• Registered: 2010-05-10
  • Posts: 222

Topic: Please make chumby reliable

Please please put some effort into making chumby more reliable.
I suggest :
Add a reboot to the custom alarm screen. only shutdown is there now.
Add a check network to the custom alarm screen. The device should check the network and try existing connections if the alarm action goes off and its not connected.
Add a offline control panel which loads if the device cant find the network. This should be the LAST control panel loaded by chumby from a usb key if present.
Add a offline widget system. All widgets should be run offline from a usb key if the network is not found and usb key is present.
Add a backup all widget/control panel option so widgets/control panels can be saved on a USB key automatically for all channels. This should be a 1 click button on control panel.

This reliance on a flaky network system is causing most of the problems on the chumby. It should run without a network .... its not an appliance, just a clock. treat it like one. network should be optional but not mandatory as the architecture is currently. I see it also being a problem on future chumby models. If chumby.com dies every single chumby/dash/oem unit out there will be a piece of scrap metal. do you really want that to happen ?

  • Registered: 2010-05-16
  • Posts: 7

Re: Please make chumby reliable

I agree: susceptibility to network flakiness is my number one complaint about the Chumby.  I like the network features, but I want the non-network dependent apps to function when the network has flaked.  Even if I make my home network rock solid, timeouts in the internet at large can still cause my Chumby to hang and not recover.  My number one app that I would like to see more network robust is ImageURL, it is a very simple, powerful, general tool, but most days I come home to find Chumby locked up, it's while loading ImageURL.

If network reliability is too app author dependent, at least some kind of rating system to let users know if an app they have chosen is likely to lock up the device in case of network flakiness would help.

  • Deb
  • Deb
  • Member
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  • Registered: 2010-06-03
  • Posts: 15

Re: Please make chumby reliable

My router is a bit flaky (or the ISP is....who knows?) and cuts out quite a bit and I would love to be able to rely on some of the widgets to still work until I get the connection re-booted.

I have read some of the technical posts about SSH-ing (?) into the Chumby, but I don't really understand the tech speak and would be too terrified of breaking my Chumby to try any of it.
It's also not clear which of the codes work with the new version of the Chumby One or the Chumby Classic.

Could there be a simple explanation in English (not tech-speak) on how to perform some of the simpler tasks, please.

  • Registered: 2009-08-25
  • Posts: 46

Re: Please make chumby reliable

chumby is reliable highly. Once Zoltar had the swine flu and set alarm on chumby then went to sleep. It awoke me with the gong sound, and I threwed up in my bed. ON TIME!