• Registered: 2007-02-11
  • Posts: 16

Topic: What Else Chumbies Might Be.

This might be more appropriate in Hardware, please feel free to move Mod’s.

I think that the chumby itself will be a neat device; sometimes ambient, and sometimes useful. But the real highlights will come from how easy it will be to hack, and what other uses it will have.

The CVS camera and videocam have spawned hundreds of sub-hacks and useful devices from IR goggles to being mounted on a weather balloon. Another reason the Alpha giveaway well in advance of release is such a good idea.  By the time the Chumby is released, there will be a wealth of information and source available for new Makers imagination.  I hope that in time there is a community available like that of the Arduino and Gumstix wiki’s.

As the hackable market stands there is a real lack of small embedable devices with LCD’s.  Driving LCD’s and hacking existing LCD’s to take RGB output is called the HOLY GRAIL on forums (Fora) and wiki’s.

Sparkfun finally has a neat 128x128 Nokia knockoff lcd that is inexpensive and usable, but is just now starting to make it’s way into projects. The gumstix device is awesome, but doesn’t do graphics in any sort of vga or standard format.  The Chumby could fill this gap.  At $150 getting a 3.5† lcd screen with an embedded 266 proc with the (hopefully) upcoming; ability to interface with Phidgets and Arduino for some custom I/O ability, peer-to-peer networking ala OLPC for some Chumby to Chumby action, and a battery + charging system (this really needs to be done soon), who wouldn’t grab a Chumby or two for their next hack project.

The beauty of the Chumby will be it’s ubiquity.  Because it’s cheap and it’s open it WILL BE USED. Not just by people who want to use it as the Chumby, but for many other purposes. I think that the Chumby might end up being ‘the’ or contributing to ‘a’ standard in QVGA devices.

Know what else is QVGA? Just about every Head Mounted Display in existence.  Wearable Chumby anyone?  This is what I would like to see.

  • Registered: 2007-02-20
  • Posts: 26

Re: What Else Chumbies Might Be.

Your post hits a lot of topics.
There is one key piece of hardware missing from all of them.

the CVS Camera is a great idea.  It is, unfortunalely, a USB device.  For it to be really useful to Chumby, it needs to be wireless.
So there needs to be a piece of hardware that replaces the (virtual) USB cable that used to sit inbetween the camera and the host computer
... Good thing such a thing already exists (!)

http://www.amazon.com/Netgear-Mini-Prin … B0001BXVA4

is an example of a $50 Wireless USB device that could be hooked up to the CVS camera, with the intent of having Chumby manage the DHCP, if no other Wifi hub is present.  If the Camera is to be set up somewhere permanently, then this $50 device and the $27 CVS camera make a $77 webcam that will hook up to any Wifi point. 

This would allow for real-time Video (Downsampled to 12 fps for Chumby as well as maybe a smaller then 320x240 area, depending on throughput)...

Missing elements:
FLASH API calls for Wifi
Chumby DHCP server
FLASH API calls for USB
Porting of CVS camera USB 'driver' to Chumby

It is easy to get excited about Chumby's potential.  There still remains a lot of work to do.

BUT - for this applicaiton, having a remote wireless camera for Chumby is do-able for under $80. 

Regards,

Bruce

  • Registered: 2006-08-27
  • Posts: 154

Re: What Else Chumbies Might Be.

You were definitely right, much better in the hardware category.

I'm working on a (coherent) post for where I'm at with my "portachumby", so I can show you what I've been up to, but it takes me a bit to get the words together right [might even better be placed in a blog?] What it comes down to is that at the moment, I'm going to have to rethink my design because the Chumby is a lot more power hungry than I imagined (for some reason I didn't take into account change in voltage = change in amperage when I designed it last year), and I want my battery charger to be safe for other people to build (which right now it isn't for a number of reasons). But, it's definitely possible and I can walk around with it for about 30 minutes before I'm plugging it back in to recharge.

