Hi Jeff,
Sorry if this is the wrong thread, but is there a way to implement an option to have the checkmate light only come on twice instead of 5 times? Maybe I’m wrong, but I feel like it uses a lot of battery, especially when you’re practicing endgames in the board editor and you’re constantly checkmating. By the way, ChessUp 2 is amazing! I’m as excited as a kid! I love the light effect, but maybe 2 times as a checkmate is enough to save the battery. If that’s not possible, then the only option is to play with the charger plugged in. But is it safe for the battery and doesn’t it degrade it?
And one last question: will it be possible to dim the board lights in the ChessUp app or in the board settings? Is that somewhere in the plans?
We will have light dimming - yes. In fact there is auto light dimming (we have an ambient light sensor). I am not certain why we disabled the auto dimming.
The menu will have manual dimming as well.
As for the battery questions:
Safe to play plugged in, no harm there.
Only issue people run into is if they have a very electrically noisy supply, then it can touch the pieces incorrectly while plugged in. However, this is obvious when it happens.
The checkmate animation impact on battery - good question. LEDs do consume battery power, but because it is so brief, the impact of shortening the animation is small. I will bring it up to the team though - if maybe the celebration is just too long in general. It is unlikely we change it, but I will mention it.