Chessconnect: a free chrome extension for electronic chessboards

Thank you very much for your work. The beta version of the application works better than all the options for the game lichess, I tried a lot of them. I even thought about returning my electronic board to the seller, I thought it was defective. But your application gives the most stable connection with my phone on android which has Bluetooth 5.0. I think that the manufacturers of Chessnut Pro owe you money, you did the work for them.

It does work with my Pegasus. Can you send me a log using the integrated bug report feature, please?

Joern, when we click the bug report button in the beta after a game are we supposed to see something happen? I'm not sure if I'm actually sending anything to you. And is it necessary to click bug report after each game, or will you get all the bug reports if we play several games and then click it once before closing the app?

Thanks for asking, @Jewelmind.

The bug report feature in the app is meant to facilitate the "send me a console log" thing from the extension. When you press the button, it _prepares_ an email you can then send to me. Ideally by adding some description that tells me what to look for in the log.

The log that is attached to the mail starts when the app was last started. On Android and iOS it is not always quite clear when that was. So, if the problem can be recreated it is best to kill the app, recreate the problem and then send a bug report. If the problem occurs erratically, just wait till it happens and send the bug report afterwards.

I am going to make a couple of explantory videos once I ironed out all the glitches that came up with this last big update.

And let me take the opportunity to thank the chess community for the way you guys handle bugs in my software. Without exception, everybody is extremely patient and - if neccessary - keeps testing and sending logs until a bug is fixed. Even if that takes sveral days or even weeks. This is very sepcial about the chess world!

I don't ever see a log or an email when I push the bug report button. Literally nothing happens. What am I missing?

Tricky. You can send me a bug report...oh wait...that is what's not working. Do you have email configured on your device?

Ah, that's the problem. I use a browser-based email called Fastmail. I do have a gmail account I never use. If I open it before starting the app, will a gmail be generated?

I have no idea. I suppose, if you have the gmail app installed and configured, it should work. But I need to check. You also should receive a message telling you that this is a prerequisite. Apparently, you do not.

Never a message. I'll try gmail tomorrow and let you know what happens.

Think I've solved it. Opened gmail on my tablet, then when I clicked bug report the bug report email popped up. You should have received a couple from me this morning

@jewelmind: I did. Thank you!

I am looking for beta testers for iOS!

If you have access to an iPhone or an iPad and want to give the Chessconnect app a try, you are more than welcome to do so. Here is the invitation link.

The iOS app has a similar bug report feature as the Android version. So, if anything does not work as expected, please send me a bug report.

Please note that on Apple Chessconnect can only support Bluetooth LE. So, sadly no USB and no Bluetooth Classic (i.e. DGT eBoard. Pegasus does work!)

Thank you so much for making it possible to use my Millennium eONE on chess.com through my iPhone!

So far it works great, except for the fact that after a while the screen dims and eventually turns off. When that happens the board stops responding until you unlock it again. This can be circumvented by settings a longer timeout for the screen, but it would be nice if this could be prevented by the app (like the Millennium Chesslink is able to do).

Keep up the good work!

Thanks for testing and for pointing that out. I will look into that.

I'm thinking of getting a Certabo board for the light indications. Certabo sell 2 different Bluetooth connection modules to attach to the board. Would either of them work to connect to Android Chessconnect? And/or would an OTG adapter work to connect Android Chessconnect on a tablet or phone to a Certabo board?

@joernupbde

I've just tested the Chessconnect extension with the review unit of the Chessnut Move.

It connects (🤩) and can detect the pieces moved on the board. However, opponent moves don't turn on the lights on the Chessnut Move board, and nor do the pieces automatically move to the correct squares. It'll be really cool if you could get this working!

@vitualis: I am in contact with Chessnut about this. They are still working on the API for the Move. And yes, I am very excited about this, too. This will revolutionize puzzle and studies! Cannot wait to get this done.

You will need the "BLE Bluetooth Module". And yes, OTG adapter works with Android. That is in fact one of my favourite configurations: Android Phone both powering and controlling my beloved Sentio via USB. Very clean and reliable setup.

I'm just doing some very preliminary testing to make sure nothing is broken and I have to say, it brings a smile to my face seeing the pieces move! There is a little bit of jank with some of the pathfinding, but this is most evidence when the board is setting up (so, doesn't really matter). In game, it's amazing and quite smooth! Voice control exists, but Chessnut needs to include the normal way we would announce moves, e.g., "knight-f-three" for Nf3, rather than speaking the coordinates like "g-one-f-three".

I have been told that the API will allow very deep access to all the features of the Move. So, plenty of room for me and us to optimize things.