SilverBack Chess Clock - Finally ready for Public Sale!

Shelby, I am confused, but part of that might be me. Does the clock, when it gets to SD, give the 30-second delay? I don't understand what Micah is saying that "it doesn't always give the delay time once the players get to the sudden death time control." You mean it gives it sometimes and sometimes it doesn't? Is it a matter of setting it properly?

The delay doesn't work (or usually doesn't work?) in the second time control when using a CUSTOM setting. I don't know if the presence of the move counter (e.g. 2nd time control gets added to base time at move "40" (etc), or gets added after primary time reaches 0.00 (move counter is disabled)) has any effect on this.

It seems to only work when using the preset settings, if the preset matches the actual tournament you are in (so you can use the preset). This happened to someone's clock in a recent tournament in Irvine, and the TD was not pleased. What was even worse was that when he tried to record the current moves/time and set the clock for a custom time with each player's remaining moves and time, the clock did not work at all. He had to give them a DGT to finish the game :/ Even the (longbody) Chronos would have worked for this (the GX version does not allow changing the move counter after the game has started!)

Are we nearing a solution yet? Just curious, not trying to cause a ruckus. I know you must be frustrated. Hope you are doing well, Shelby.

I was sent an updated version of the clock to test. The issue of the clock not giving the delay in the sudden death time period has been fixed, as has the issue of the delay not being on the first time period in the presets in the CCA folder. There are still a number of other issues that need to be fixed though that I have pointed out.

One thing I’m curious to get people’s opinion on is the way the clock displays the number of moves. If the move counter shows, for example, 35, it means the player has completed 34 moves and they are on their 35th move. On most clocks, if the move counter shows 35, it means the player has completed 35 moves and are on their 36th move. I’m not sure what I think about the way the Silverback clock displays the move count. 

Micah, I would think that is a minor issue on the move count, but if the clock still has "There are still a number of other issues that need to be fixed, though that I have pointed out." One has to wonder how long this will still drag on. Are the remaining fixes critical? Are they a game-changer where no one will want to buy the clock? I can live with the way it displays the move count, or if it is an easy fix, he can go back to the traditional move count. 

I would say most of the remaining issues aren’t major but they are still things that should be fixed. (To be frank, some were known issues with the VTEK 300 so I don’t know why these weren’t addressed before the clock came out). 

One thing I’m curious to get peoples opinion on is how necessary they think it is for the clock to do the Bronstein form of delay. Currently Bronstein delay is found under an increment setting in the preferences (You have the option to choose between “Fischer”, which is increment, and “Bronstein”, which is delay). This could create an issue since someone could set the clock for a time control with increment (either manually or choosing one of the presets) and assume it’s set correctly with increment but it could actually be set for delay if Bronstein happens to be selected in the increment setting in the preferences. 

Since you know more about the intricacies of chess clock settings than anyone I know, can you tell me if the Chronus clocks have/had any of these problems? Just curious if this clock can or will ever be perfect. Is there such a thing as a perfect clock?