Xflyee Chess Clock

Does anyone know anything about the Xflyee chese clock? The presets on the bottom of the clock are very similar to the Leap PQ9912/Wholesale Chess Advanced and the Leap KK9908 clocks. 

https://www.amazon.com/Xflyee-Digital-Chess-Clock-Function/dp/B087QZGYCD/ref=sr_1_6?dchild=1&keywords=chess+clock&qid=1599523059&sr=8-6

I bought an Xflyee clock. It's the same as the PS-1688 (Pursun) just sold under a different name. I own many digital chess clocks and am very knowledgeable about digital chess clocks and my initial impression on the Xflyee clock is that it's a very good chess clock. It's very similar to the Wholesale Chess Advanced/Leap PQ9912 clock but has several key advantages over that clock (numbers 1 and 6 in my list below) The Xflyee clock has a number of positive features including:

1. The clock times the game accurately (believe it or not, not all digital clocks time the game accurately).

2. The lever on the clock works well (on some clocks, the lever or buttons don't work very well).

3. For time controls with delay, it shows the delay countdown in digits that are big enough to easily see (some clocks just have something like the word "delay" or the colons flash at you during the delay countdown or show the delay countdown in very small digits which are hard to easily see. Clocks that do one of these things make it hard to know when your delay time will end and when your main time will start counting down. This can be a big issue if you are in serious time pressure).

4. For time controls with increment, it adds the increment time to your display in the preferred "add-after" method which is where the increment time is added to your display right when you press your clock. This way you can always tell how much time you will have for your next move if you are in serious time pressure (some clocks add the increment time to your display in the less preferred "add-before" method which is where the increment time isn't added to your display until your opponent presses their clock).

5. It shows seconds at all times.

6. The number of moves made are shown on the screen at all times, regardless of which way you set the clock in note 7 (on many clocks, you have to press a button on the clock if you want to see the number of moves made and the number of moves made will no longer be shown once you stop pressing that button). Having the number of moves made shown on the screen at all times makes it much more likely that the players will realize if the move counter has become inaccurate.

7. For time controls with more than one period, the move counter can be turned on or off (to turn the move counter off, set the number of moves to 00). If the move counter is on, the subsequent time control is added independently for each player once their time in the current time control runs out and only if the prescribed number of moves in the first time control were met. If the move counter is off, the subsequent time control is added independently for each player once their time in the current time control runs out, regardless of if the prescribed number of moves in the current time control were met. For time controls with more than one period, it also shows what time period you are in on the screen.

8. While the clock doesn't "freeze" in increment time controls which is necessary for a clock to get FIDE certification, at the end of the day the clock accommodates what the FIDE rules really want which is to avoid a situation where both players have run out of time and you can't tell who ran out of time first. The clock shows who ran out of time first by showing a flag on their side of the clock. By not freezing and allowing both sides of the clock to run out of time, it accommodates US Chess rules as well.

9. The clock is very easy to set.

10. The clocks sells for a great price for the number of features it has (and the batteries are included).

11. If the clock is paused, you can start either side of the clock when unpausing the clock. Also, the clock rounds the seconds on the base time up on the screen so if the time remaining is more than zero but less than one second, the time on the screen will show one second to make it clear the player still has some time left (some clocks don't let you start either players side of the clock when unpausing the clock and/or round the time down on the screen which causes the clock to show all zeros and makes it look like the time has expired when in reality there is still some time left). 

A couple of minor improvements I think would be good for a future edition of the clock are:

1. The maximum amount of increment and delay you can set the clock for is 59 seconds. There are a few tournaments that use a 60 second increment or delay so I think it would be good if the clock allowed an increment and delay of 60 seconds.

2. Some of the increment presets give the increment for move one and some do not. For example, preset 8, G/5;inc3, gives each player 5:03 for the first move while preset 7, G/3;inc2, gives each player 3:00 for the first move. Under FIDE and US Chess rules, the players get the increment time for move one so I think it would be better if all the increment presets automatically gave the increment time for move one.

3. For time controls with delay, the delay time covers up the base time during the delay countdown. I think it would be better if the delay time didn't cover up the base time so you can always see how much time total time you have remaining for a move if you are in serious time pressure. 

