Cheap Touchpad Part II.

Note: all cloude services have been stopped for the Chumby. Check out http://hackaday.com/2013/07/25/making-a-dropbox-with-a-chumby-and-bittorrent/ for additional options for the Chumby. A bit outdted, also see http://forum.chumby.com/viewtopic.php?id=6411:

Wanted to try out the new firmware as the Insignia Infocast is somewhat compatible with the Chumby 8. One of the things that drew me to it was a built in browser with an on screen keyboard. (I have been told that you can downgrade back to the original firmware if you want. Not tried that yet though).

The Chumby 8 has a bit larger screen than the Insignia Infocast But still allegedly sells for over a hundred dollars, except the larger screen you can get a software upgrade for free! at this time.

Note: (Warning: Try this at your own risk! I will not be responsible for any issues what so ever.) www.chumby.com with Best Buy support has taken over the network support from Insignia (no longer on the web) for the "Insignia Infocast". So deauth your unit and reauth your unit on www.chumby.com.

Update.

Chumby websiite seems to be back up again!

Getting the Firmware.

You will want to go to: http://www.chumby.com/help/chumby_8/latest_software#usbupdate to download the zip file with the upgrade/update.

The file at the time of this instructable was: http://files.chumby.com/resources/chumby8/1-8-2/update.zip

Installing It.

You will want to follow the instructions on the page where you downloaded the zip file from. but in a nutshell here is a quickie

You will want to copy the update zip to a fat formatted usb drive. No need to unzip the file.

Turn off your touchpad.

Insert the usb drive.

While pressing the touch screen, turn on the touchpad and keep pressing the screen til you get a message about the special options.

Let go of the screen.

You will be then asked to recalibrate the screen. Go ahead and do that.

Then you will get the special options screen

Choose install updates. (from disk drive)

Go ahead and let it install the update.

The system will install the first part of the update reboot and then install the second part plus the browser module. Do not interrupt the update at any time!!!

Once you finally get the second update, you will be asked to confirm some settings and create some.

Eventually you will be up and running. .

Note: You will want to get a usb ethernet adapter with a hard wired connection to your network. if you really want to make it easy and faster.

Which Network?

Chances are you are already on the Insignia network. You can de authorize the Infocast network and reauthorize on the Chumby network You can use that original screen you wen to to upgrade the firmware to do that. Then go to http://www.chumby.com/ and reauthorize the unit. Unless there is something critical that you do not want to lose, it would not hurt to set the box to factory settings.

Note the Chumby server was flaky, so I put the original firmware back on the machine via usb. deauthorized the unit. Reinstalled the original firmware. Reauthorised to insignia network. Then reloaded the updated Chumby 8 firmware. Back to normal so far.

Update: the Insignia network is gone. The only choice is the Chumby network.

Streaming Music to the Chumby.

You will obviously need a server to install and run GNUMP3d
GNUMP3d is a streaming server for MP3s, OGG vorbis files, movies and other media formats.

http://www.gnu.org/software/gnump3d/index.html

To add a stream:

Create a stream using a search query:

NAME: Any Name 
URL: <a class="external free" rel="nofollow">http://ipoftheserver:port/search?q=mozart&play=1</a>
TYPE: M3U

Create a stream from an album:

 NAME: Any Name
 URL: <a class="external free" rel="nofollow">http://ip:port/Artist/Album/recurse.m3u</a>
  (e.g. <a class="external free" rel="nofollow">http://ip:port/The%20Killers/Hot%20Fuss/recurse.m3u</a>)
 TYPE: M3U

Note: the play=1 is the important missing piece that i couldn't figure out. If you have any updates on howto configure stuff like random or anything else, please add... In the example above, it will query (q=text) for mozart and return a playlist in the m3u format which will allow the chumby to play it.

You can use a program on linux called fapg to create an m3u playlist.

Our connection from the Chumby to the server is:

Name: Typo1

URL: http://typo1:8888:/stream.m3u

typo1:/var/media/musi

Note: music server directory is set to /var/media/music

typo1:/var/media/music$ ls
bsd contemporary stream.m3u clientplaylist_192.168.1.122.m3u folk and classical

Run gnump3d
Once the indexing is done, you are all set to run gnump3d. By default gnump3d tries to index all files whenever you start it, to avoid this we need to use –fast option.

[root@fedora ~]$ gnump3d --fast

By default gnump3d runs in foreground. If you want it to go in background and run quietly, run it as follows.

[root@fedora ~]$ gnump3d --fast --background

Accessing Media Server

To access your gnump3d streaming media server, please visit url http://ip_address:port/ .

Run at startup

If you want gnump3d to start when your computer starts add the following line to /etc/rc.local file.

gnump3d --fast --background

Squeezebox

If you want something that is more mswindows compatible to stream music to your Chumby, you might try the squeezebox server. To be honest, I have not tried it yet. Caveat emptor.

More info at:
http://www.mysqueezebox.com/download

Pluses and Minuses.

You should be up and running. You can still use that usb drive set up for the web browser you used before. (https://www.instructables.com/id/Cheap-touchpad/) With the new firmware there are some bugs as some apps may not update properly. You also can not use and external keyboard completely in the web browser. The built in web browser is too big for the infocast's screen. You can downsize it. There is probably a fix for that. if so. I will let you know when I find it. You might find other issues. That is part of the price of using non-standard firmware. In any case enjoy!

What's next? May add a step for connecting to a media center such as xmbc. Android after reading what developers said, probably will not be on the Chumby. But, good news though as arch linux has been ported for the Chumby. If I can run the linux gui (aka X) on the chumby, not having android will not matter. Have Debian Squeeze running on the Chumby now. Does not affect the base unit operation since it runs from a thumbstick.

Debian on the Chumby.

Putting Debian on t he Chumby really deserves a separate instructable. There are a lot of Gotchas, so I will wait till I can simplify all that before publishing the instructions.

One Possible Solution for the Chumby 8. This Firmware Install Seems to Make the Chumby Useful Again. Insignia Infocast.

This third party update seems to make the Chumby aka Insignia Infocast more usefull than it ever was. The install takes a while so make sure everything s on battery backup, (Try at your own risk!)

Install:
1. Download the zip file from here : http://sourceforge.net/projects/zurk/fi … p/download
2. Take a blank USB flash drive and unzip all the files keeping the directory structure intact. make sure the debugchumby file (included in the zip) is on the root directory of the usb disk.
3. Put the usb drive in your chumby and switch it off. then switch it on.
4. select control panel - change your time zone to your correct location.
5. Thats it! Your chumby should be fully setup with no more chumby.com requirements. You have 5 widgets in the default channel. By editing profile in the html/ folder of the usb drive with notepad, you can modify the zipcode and location so you get proper weather for your area. If you want to reset your chumby simply remove the usb flash drive and shut your chumby off completely and back on. done.

You can now deactivate your chumby and delete your chumby.com account! It is completely free!
Let me know if you have any issues. This works for chumby 8 and insignia infocast.

Note: there is also at the same site a versio for the 3.5 inch Chumby.: