I took Taser Chess to Open Sauce

Thanks ‪@ElectroBOOM‬ and ‪@Jabrils‬ for being prototype victims, ‪@JoelCreates‬ for the initial inspiration with your excellent keyboard, ‪@opensaucelive‬ for bringing so many mad scientists under one roof, ‪@raspberrypi‬ for the brains, and ‪@AlaskaAirlines‬ for allowing me to get so much practice with acrylic glue.
Yes, it took me an extra year to get this video out. I took it to Open Sauce v1 in 2023!
In Taser Chess, you strap your arm to a TENS unit, then your hand receives a shock for any "bad" move, based on a chess engine, puzzle solving, or a timed game. Powered by Raspberry Pi with python-chess doing the heavy lifting on chess logic. It supports all standard rules except en passant, because who does that.
0:00 Hustling
1:55 Creating the board "keys"
2:47 First shocking test
3:00 Board modes
4:16 Building while traveling
6:05 Advice from Open Sauce
6:49 Crunch time
7:56 Have board, will travel
8:09 Disaster the first
8:49 Disaster strikes again
9:00 Open Sauce
9:58 Return of Disaster
10:28 Rebuilding again
10:42 A visit to the master
11:25 Playing taser keyboard
11:40 A fourth rewiring
12:00 Back where we started
---
Music from StreamBeats by Harris Heller.
#python #taser #chess

[@QuintusCunctator]

So, what's your Supervillain name of choice?

[@EverythingIsHacked]

Based on what Stockfish thinks of my playing: *Blunderman*

[@Opaqu.e]

@@EverythingIsHacked Shockfish

[@QuintusCunctator]

@@EverythingIsHacked Well, I have to say, "the blundermen" as a moniker for the henchmen sounds good...

[@gridddo]

@@EverythingIsHacked buddy of mine runs a little chess channel of that same name, you're late to the draw

[@-R-F-M-]

for me is ;[mkm okp

[@brjan.]

It was so reliably and completely destroyed after every transit 😢

[@senfdame528]

Thanks Alaska Airlines

[@vladthemagnificent9052]

united breaks guitars

[@stevebabiak6997]

@@vladthemagnificent9052 - music to someone’s ears ;)

[@awesomestuff9715]

it's both so sad and so hilarious how broken it got every time

[@grandmasterhsu]

as someone that used to work in the airlines specifically with luggages. yeah no that thing will never make it in one piece checked in.

[@JeffGeerling]

Can't wait to see v3, which is transport-proof and shocks any bag handler who tries to mess it up!

[@EverythingIsHacked]

TSA stared at that box for a looong time in the scanner... but never touched it!

[@JeffGeerling]

@@EverythingIsHacked They must've known what would happen if they did, haha! The scanner at Lambert/STL who scanned my bag full of Pi Picos was like "That's a lotta Raspberry Pis, what are you using them for?" and I was pretty impressed he knew what they were!

[@EverythingIsHacked]

Wow, well spotted to them. My flight back, TSA guy let the box roll past the scanner, stared at it on the conveyor for another (to me felt like) solid minute, then just asked "what *is* it!?"

[@Wilson-AM]

Hello

[@qfurgie]

holy shit man i feel so bad for you watching it getting destroyed every time you flew props to you for not giving up

[@ErikPelyukhno]

Yeah this shows his immense amount of dedication and persistence. Wow.

[@SwissplWatches]

did anyone else notice the very subtle mention: "kicked out of an airbnb for suspicious activities"... priceless!

[@E-dart]

When?

[@travismaenle9416]

Is that a reference ti something? I missed it

[@powertomato]

I just paused to look for this comment; especially the followup of him buying a case for the raspberry Pi to "prevent scaring the muggles" was priceless

[@powertomato]

@@travismaenle9416 @4:43 Not a reference, but electronic prototypes tend to look like a bomb from movies with all the loose wires and all

[@GlutenEruption]

Those cheap barrel jack breakout adapters are downright diabolical. The best you can hope for is to get a totally dead one that's completely open right out of the box, but more often than not, they will act up totally intermittently and not obviously since who would even think something so dead simple could be faulty? They fail short, they fail open, they have some hugely variable voltage drop, loose contacts, bad contacts, loose terminals, bad terminals... Save yourself the headache and throw them in the trash IMMEDIATELY whenever you come across one.

[@EverythingIsHacked]

I certainly will in the future! Lesson learned the hard way...

[@davecgriffith]

"Is the wifi out?" 😂

[@JakeDownsWuzHere]

props for powering through and posting this! and so cool to see how you connected with ppl over it! good luck on your next project!

[@WissamSeif]

I'm an engineer and I love chess. What a creative way to combine the two! This was so fun to watch I'm sure it'll blow up. You're hilarious too my guy, new sub!

[@stallone.1985]

GOOD LORD I WENT THORUGH THE EXACT SAME THING WITH THE AIRLINE LAST YEAR FOR WRO, i feel your pain more than you could ever know. but hey we both pulled through. the indomitable human spirit coming in clutch, amazing work.

[@eplawless]

Great job! I'm shocked you don't have more views.

[@saeshii]

The video was so electrifying to watch!

[@TwoPointInfinity]

the video has been out for 1 day, and you commented this yesterday (the day the video came out)

[@sannyassi73]

I've been on a plane with very fragile stuff in and have also watched from the window of a plane as the bag got tossed, and of course it was broken in the end. That video was like de-ja-vu, almost exactly, even the seat and the view out the window on that side of the plane was pretty much the same! I gotta say though, compared to what you lost even just one of those times you lost a lot more than I did! I only lost about 50-100 dollars in the end. I'm glad you kept at it and finished the thing- very impressive work! Sub earned!

[@ginger_lemon5159]

"just kidding, i don't know how to use a lathe. Was that a lathe?" got me to subscribe

[@Spotifist]

Incredible project and fantastic delivery of the video, thanks for sharing!

[@Alvin-wx2ep]

I love this style of videos i just subbed gonna look through more vids

[@Ryder7223]

Love the video! Can’t wait for more amazing projects :D

[@Puddin]

That determination got a sub from me. Great work

[@siddmathlver3444]

Sensei, please teach me how to become as cracked and patient as you are.

[@illuminum8576]

There is no way you only have 5k subscribers! Absolutely fantastic!

[@ekv]

I felt hurt after every time this masterpiece got destroyed. Sub to this guy, give him some well deserved love.

[@tuskiomisham]

Pro case tip: Harbor Freight makes and sells these hard shell cases. I've taken mine on 12 flights so far and there's no cracks bumps or scratches. they're really tough.

[@qfurgie]

great video and great build man, but that is diabolical soldering iron form at 5:19

[@EverythingIsHacked]

Yeah that wasn't even acting for the camera, I just thought it was a good idea at the time...

[@WeReno]

I hope this video blows up! You put in a lot of effort and time into building and editing. Great video!

[@lukasgreisinger8286]

Man i hope this video keeps on exploding! Great stuff dude

[@davecgriffith]

Great video! Loved the humor. And very cool project.

[@arbitrary_username]

There is so much to learn for you, that would have made the building much easier, but your determination and creativity in problem solving is already top notch. I am excited to watch you improve and make great projects!

[@JibblyandCheese]

Great humor! Really enjoyed the video.

[@Charlieramu]

Subscribed when I saw the intro, great work man

[@joshuaolsen8844]

Subscribed! Great project!

[@MagmaBow]

Great video! i just have one issue; Surely you dont need 64 relays to electrify each one of the squares? just have 2 relays (1 per person). Make the entire board grounded, and when the pi detects an illegal move, it sends a high voltage to the one person. Along with hall effect sensors, as suggested by another commentors, a v2 board could be tiny and more alaska-airlines-resistant from the board not needing individual squares. (To be fair, it wont be as impressive haha)

[@EverythingIsHacked]

For something like a puzzle setup, once you lift a piece, everything electrifies *except* the single square you could place it. (You could drop it, but then there's a decent chance it'll topple off the key and you have a *really* bad time.) It also wasn't fast enough to respond to a quick tap of the piece with a shock, as opposed to pre-setting which squares are powered.

[@beachwebcam]

Multiplexing with 16 relays wouldn't be possible?

[@JoelEngineer]

I am shocked by your perseverance! Inspirational!

[@riffaxelerator7299]

Your grit and tenacity is amazing!