4. I could be wrong but it doesn't appear there is any way to adjust the move counter once the game has started.

5. There is a problem with time controls that have multiple periods with the increment time only on the sudden death time control. For example, Preset 21 is 40/120,20/50,SD/15 (forty moves in two hours followed by twenty moves in fifty minutes followed by the rest of the game in 15 minutes) with a 30 second increment only on the sudden death time control. This happens to be the time control the 2021 World Championship match will be played with. The clock starts giving Black the 30 second increment once he has completed move 60 but doesn't start giving White the 30 second increment until he has completed move 61. if you try setting the clock manually for 40/120,20/50,SD/15-with inc30 only on the SD 15, it will start giving the increment time only when the main time in the first two periods have run out, regardless of how many moves were made. This is such a rare type of time control that most people will probably never play with it so I don't see this as a deal breaker on the clock for most people. 

hey dude is the leap 9912 chess clock good?

it seems decent

^^ Why would he know? He's replying to a question about a different clock. How about starting a new topic with your question?

The Leap PQ 9912/Wholesale Chess Advanced (these are the same clock sold under different names) has a bug in it that makes the delay time not accurate.

Great review. I´m thinking of buying PS-1688 or Leap PQ9903A or DGT 1002.

Have you tested and and can recommend Leap or DGT against PS-1688?

I don't own the DGT 1002 or the Leap PQ9903A but here is what I know about them:

The DGT 1002 doesn't do time controls with more than one time period or time controls with delay so I would avoid that clock if you ever think you will need those features. 

For the Leap PQ9903A, I'm not 100% positive but I believe that for time controls with delay, it only supports one time period and only does the Bronstein form of delay. The Bronstein form of delay is mathmatically equivalent to the other form of delay, which is usually called "simple" delay or "US" delay, and either are allowed to be used under FIDE and US Chess rules for time controls with delay. Personally I don't like the Bronstein form of delay. You are also just asking for confused opponents if you use the Bronstein form of delay since a lot of people aren't familiar with that form of delay. 

I found an unbranded PS-1688 (same as the Xflyee timer) on eBay for less than $20, with free shipping. So I grabbed it. 

Micahsmith's review of this timer is dead-on. It's what the Wholesale Chess Advanced timer should have been. The Wholesale Chess timer has a delay timing bug and the left side of the timer runs about 2 seconds slow per hour. Very disappointing and still not fixed after 4 years.

The Xflyee/PS-1688 is noticeably smaller than, say, the DGT NA, so I'll add that observation. Still, it's a great timer for the price, IMO.

I previously informed Wholesale Chess about the delay bug. It took me three emails to get a response from them on it. They initially said "we are not aware of such an issue" and then later said "We have reported the issue to the manufacturer of the clock so that they may review.". After a few months I emailed them again asking if the issue had been fixed. I had to email them twice to get a response and they said "Per the manufacturer, the issue has not been resolved". Then I asked them "Are you guys going to continue to sell the clock, even though there is a bug in it?" and I received no reply. I find it very poor that they continue to sell a clock they know is defective. 

I'm guessing the manufacturer see's no reason to expend resources fixing the thing. They know the timer doesn't keep accurate time and so does Wholesale Chess. 

No one was supposed to notice that the timing is off! 

I guess that once production is up and running and a bunch of custom-branded products are produced and ready for sale, fixing problems in the product line is not always financially feasible.

Hell, Saitek used to a sell a very popular timer that was much worse than the WC Advanced.  I'm talking about the silver one that ran on C batteries.  That thing had some horrible bugs that seemed to just fly under the radar! Those bugs were never acknowledged nor fixed.

What are the bugs in the silver Saitek?

I can speak only from memory since I haven't had one for over a decade. Some, maybe most, of the controls work fine. (The blue model works fine, too.) I discovered by accident that sometimes a custom control with increment would not time the game accurately. I'm not talking a few seconds per hour, either, but massively off. The timing errors might not be immediately obvious because the timer doesn't show seconds most of the time. Sorry, but I can't tell you exactly how to reproduce this. But if you experiment with this you'll find it. Set up a custom control with increment, enter 30 or 40 moves, then enter edit mode and do the math. In some cases you will find that the timer does not reflect a time even close to what it should be. But sometimes it will, sometimes it won't. I was unable to discern a pattern. I decided the timer couldn't be trusted and quit using it. Sorry I can't be more specific and I realize my inability to do so undermines my credibility here. But I stand by my assertion that the timer was/is buggy.

Thanks for the review, Micah - I'm going to give the PS-1688 a try, it seems like just what I'm looking for right now

how does it compare to the Chronos Chess clock. 

How to set the time on PS-1688. On which option to add 2 minutes to a player or on which option to set the time to 15 minutes per player?

Do you guys know how to set delay time controls on this clock?