Chessnut Air Review

Got my air last week and having issues with some leds being on dim when they should be off. At the worse point a whole diagonal line up the centre was lit in dimly. Don't think it's the leds as it can be different ones .

I have reset using a SIM pin, but still get ghost leds and very laggy behaviour (3 seconds per move) making the board unusable after 30 moves in rapid, on Android. I hope Chessnut addresses my issues with more than the usual 'send us a video' then nothing...

The 3 seconds per move is definitely very abnormal. I have an old phone (Samsung Galaxy S8) and the detection is practically instantaneous. I wonder if there is an issue with the app on your phone? I suppose that the first thing to try is to do an uninstall of the app, and reinstall to see whether that makes any difference?

Also, have you tried using a third party app - e.g., WhitePawn - with Lichess to see whether you still get the laggy behaviour?

This might help identify whether it's hardware related (board/phone) or software only.

Best of luck!

Thanks for your input Vitualis. Whitepawn also lags badly after 15 moves or so...there's a new version just out that I'll try tomorrow, I'll also try to reinstall the Chessnut app.

It works much better on a Samsung tablet, so it might be the phone (most recent fold model though). Weird!

Could it be possibly due to an aggressive power management issue on the newer phone?

Now it's back to a lagfest on the tablet, with all battery management disabled...and this after resetting (after it started to lag), on/off for the board...restarting the app...nothing doing.

I gave up on the chessnut app way back then , As I found it a waste of space . i did use the white pawn app for a while . Now I use this app with my mac book air which is so easy to use with chrome extension for chess.com .

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-equipment/chessconnect-a-chrome-extension-for-chessnut-air-and-chessnut-pro-smartboards

Have a look in thr play store for chessnut android , it's the new beta version of the chessnut app.

Chessnut sent me the beta app, which looks like a ported EVO app, to help solve my lag issues, unfortunately it worked ok the first time, but after that there were issues (ok piece recognition in analysis then nothing online) making it unusable.

Got my Air + last week after waiting for months and unfortunately it has major issues with piece recognition. Many of the squares that don’t contain pieces are lit up red. Emailed support and they thought it might be interference but when having these issues it happens in any room and on any device they including iPhone, iPad, and usb PC. Only thing that seems to resolve it is waiting several hours. Hoping they will just replace it but looks like I got a lemon. Any other ideas? Thanks.

Try fully charging the device and then pressing the reset button with a SIM ejection tool.

If it still doesn't resolve, then there's likely something wrong with the board. 😔

This extension is brilliant, I got it to work on android mobile through the Kiwi browser which supports chrome extensions, you need to run it in pc mode and zoom out the screen to see the connect icon. The developer deserves more coffee! 👏

That's great to know that it works with Android through that browser as well!

I’ve tried charging and resetting many times, but when it’s broken it just never works. I have no idea how to explain this, however, the board seems to start magically working at night LOL. I tested it all day today and couldn’t start a game, and the pieces were showing on wrong squares and red squares. Just tried again after 8PM here in AZ and it’s working now. I fully expect it will stop working again tomorrow morning. It can’t be interference, as I’ve taken it outside my house in the middle of the street and still doesn’t work. Anyway, they are going to get me a replacement but I’ll have to wait at least a month for the new batch Thanks

It's a good outcome that you'll get a new board. I wonder if there is a loose connection or something inside the board?

@vitualis, I thought about that too. I’m assuming if I open it up it will void the warranty so not going to try haha. Thanks for your input.

Donot make any external modifications as that will give the manufacturers an excuse to avoid your claim.

Hi .. this is my first time posting, so hopefully this question is not too 'dumb'...

I received my Chessnut Air 3 days ago

2 Problems have emerged:

1- When I try to connect the board to the Chess.com App (Android) the board shows in the Bluetooth Search, but when I click on the Chessnut Air board option (inside the Chess.com App), I get a message the 'board is NOT supported' - and I know that it should be.
2- Whenever I turn the board OFF and insert the power cord for charging, the board TURNS ON. If I turn it off while charging (hold power button until red light) , the board TURNS BACK ON after a couple of seconds of being OFF.
The Chesnut App shows that the battery is only ~60% charged.

Is my board defective? 
Do I need to RESET the board with a paper clip? 
Do I need to UPGRADE the FIRMWARE?
Do I need to get a replacement (under warranty) ?

I have seen that there are 2 versions of the firmware, but I do not know how to get hold of the newest version, nor do I know how to update the firmware of the board.

Please tell me what to do as I would like to fully charge my board AND be able to link it to the Chess.com App.
Thank you

You need to connect to chess.com via the Chessnut app, not the chess.com app.

As for 2, I think that might be normal behaviour with some of the newer firmware versions.