DGT 2500: the new official FIDE chess clock

Hold down the right arrow button when turning on the clock for #1, and then the left arrow button when turning on the clock for #2. The power button then cycles modes.

Okay I tried that , I don't know what happened, but it was weird. I thought I had broken the clock or messed something up real bad.

Why oh why is it not compatible with DGT boards?

Haha, it's cool isn't it? It's a test mode.

One of them shows the "serial number" of the clock (the same thing as SR-NR on a Chronos chess clock). Then one button tests the beep (only in a few mode pages), another tests whether a button is pressed or not, one counts how many times the lever is switched from the middlepoint (its worth paying attention that the number will change RIGHT at midpoint of lever movement, precisely), and so on. Another mode shows when the lever is on calibrated "left" position, or on Neutral, or on "right", and you'll see there's a decent gap available for neutral. You'll be impressed that when the clock is back in standard mode, the vertical bar that shows whose clock will start first corresponds to L and R (L <--- and --->L), and then you'll see that when you press a lever to make a move, after the clock has started, the other player's clock won't activate until AFTER the lever has passed neutral and has reached his "L" side. This prevents accidental double activations, which is very impressive, as I've seen double activations from badly calibrated PS-1688 chess clock levers.

And so on.

That is cool information thank you.
The serial number displayed though doesn’t match the one on the bottom of the clock.
The other stuff is great info.

I also figured out that the DGT NA also has a test mode.

It is the successor to the model 2010 and NA, which ar both the successor to the now obselete model 2000.

The model 3000 which is the successor to the obsolete model XL, is the model line the is capable of being paired with the electronic DGT board for internet broadcasting.

The DGT 3000 is going to get refreshed with the newer design. The DGT North American is also getting a refresh (pictures of it have already been posted).

Eventually they’ll get it right… maybe

@NM Falkentyne
Where have those pictures of the updated NA been posted?

Furthermore why, does it need to be updated? Isn’t the 2500 not only the successor to the 2010 but also the NA?

Remember back in 2008 when the 2010 was introduced. Back then Chess Cafe was the USCF Sales equipment vendor not HOS.

Anyway the USCF had the Excalibur II as its official clock. The Saitek was also a popular back then. But the I-Phone / I-pad (Smart phone / Tablet computer) was invented and released the year before, in ‘07. These made portable dedicated chess computers obsolete.
Excalibur and Saitek were the two main dedicated chess computer companies. So they were going out of business. Which meant their popular and affordable chess clocks would soon be discontinued.
The USCF wasn’t pleased with the DGT 2010 because it had Bronstein style delay not the US customary simple delay. Therefore DGT in conjunction with USCF developed a version of the 2010 with a delay feature. They removed some of the special overtime modes that catered to other game players like Go and Scrabble. So it sold in the US for a little less than the 2010.
So the DGT NA became the official clock of the USCF for about a decade or more.
However, now the USCF has another official clock made by ZMF, not DGT.
The new DGT 2500 has both US delay and Bronstein delay and of course Fischer Bonus. So why is there a need for a new DGT North American? The USCF has another brand as the official clock. The 2500 does both of what the 2010 and NA could do, delay and overtime for other game player.
So this time around why would DGT bother to make a chess clock that specifically caters to the North American market. The 2500 handles the American customary delay.

Now a successor to the 3000, that’s probably a good idea. Just seems to me, that the 2500 replaces both 2010 and the NA.

Novag was also a contender for dedicated machines through the 2000s, but they only released one clock. DGT’s folding clocks look similar to the Novag. 
 
https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-equipment/novag-quartz-chess-clock#comment-19093674

I wonder that myself. Maybe new NA will have less number of time options than 2500 and hence be a little bit cheaper like current NA being cheaper than 2010.

The replacement for Easy +, DGT 1500, looks pretty cool. I can hardly wait for it.

Probably the third clock to come from the DGT stable will be the 3000 replacement, maybe to be named 3500?

The 3000 has been left behind by two iterations of standard clocks already. I’m surprised that DGT has taken this long to replace the official clock of FIDE. They could have skipped the NA features and just release new models that take advantage of the mechanical and aesthetic upgrades.

I have the Leap PQ 9912 for my first clock. it's only me my girlfriend and a few friends. i can still send it back to amazon should I get the dgt2500 or is what i have is fine? leap was $30 and DGT is $70

also can pick up a new never used dgt3000 for $50

@CheckMate_MadMax

Leap PQ 9912 should be more than enough to use in friendly games. I have another Leap model that I seldomly use. I like it.

A dealer had told me that they had switched from Leap to DGT due to quality issues but this was about 3-4 years ago.

I do not have any issue with my Leap. If you take good care of it you should be able to use it for years.

Whether one chess clock will be enough is another question ;)

I'm not flush on cash, but i didnt know if i would be better off with the dgt3000 for $20 more than the leap. One thing I noticed is the leap is alot heavier than the 3000, the 2500 is closer to weight but the leap is still heavier. seems heavier means more solid.

So I have a DGT2500 and was wondering about what some people were talking about with the action on the lever being unequal. I tried mine and it did seem to be stronger on one side than the other and make a different sound when tapping the different sides. I never noticed because I'm too busy trying not to blunder. However I did some tests and I'm pretty sure it's not an issue of one magnet being stronger than the other. If you set the lever to the right side overnight and try it. The right side seems louder. Set it to the left side overnight and the left side seems louder. Play a game and by the end of the game they seem about the same. I think the issue is that there is probably some padding inside to keep the lever from hitting too hard or to protect it from getting damaged from overzealous blitz game hits. I think the padding compresses slightly if it's in one position for too long and takes a bit to uncompress and equalize.

Hi, I completely disassembled the 2500.

It's a simple metal fulcrum pivot in the center (a pin, basically) and two rare earth magnets on the edges. There is padding but that is not the point.

The magnets (they are stronger than the ones on the 2010/3000) tend to gain some strength when they are left attached to iron for a long time (this also helps preserve the magnet from loss of strength over time, so its good to store magnets this way, when possible of course), so when they are activated after a lever is pressed down for a long time, the strength will be unequal for awhile. If the clock is left in neutral position for awhile, it should be even.

The clock I had bought on Amazon (and returned) had a *very* unequal magnet strength however, far worse than the clock I bought from House of Staunton, which is a lot better.

Someone posted a link to a PDF from DGT, I think in another thread. It had pictures of the new North American, *and* a new DGT Blitz (basically a grey 2500 showing 10th of a second) and some marketing about innovation or something boring.