YS-902 chess clock review

I thought I would post a review of the new YS-902 chess clock I bought (it's branded under several different names), https://www.amazon.com/Feiyasi-Digital-Multipurpose-Portable-Professional/dp/B08QZ22QM2/ref=sr_1_13?dchild=1&keywords=digital%2Bchess%2Bclock&qid=1611521781&sr=8-13&th=1,

This is overall a decent chess clock. It has the following positive features:

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 supports a bonus and delay of 60 seconds (on some clocks, the bonus and delay only go up to 59 seconds and there have been some tournaments that have used a 60 seconds bonus or delay).

6. It shows seconds at all times.

7. The number of moves made are shown on the screen at all times (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).

8. The clock is very easy to set.

9. The clocks sells for a great price and the batteries are included.

10. 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).

Some improvements that I think would be good for a future edition of the clock are:

1. If the clock is set to beep, the beep goes on far too long and is too loud when a player runs out of time. I could see someone accidentally turning the clock on with the beep on and when one player runs out of time, the long and loud beep will likely be super distracting to players playing other games going on at the same time.  

2. The clock only supports time controls with one time period. It would be good if the clock supported time controls with more than one time period.

3. It would be good if the time and move counter could be adjusted in the middle of a game, for example, to add a two minute penalty to one of the players, without having to reset the clock completely.

4. It would be good if the clock automatically gave the bonus time for move one when you set the bonus time on the clock. Under FIDE and US Chess rules, the players get the bonus time for move one. For example, for G/90;inc30, each player starts move one with 1:30.30, not 1:30.00. You can get the bonus time for move one by setting the base time on the clock in the above scenario to 1:30.30 but a lot of people are unaware that you get the bonus time for move one and thus won't know to do this.

5. For time controls with delay, the delay time covers up the base time during the delay countdown. 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.

6. The clock always "freezes" when one player runs out of time (this means that when one player runs out of time, the time of the other player will not continue to run). This is the FIDE preference since the FIDE rules want to avoid a situation where both sides have run out of time and you can't determine who ran out of time first and having the clock "freeze" when one player runs out of time prevents both sides from being out of time in the first place. It would be nice if the clock had an option to not "freeze" to accommodate US Chess rules.

Great in-depth review.

Thanks!

Just to add some information to this really great and in-depth review. There are some unbranded clones of this clock marked YS-902 which I bought two of those for fun use at home. Those are cheaper but the delay does not work on either one. In addition on one of them, the spring under the lever is biased so some shock ie. hitting the table can cause the lever to turn. These kinds of problems are to be expected whenever there are clones, so just be aware of this.

Price is certainly right. You don't find it too small?

From one of the pictures you provided, I see you have a version of the clock with Chinese words instead of English words in the middle of the clock. I believe the version of the clock with Chinese words came out before the version with English words. Perhaps the delay issue was an issue with the original Chinese version of the clock and that they fixed it with subsequent production runs. Also, since only one of your clocks has the lever issue, perhaps it’s just a one-off defective clock. 

Yeah, it is definitely possible I bought an older version. I don't think, I'll ever need the delay so it doesn't bother me too much. And the lever is just about unbalanced spring. That happens quite a lot and I think I will be able to solve it when I will have the time to do so.

Hi, I just bought this clock and no instructions in English. Can someone kindly attach English Manuel or a video how to operate it? Thanks....

Hi, there is an english manual in the link from Micahsmith.

●Press (Confirm/Reset) confirm the selected rule. If existing parameters needn’t be changed, directly press►‖, and the part where the seesaw warps up starts timing. If existing parameters have to be changed, press►‖again, and the hour on the left (Confirm/Reset) of the screen flickers. Press‖ to change the flicker position, and press (Up Key/Down) to change the numeric value. After parameter setting, press(Confirm/Reset) to confirm the parameters. Press►‖again, and the part where the seesaw warps up starts timing.

●At the end of or during a game, press (Confirm/Reset) for about 2s to reset.

BaroSilvae - Thx you!

I could use some help with this clock.  I figured out everything except getting the delay feature to work.   There are two numbers in the center, one of which is bonus/delay, and I haven't figured out what the other number means.

I could use a copy of the English instructions (john2001plus@gmail.com)

In regard to my other question, in delay mode, the delay appears to not work.  However, the two numbers in the middle seem to serve a purpose, although it is extraordinarily weird.  It appears to give you up to 9 additional time controls with up to 60 seconds each.  The first number is the number of time controls and the second number is 1 to 60.  However, this does not work like a chess clock would.  If you press the rocker switch then you get the full 60 seconds back on your next move.  If sound is on, then it will make a bunch of annoying beeps.

I have a Chinese version of this "chess clock", which I assumed would have a working delay, but it seems to have been programmed for a different game altogether.

I ordered and just received this clock, hoping that I might get the newest version (non-chinese), but I wasn't lucky and got the chinese one, with all-chinese instructions. I've faced exactly the same situation as john2001plus, basic and bonus features Do work, but the delay one is still not working, exactly as he described: the numbers in the middle, maybe only God knows what they are for. If anyone has been able to figure this out, please share your findings. And by the way, if someone's been able to find the English version of the manual that comes with the clock, your sharing it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance

Great in depth review Micah! I see i'm not the only one thinking about every single detail of chess clocks, since having been given a Tempest chess clock to review on youtube myself, this posting was a good benchmark for me actually, as i'd never done a chess clock review before and especially hard to know where to begin as the Tempest clock doesn't quite have a precedent. (it's an interesting hybrid of software and hardware but not touch-app either) and yet it checks all the same pros on your list and many (but not all) of the cons. This review was a great structured way to think about aspects of a chess clock and i used it as a basis for both my recent reviews for Tempest. Thank you @Micah. 🙏🏻

It sounds like the Chinese UI implements byo-yomi time control instead of delay. It's an overtime format where you have a time limit for each move after your main clock runs out. You get a number of these overtime periods, e.g. 60 minutes + 5 periods of 30 sec byo-yomi. Wikipedia states that "byo-yomi" translates literally to "counting the seconds" or "countdown," which is also the result I got from the Chinese UI with Google Translate.

I ordered the orange Feiyasi from Amazon based on this review, and overall I'm quite happy with it. I received the English version with US delay feature. Mine does have a bit of bias in the lever. It's not extreme enough to switch itself accidentally, but the left side snaps down easily, whereas the right side needs a much firmer press to stay put. I also bought a Leap 9907, which has a much better lever, but I slightly prefer the YS-902 in every other respect.

With this clock, can you change the time or can you only use the preset 10, 20 and 30 minute timers? For example, I would like to play some 5 or 3 minute games with this clock. If anyone knows how to set up custom time, can they tell me how? Thanks.

Hi, it is possible to change the time. First you need to choose the time control variant. Then by holding down the button with clock icon you enter the change mode. I this way, you can even set different time for both players.

I bought my YS-902 on the Shopee website (China) and it arrived today at my home in Brazil.