[@frostbite8163]

Great vid

[@Titian083]

dude, hats off to you. im not sure i would have rebuilt it after coming home. very nice build. I wish i had been at open sauce to see it

[@given0fox968]

This is such a well told relatable story with excellent editing. You deserve an award. 🏆

[@jakesheffey9256]

Awesome project!!! If you try for a V2 you should try using hall effect sensors to detect where the pieces are also you could use some sort of transistor to switch the current which would be much smaller. Id also recommend trying to design a custom PCB. you could have the hall effect sensors on the underside that detect through the board and then place the pieces directly onto the top side of the board and have square contact pads on the top to connect to the pieces.

[@nathansmith9820]

really awesome video, i am inspired by your work ethic to continue after it was demolished twice. The final product looks really beautiful as well. if I could offer some constructive criticism: I think a great deal of your effort and heartbreak could have been avoided if you used a PCB. If you design a custom PCB to solder the switches into (which the relays could live on) you could design most of your connections in a digital environment where ctrl-z lives, and then have robots cut out the board, so you dont have to deal with soldering the switches point-to-point, or debugging the rats nest by hand. This would add structural integrity, because the switches are not going to pop out of the board they are soldered into. You could also mount the acrylic to the PCB with standoffs and i think it would be much more airline resistant. You were inadvertently assembling this like 1950s electronics were constructed with point-to-point soldering

[@EverythingIsHacked]

There may be a v2 once I gain some mental distance from v1... Since I was traveling while building this at first, I couldn't reliably get any deliveries and had to stick to parts I could pick up locally. I've also never made a custom PCB, so it seems daunting, but a year later that definitely would have taken me a lot less time and effort!

[@generalreticent3791]

​@@EverythingIsHackedYou could do capacitive landing pads for sensing instead of switches if you do a PCB. Then you can use most any pieces so long as you have metallic bottoms.

[@EverythingIsHacked]

​@@generalreticent3791 I think the 50+ volts running through the squares/pieces/victim still have to be physically separated from the sensing circuit somehow... You could do some capacitive pads that collapse under the weight of the pieces, but then you've just kinda reinvented switches!

[@mr.username31]

“I had begun to really enjoy shocking people” Ah yes, the patented “Michael Reeves Effect”

[@snail1635]

Personally, i would have used hall effect sensors to sense the pieces, but I love the way you did it! ^-^ Super cool idea :3

[@rhyme2192]

Amazing. Haven't laughed like that in a while.

[@pileofstuff]

You discovered how to summon Electroboom: just add a taser to your project!

[@Blue-bf8lv]

you sir have earned my sub, the work you put into this even in the face of disaster is incredible, well done!

[@theworkshopwhisperer.5902]

I would never recover from having such a project destroyed like that. Your commitment to the cause is amazing.

[@logan847653]

Your whole story was so awesome.

[@fevermeds]

I wished I had know this while at Open Sauce. I had two young kids but would have told them what perseverance works like! Great work.

[@satibel]

if you need to move it again, add wooden supports so it doesn't get mangled too much. (cut some osb, put a pilar on each corner and screw everything together) also sandwich the keys with a plate on top and dowels underneath so they don't pull or push on the switches.

[@vmaya_bro]

Real underrated content

[@blockshift758]

Bruh awakened something

[@k4kadu]

having to watch those airport clips destroyed me even without being the one to put it back together. .~.

[@CalabusDabus]

Not negative reinforcement, positive punishment.

[@alexschettino1277]

intellectual AND sadistic. im sure william loved this

[@brandonscott3012]

Lol. Very very relatable if youre a maker 😂 thanks for sharing, that is a cool project.

[@jaynutter9273]

well done

[@ProlificSwan]

Excellent project and execution! The breakage was painful. Not sure I would have rebuilt like you did. One thing I wondered was why you used switches to detect when pieces were placed instead of some electrical method? It seems like you could have looked for a change in resistance when pieces are placed and used that for sensing. Or capacitive sensing or hall effect. Lots of options that might have made it simpler to assemble. Either way, great work!

[@EverythingIsHacked]

Some sort of capacitive sensor would probably be a lot easier, but I couldn't work out what exactly it would be! Hall sensors have been recommended a bunch, although I'm pretty sure they'd have a hard time distinguishing nearby pieces/hovering just over a square vs the moment of placement.

[@ProlificSwan]

@@EverythingIsHacked might be interesting to take apart one of those magnetic automated chess boards. I think they must use a pattern of permanent magnets to distinguish pieces. For the resistive approach one simple way would be to have insulation in the middle of each square and the chess pieces could be used to bridge the gap. Another would be to make each chess piece have a different resistance and run a sensing current through each square. Projects like this always incite a bunch of ideas.