  • Registered: 2007-03-08
  • Posts: 23

Re: What Else Chumbies Might Be.

I am looking to connect a usb webcamera to the chumby, directly.  Can you advise on some of the steps you're aware of that I need to take to enable this?

thanks!

5 Reply by Rodney (edited by Rodney 2007-03-14 16:33:22)

  • Registered: 2007-03-13
  • Posts: 5

Re: What Else Chumbies Might Be.

I thought the chumby already had a built in web cam and is the chumby blue tooth combatable? You could do so much with it if it is... on another note I think the chumby should  have a Line In Video and Audio ports so you can use it as a tv to play gaming systems on and such.

  • Registered: 2007-02-11
  • Posts: 16

Re: What Else Chumbies Might Be.

Analog RCA type connection wouldn't be that easy to sync up to the lcd screen.  I am pretty sure that it's run off of chip based drivers, and that chip doesn't have that ability.  It would require a separate driver, and they are expensive.  Also it wouldn't be much good unless the chumby was portable.  Otherwise just use your tv!

Not a bad idea though.  If it could be easily implemented it would be a really neat hack.

  • Duane
  • Duane
  • Blue Octy
  • Offline
  • From: San Diego, CA
  • Registered: 2006-08-24
  • Posts: 8,197

Re: What Else Chumbies Might Be.

Yes, the LCD is driven off the controller hardware that comes built into the processor.  To drive or accept standard video, we'd have to add all of the additional hardware, which would bump the price up significantly.

Here's the problem - I've heard people ask for processor and memory upgradeability, GPS, Bluetooth, video in and out, hard drives, batteries, webcams, EVDO, Firewire, larger displays, SD storage, microphone, wired NICs, keyboards, mice, game controllers, etc etc.

What it seems people want chumby to be is something that already exists - a very high-end laptop computer - but somehow want it to still be only $150.

Duane's Website

  • Registered: 2007-04-04
  • Posts: 1

Re: What Else Chumbies Might Be.

I have a cool idea for a Chumby.
I am a music programmer who on occassions likes to play in public...........NOW, would it be possible to use the Chumby as a small monitor that you could plug your PC into? I read earlier about maybe having a video output, well how about a PC video input, so all I would need to carry would be the case/keyboard/mouse, and of course the little Chumby.............as the Chumby is small enough to be discreet as many a times some folk have come upto me and started saying that I am cheating coz I am using a comp, when in fact its aint cheating! REALLY!
The chumby could be a highly useful gadget for stage use.

  • Duane
  • Duane
  • Blue Octy
  • Offline
  • From: San Diego, CA
  • Registered: 2006-08-24
  • Posts: 8,197

Re: What Else Chumbies Might Be.

It's a similar issue - the chumby does not have any video circuitry, in or out.  The LCD is controlled more or less directly from the processor.  Even if it did, most devices that generate video for computer-type monitors don't go any lower than VGA resolution (640x480), and the chumby is QVGA (320x240).

There are USB video capture devices out there that could probably be hooked up, but they're typically designed for NTSC or PAL video, usually for digitizing output from a VCR or DVD player.

Duane's Website

  • Registered: 2007-07-13
  • Posts: 1

Re: What Else Chumbies Might Be.

Could the Chumby run a small webserver so the remote computer could view the Chumby via the wireless connection?

  • Duane
  • Duane
  • Blue Octy
  • Offline
  • From: San Diego, CA
  • Registered: 2006-08-24
  • Posts: 8,197

Re: What Else Chumbies Might Be.

There's already a lightweight HTTP server built in, which reports network statistics - that's already in the prototypes.

We added the ability for you to put your own CGI scripts on a USB dongle and access them through that server.

The production units host a couple of other HTTP servers - one that reports zeroconf data, one that presents the iPod database if you have one plugged in, and another one for a future accessory.

We will be publishing the C++ source code that we used to create these servers under the GPL, so you can make your own.

Duane's Website