FAQ

BillyGate Frequently Asked Questions

v0.1.4, September 2025


Contents

Q: What is BillyGate?

BillyGate is a little bluetooth-low-energy (BLE) gadget that connects chess e-boards to chess apps. It originated to rescue my SquareOff Pro rollable e-board after SquareOff went bust (sorry, was acquired by Miko) and ceased to support sites like chess.com and lichess.org. BillyGate enables SquareOff Pro owners to again enjoy over-the-board (OTB)/online chess on these excellent e-boards, and I intend to extend BillyGate to other e-boards and chess apps in future releases.

Q: How much does BillyGate cost (and how do I buy it)?

There are two components to BillyGate:
  • A little electronics board called the Raspberry Pi Pico 2 W, which we do not supply. It is available globally for around $10 USD. See Buy a Raspberry Pi Pico 2 W for details.
  • We supply the firmware (software) that runs on the Pico2W. Pricing is determined by your home currency:
    • USD: $40 via Wise.com ($45 via Paypal)
    • EUR: €40 via Wise.com (€45 via Paypal)
    • GBP: £40 via Wise.com (£45 via Paypal)
  • Payment is by domestic bank transfer (non-domestic bank transfers are by prior request only and will incur additional bank fees). Paypal is simpler but costlier because of its fees.
  • This pricing includes firmware updates (of the purchased product).
The buying process (see the BillyGate user manual for more detail) is as follows:
  • Check your SquareOff Pro has up-to-date firmware.
  • Buy a Raspberry Pi Pico 2 W.
  • Email billygatechess@gmail.com (please include your country) and one of our sales goats will send you a bank transfer request.
  • Upon receipt of payment (please include a reference so we can identity the payment) we will send you a download link for the BillyGate firmware.
  • Follow the BillyGate set-up instructions. This requires one more interaction with BillyGate before you can start playing chess on your re-animated SquareOff Pro. As part of the set-up you need to send us a board ID (that uniquely identifies the Pico2W you bought) and we return you a token that authenticates your firmware for use on that board.

Q: How do I update my SquareOff Pro firmware?

BillyGate requires your SquareOff Pro e-board to be running SquareOff firmware version 3.0.5 (or newer, although BillyGate is currently only tested against 3.0.5) and if you are on 2.5.7 (or older) here's how to update it.
  • Open an issue on the Miko.ai help desk and ask for your SquareOff Pro to be updated to version 3.0.5 firmware.
  • Include in your issue two screenshots from the SquareOff or Miko Chess app:
    • The Board Center page, which shows your current firmware version.
    • Your Profile page, which shows your SquareOff username/email address.
  • After Miko reply that your update is available connect to your SquareOff Pro from the SquareOff or Miko Chess app and return to the Board Center. You should see that a firmware update is now available. If not, click on the current firmware version.
  • Follow the app instructions to perform the update.
  • This update can take a while (10 minutes) but be careful not to interrupt it and to let it run to completion.
  • Problems? Sorry, you need to circle back to Miko tech support.

Q: Why do I need to authenticate BillyGate firmware?

BillyGate is a commercial project with considerable ongoing development and support costs. I am endeavouring to provide a high-quality, low-cost solution for integrating e-boards with chess client apps, while making some beer money on the side. Firmware authentication enables users to source their own BLE boards at cost and easily download/install the firmware and updates, but limits uncontrolled free redistribution of the firmware, which would destroy any commercial viability.

Q: How to access BillyGate's 'admin' mode via USB?

EXPERIMENTAL: this is an alternative way to access BillyGate's 'admin' (set-up) mode. It's not for less technical souls and may be deprecated without notice.

BillyGate can be restarted in a special 'admin' mode to configure settings requiring input from a keyboard, e.g. WiFi credentials. This answer describes how to connect to BillyGate in 'admin' mode via a USB cable from a Windows, MacOS or Linux PC. For more details about BillyGate and how to enter 'admin' mode via a temporary WiFi access point see its user manual.

Serial IO over USB on Windows, MacOS or Linux is a bit technical and fiddly, so I recommend installing and using Roger Meier's CoolTerm freeware app.
  • Connect BillyGate to your Windows or MacOS PC using a data-capable USB cable (some USB cables only carry power, not data).
  • BillyGate should power up from the PC USB port and start flashing its LED.
  • Put BillyGate into 'admin' mode (2 flashes every 4 seconds).
  • Install and run CoolTerm on your Windows or MacOS PC.
  • See the CoolTerm installer ReadMe.txt if MacOS complains about the installation.
  • Open CoolTerm's Options dialog.
    • By default CoolTerm uses the required Serial Port settings (baud: 9600, data bits: 8, parity: none, stop bits: 1). There are 0 stop bits but CoolTerm uses 1 for 0 :).
    • In the Terminal Options change the CR+LF Key Emulation settings to 'CR' and 0D (i.e. zero-D).

  • CoolTerm auto-detects USB serial ports. On Windows the USB serial port will look like COMnn (USB Serial Device). On MacOS it should look like usbmodem*****.
  • Select the likely-looking USB port and click Connect.
  • You should see and be able to interact with the BillyGate bootstrap console.

  • You may need to press RETURN to see the bootstrap console menu.
  • Enter the relevant commands below and press RETURN:
    • id - get BillyGate board ID
    • token - enter (usually copy and paste) your BillyGate authentication token
    • scan - scan for local WiFi networks
    • add - add credentials to connect to BillyGate to a local WiFi network
    • reset - resets BillyGate

Q: Why can't I open the BillyGate web user interface in my browser?

On some home WiFi networks, after Enabling WiFi, you may find that your web browser cannot open the http://ble-gate web address. Try the following:
  • Try  http://ble-gate.home or http://ble-gate.local. If either of these web addresses work then bookmark and use it. This can be because your WiFi router expects the BillyGate web address to end with a Top Level Domain like .com (and adds .home or .local if not found).
  • Try using the ping ble-gate command from a PC command-line terminal. This sometimes triggers your PC to recognise the ble-gate hostname. You can also try pinging ble-gate.home and ping ble-gate.local.
  • If you know how to log into your WiFi router you can find the IP address assigned to BillyGate and browse to it via http://<IP address>, for example http://192.168.1.100. Ideally, you should configure your router to make this a static IP address, which means your router will always issue the same IP address to BillyGate.











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