I intend to use a Chessnut Air+ for training. If I spend so much time with it, I thought, it should be as beautiful as possible.
That's why I got me a Henri Chavet buxwood set on ebay:

On YouTube, you can find a video of a daring diy'er who damaged his pawns during the drilling process. I wouldn't want that happen to me, so I sought to make the holes as small as possible.

After removing the silicon casings with a cutter, the chips look like this:

A piece of plastic circuit board, and and copper wire coil.

Drill a hole about 8mm wide and 6mm deep. Put the chip into it, paste on felt pads. Done.

I found the chips to be sensitive to the thickness of the felt pads. A 1mm thick pad might already impair recognition on some chips, so I went for self-adhesive felt that is just 0.5mm thick (similar to the original Chessnut pieces).

Very nice  skinfaxi , Some very good tips , Not without risks , Thank you .

FWIW, that looks like the perfect place to use some Bostik Blu-Tack mounting putty to secure those chips. Other very similar products may also be good (Loctite Fun-Tak, Gorilla Mounting Putty) but I can only attest to my experience with Blu-Tack.

@skinfaxi This is such a coincidence! I have literally just finished removing weights from a Chavet set for the same purpose! Can you tell me where you found pads that were 0.5mm? I'm having some difficulty locating any.

Thanks so much! I had searched google but probably didn't spot this because they are UK based and using inches.