Hi All, i’m new to chess_com and have had a problem with the game freezing and wondering if it’s a common problem or something specific to me or my device.
I’m using the ChessUp2 board (via wifi, no phone) and playing the Bots. Sometimes it just freezes waiting for the Bot to start, other times it’s when it’s waiting for the Bot to move. It actually doesn’t happen a lot, but I’d like to get it resolved before i start playing other people.
Has anybody else had issues?
DETAILS:
The board freezes when “waiting for bot” to make first move, or later in a game after I move and expect the bot to reply. It only happens occasionally, most games I can play through to completion. When if fails I can click on ‘resign’ and it acts like it’s resigning but doesn’t really do anything. I have to pwr-cycle the board to get it functional again.
I suspect either Chessup or chess_com is hanging up waiting for a response from the other. I played the bots a lot on my PC with no issue before I got my board so I think the PC->wifi->internet is solid.
Does the comm protocol detect stalls (i.e. timeout and resend the last msg) or does it depend on perfect msg reliability?
maybe a signal strengh indicator for the wifi would be helpful
a resend button on the touchscreen to resend the last command to chess_com
some sort of indicator or msg cntr on the screen to note what state or msg the system is stuck on.
I found a thread where a guy was able to monitor the BT msgs from the board. I may try and dust off my .net skills and see if I can do the same. If I can, and if there are msgs on BT during bot play on chess_com, that may provide a better clue to what’s going on.
I’m posting to chessup and chess_com since i don’t know where the bug is, exactly.
Hi Patrick - Sorry for the bot play issues. What is the Chess.com username so we can review the logs and troubleshoot? You can direct message me or email us info@bryghtlabs.com if you prefer to share the username privately.
Hi Jeff - Never heard anything back from you guys. I’m still having the issue with the chess website freezing at times. Are others having this problem or just me? I’ve tried to find a pattern or correlation to anything but no luck so far. (i.e. blocking WiFi reception, delaying more between actions, etc.)
When it does hang up it seems to take a few minutes before I can get the bot to play again. I can reboot and get back on chess and pick a bot, but then it freezes while waiting for the bot. So i’m getting into chess but something in the gameplay is still waiting to time out.
Even just adding an ABORT or CANCEL button during bot play may unlock things and narrow down the problem.
I’m sure it’s a situation where both sides are stuck waiting from a response from the other. Would it be possible to include some primitive debug info in a beta release to help narrow the scope of the issue? If I could link to the BlueTooth via C# would there be anything useful that I could see? My PC sees Chessup BT, but it’s probably an LE device and I’m having a bit of trouble seeing it in C#. Just wondering if it’s worth pursuing or if there would be any useful info in the BT traffic.
My software experience tells me that it’s most likely a simple fix, just difficult to find exactly what simple thing to fix.
No email from programming team yet. Is my problem very common? I have some more info and a suggestion.
I noticed my wifi icon drops to 1 bar quite easily by moving my hand around the board. I am typically about 12ft from my router thru a drywall wall in a room where my computer, tv, and phone are further away and work fine. I’m wondering if the radio in the board just has inherently weak reception and an occasional dropout is enough to lock the system. I also play with the board on my lap which also may affect the signal.
I don’t know if it would be difficult to do, but here’s a couple of thoughts:
keep the wifi icon on the screen when playing chess_com
have the icon turn/stay red if the signal is dropped (or very weak).
add a ‘home’ button or back arrow to the chess_com screen to abort the game in case of latchup. - this should prove the latchup is a ‘waiting for reply’ comm issue.
I will continue to experiment - i.e. playing in the router room on a desk (not as comfortable, but I’ll do it in the name of SCIENCE!)
Yeah that is on me - we looked at this and I owe you a reply still.
The bot non-start issue is not specific to just you. We are working on this.
To answer some other questions. We use quite a sensitive scale for our WiFi bars - so you will notice dips in signal quite easily. That does not mean it is the issue. We could just rescale the signal strength graphic and say “board has great reception!” by making 2 bars = 5 bars moving forward. We actually make it more sensitive so it is more useful. As long as you have some signal it should work fine.
I do not suspect WiFi is the problem for the bot not moving sometimes. It is an issue with the bot backend and we will continue to dig into the logs.
Got it, thanks. I realize my observations are as much superstition as science, I just don’t have much visibility to see what’s going on. It’s just that it works so perfectly most of the time but just gets in a rut from time to time. I DO LOVE that I can finish a fun bot game with the local AI (when I’m winning, Ha!).
Thanks for making such a cool product and best of luck on resolving this issue.
How is the fix coming along? Is it really that difficult of a problem to solve?
I still get hangs on chesscom with the bots hanging on “starting soon…”. I just played two games in a row and when i tried to start a third it just hangs on “starting soon…”. Usually it will work again if I wait about 3-5minutes and restart, but soon I will wear out my power switch. I have a serious vendetta going with one of the bots right now, and when she beats me twice then refuses to play again it gets really annoying. Her psychological warfare really throws me off my game. Could you at least add an ‘<‘ to that screen to cancel the game and backup to the main menu?
Hi @Patrick - the chess.com bots should not freeze anymore - but if you are experiencing issues still, I would like our programming team to investigate.
I will have them look into your logs - it is still noluck987 right?
You guys are so much more responsive to questions & problems than so many other companies. I DID notice your initial response was around 8:00 at night when most people are relaxing and trying to forget about work issues, yet you were monitoring and responding to your forum. Awesome!
Just want to add my voice to this issue. While playing a bot I have on occasion experienced freezing while moving my piece. The board lights up as usual but moves are not recognized. The problem corrects itself after a period of time, as you can imagine this could be a real pain in the you know what were it to occur during a timed match. I have also noticed that there is a very slight bubbling on the right side of the playing area on my board, almost like the material is not glued down properly. In all other respects I am very much enjoying the Chessup 2 board, so much so I purchased one for my brothers birthday.
Thanks for the timely response Jeff. I live in Australia so it isn’t so easy for me to send my unit in for repair or replacement. Truth be told the issues I have experienced thus far are only minor and by and large my board works well so I will hold off on any warranty claims unless and until the problem gets worse, which hopefully it won’t.