[@cadneemountai2791]

Dang I was about to compliment the lathe work

[@sebastianarias-jurado7224]

Thats shocking.

[@Triler500]

banger video you deserve more views

[@grosswizir9168]

You deserve more subscribers 😊

[@sakidodi4640]

I realy hoped i have the same determination and patience as you. 🎉🎉🎉🎉 Great build and great project idea ❤

[@JH-zo5gk]

This gives me an idea

[@iTzHard_]

The Alaska Airlines section was absolutely heart wrenching 💔💔

[@erok268]

Love it

[@aiiaznsk8er]

chess wizard rolling a j in the park is awesome

[@JessicaCrafternoon]

oh my god, you lived the checked luggage nightmare I imagined happening for months

[@EverythingIsHacked]

😅 a checked luggage furby in that state would be even more heartbreaking!

[@emmakesthings]

this is so unbelievably cool! I'm so bummed I didn't get to try it out at OS. Will you bring it back next year??

[@EverythingIsHacked]

Maybe v2 if it's easier to pack!

[@spiritualdrip1869]

The shock gets them to rethink there life.

[@InTheBeginningTheUniverseWas]

"That's why they call it live chess" -Doctor Who, S6E13

[@Mouton_redstone]

finally someone mentioning it ! i immediately thought of it when i saw thumbnail

[@fburton8]

If it was painful on ONES, imagine what it would feel like on TENS!

[@user-kk4vl1cy9m]

Glad to know I'm not the only one with a project sabotaged by those crappy green connectors.

[@nik_cage]

Instant subscribe

[@headblockhead]

Wow! Amazing quality for only 300 views. Cool video.

[@CausticFoil]

The moral of this video is that airports treat fragile equipment like garbage tied to a tennis ball

[@sensorer]

I first thought that that was Kasparov, and then I noticed the wand!

[@dannybrennan31]

Everyone knows the most important part of safety is having the right equipment. That doesn't necessarily mean you have to use it

[@D_ET]

This is a shocking video

[@danharper5731]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but could you have used an off-the-shelf board that outputs piece locations and then input the data to a RasPi to control the tens device?

[@ShugoAWay]

Oh I thought this was based on the 1 doctor who scene with 11th doc where he is looking for information on the silence and the teselecter robot with tiny people inside

[@scottpizzakingdom]

Me too, they call it live chess.

[@ShugoAWay]

@scottpizzakingdom ah right I blanked on the name but figured I gave enough details for the nerds to triangulate

[@4bSix86f61]

How about load cells to determine the position of the chess pieces?

[@oxwilder]

That's cool! I think you could eliminate the switches though...couldn't you define the piece by completing the circuit when you pick it up?

[@RhynoD2]

Lol Mehdi's like, wire this directly into the mains and then maybe I'll feel it.

[@unploog]

good vid

[@DaughterOfDrakes]

Ah I see, chess instruction a la Squip

[@gingeral253]

Shocking electroboom is crazy

[@309electronics5]

Its indeed pretty crazy to shock the shocker himself instead of the shocker himself shocking you. Although he did still shock him and also he shocked back but eb hardly noticed because he was used to it

[@frollard]

One thing I've found with tens is the units HATE being unplugged, turned on, and suddenly turned on. ...they make various high voltage spikes, and modulate the amount of power in the output capacitors by varying the duty cycle/pulse time of the high voltage generator circuit. What this usually means when the pads are glued to you in circuit is power in > capacitor > power out > equilibrium. When you unplug the pads from the circuit (with a relay as you are doing) the tens is gleefully unaware and builds up a significant charge in the output capacitors... power in > capacitor > goes nowhere and builds up > keep adding more power in assuming its going out but its not > suddenly plug in and get 200% pain. For a chess board this is probably fine.

[@EverythingIsHacked]

Fun story that didn't make the cut: the relays also draw a bunch of voltage on power up. When I was trying to move to battery power, I had a test script that would turn the relays off and back on every few seconds. Charging the battery while powering the relays when the TENS was also on (I don't know why, it's an entirely separate circuit) caused just enough of a voltage drop to turn the relays off and on in an almost identical pattern. That seemed totally normal until I realized the Pi wasn't even powered on, but it looked like the relays were still running my code!? I was convinced those boards must have some flash memory or something for a while...

