I've been waiting for hear good news about the Square Off board or DGT Pegasus, but seems those might take a while. In the meantime can anyone recommend a good electronic board to record my offline games?
Casual? Tournament?
Nothing beats a pencil.
There have been a few electronic recording devices but they all failed for various reasons.
I'm looking for one to use in casual games and maybe some local competitions. As long as it works most of the time, I am good with it.
With the portability and practicality that you require, none that I am aware of.
@talmacelmarian you should clarify if you need piece recognition or move recognition.
Piece recognition requires a unique sensor in each piece that the board can detect. This is the line of SGT smartboards. Not very portable, however, this is also used for tournaments and is an experience (i.e. feel of board and pieces) most players prefer.
Move recognition is simpler (and less expensive) technology. Pieces must be setup in a known configuration (typically the start position) and the board detects when a piece moves. The DGT Centaur and Pegasus are in this category. Board and pieces are typical plastic (I believe Certabo uses wooden board and pieces).
I recall seeing camera's rigged up to detect piece movement in one experimental/DIY system.
The portability aspect in your request is the problem. If you don't mind attaching the board to a notebook then most of the boards can be used with Arena, LucasChess and Shredder which all allow you to play human vs human games while recording the moves. That means you could use boards by:
Certabo
DGT eBoards and DGT Pegasus
Millennium boards with Chess Link (including the eOne)
As Brian says, if you are playing standard games then piece or move recognition doesn't make a big difference. But if you are spending a lot of time analysing games from different positions then you really want piece recognition: all boards by Certabo, the DGT eBoards, the Millennium Supreme and Exclusive. The move recognition boards are the DGT Pegasus, Millennium Performance and eOne. These can still be used for analysis, it just isn't quite as fast as when you can set up the position using the board.
Unless their own interfaces/apps provide for recording games you don't want the DGT Centaur or any board by Square Off. The Centaur doesn't have the hardware for connection to other devices and Square Off are refusing to release their boards' API, so no third party programs can (legally) access those boards.
I've been waiting for hear good news about the Square Off board or DGT Pegasus, but seems those might take a while. In the meantime can anyone recommend a good electronic board to record my offline games?