[@frollard]

@@EverythingIsHacked floating ghost in the machine!

[@kjpirme]

Undiscovered greatness here, the algorithm put you in front of me and giggled on though. I'll be back, to see more from Blunderman.

[@aidandixon6028]

Could you use a camera with a detection software and high contrast pieces to identify your moves? Then a wireless connection to a little Tazer on your wrist, and maybe a dog treat dispenser if you get the best move. I think that might be easier than having every single piece of the board as a pressure plate, but I'll say, this is an extremely impressive amount of dedication, there's nothing you can't do with enough time.

[@EverythingIsHacked]

I tried that first, since I'm a lot better at CV than electronics! But it couldn't work well when obscured by arms, in low lighting, and had a hard time telling actual placement vs just getting close to the board.

[@aidandixon6028]

​​​​@@EverythingIsHackedHow about instead of a video, you could have it sort of like how Rubix cube speed runners do, where when they're done they press a button, and take occasional photos, and compare before and after between only two photographs, rather than a constant video. Kind of a middle ground between completely ai based and completely mechanical It'd get rid of the interference with your arms, and you'd tell it when the turn is over That way all it receives is where your pieces are, vs where they were, with little interference from your arms.

[@aidandixon6028]

​@@EverythingIsHackedbetter yet like how they do in professional play to switch the clock to the other person

[@HappysFunPalace]

cool concept, question tho, i have never encountered these "hustlers" so im wondering, is this meant to prevent them from cheating?

[@plumbinggamer]

Of note harbor freight has packs like pelicans and there way cheaper. I don't know if you have any near you but there pretty good. Maybe not as good as pelican cases but it should easily protect any projects at a lower cost.

[@filfil9902]

I hate those barrel connectors with passion. Worst part is they can fail and stop delivering any meaning full current but will appear totally fine when tested with continuity meter.

[@Mr._Blackjack]

So uh when gonna show Alaska Airlines this vid of them just tossing the suitcase clearly marked FRAGILE

[@OrigEntertainmentOfficial]

That's hilarious that Electro Boom is basically just humoring you. At this point, Electro Boom can probably just rub his feet on a carpet and burn a house down.

[@hasnomoney1800]

I like add a note. Soldering irons don’t remove finger prints, they are still there just on the soldering iron instead of your fingers😂 I still have my finger prints on my soldering iron.

[@lalilaloe]

Reinforced learning for humans, great stuff!

[@marcus_w0]

well... V3 is made entirely of aluminum, brass and copper, build like a brick poophouse and has the bulky switches traded for reed switches and magnets in the chess pieces. Also red relays would do wonders to your space constraints.

[@EverythingIsHacked]

I've been looking at red relays for the past ten minutes, wondering what the different color signifies... TIL, reed switches and reed relays! Why aren't these _always_ used instead - because magnets?

[@marcus_w0]

@@EverythingIsHacked reed relays are small signal relays primarily used for telecom applications back in the days. They are very small and reliable for millions of cycles. The downside is that they have pretty much no current rating compared to "real" relays. But for tasing someone for a fraction of a second at once, this should be plenty because there s no significant current flowing. Reed switches are just small, magnet activated switches. Just two ends of flat wire, bring a magnet close and they connect. same up- and downsides: small and reliable but low current. But as an input perfectly reasonable.

[@herzogsbuick]

did you file a complaint with alaska air? i'm a musician who flies with them regularly and i've never seen my stuff treated like that.

[@RealCadde]

"Keep programming without scaring the muggles" That was a smooth programmer joke, thumbs up!

[@savagesarethebest7251]

"Suspicious activity?" 🤔 did they have a camera in the Airbnb? 😳

[@ohnoitsaninja]

These microcontrollers have a Touch sense technology. You don't have to complete a circuit, it can tell you touched it like a touch lamp. You could detect piece touches that way and actuate the shocker with a single relay instead of this mess

[@EverythingIsHacked]

I personally don't want 50+ volts anywhere near my RPi... but I've learned lots of ways this could be done without all the mess, for sure!

[@309electronics5]

A rpi is not a microcontroller

[@BrocoDev]

Bro’s the new Micheal Reeves

[@tcap9843]

Now make "bullet" chess