• Registered: 2011-03-20
  • Posts: 50

Topic: Chumby One (C1) - Cold Boot : Power-On Behavior

On occasion, I lose power in my home.  When the power returns, I typically see my two Infocast 8 devices restarted and operating normally.  The C1, however, wants me to see the date and time.  Now, I cannot guarantee I have an awesome Wi-Fi signal where the C1 is located, however, it operates flawlessly otherwise, so I expect the WiFi signal to be adequate.

That said, can someone verify if I should not be having to continually reset the date/time on the device?  Quite honestly, I would prefer no interaction with the device in these situations.

Let me know if I can clarify any of the information above.

  • Duane
  • Duane
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  • Registered: 2006-08-24
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Re: Chumby One (C1) - Cold Boot : Power-On Behavior

My guess the reason this is happening is that the chumby is probably booting faster than the network is coming back up from the power failure.  For this behavior, your wifi access point would have had to assign an IP to the chumby, but the chumby is not able to reach a time server, perhaps because the upstream connection is not yet ready - it therefore asks you for the time.

I think the Infocasts have a battery backed-up internal clock, so they can reset their clocks without hitting the network - I think they also boot a bit slower, so your network might be ready by the time they are.

Using offline firmware cannot magically make the chumby know what time it is, so I'm not sure I understand that suggestion.

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  • Registered: 2011-03-20
  • Posts: 50

Re: Chumby One (C1) - Cold Boot : Power-On Behavior

Duane - I think your explanation re: the lack of an IP is what the issue is here.  I guess I will have to live with the situation as-is in order to keep things as simple as possible.

Can anyone else verify that the Infocast 8 (I8) has an internal battery?  Did not see any specifics on the battery here:
http://www.insigniaproducts.com/product … DP8CH.html

  • Duane
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Re: Chumby One (C1) - Cold Boot : Power-On Behavior

@Kurtois - just for sanity purposes, could you check the setting Control Panel ->Settings ->Time/Date and verify that the "Set time from Internet" checkbox is checked?

@msharp42 - I'm very curious how that would work - if the device cannot reach a network to reach a time server, how does it get the time?

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  • bobsz
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  • Registered: 2011-01-01
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Re: Chumby One (C1) - Cold Boot : Power-On Behavior

@Kurtois- re orignal post- does the same thing happen when you unplug the Chumby for a while then plug it back in? If not, I don't see how it could be the Chumby itself. Maybe it's from a slight power surge when the whole house goes on and off, or something along those lines? Of course, Duane's idea about the network restart makes sense. BTW, my 2 C1s have never done this after a power failure.

  • Registered: 2012-02-07
  • Posts: 535

Re: Chumby One (C1) - Cold Boot : Power-On Behavior

Kurtois wrote:

Can anyone else verify that the Infocast 8 (I8) has an internal battery?  Did not see any specifics on the battery here:
http://www.insigniaproducts.com/product … DP8CH.html

The I8 does indeed have a button cell battery; it's beneath a little cover on the bottom of the device (and oddly, comes off with the bottom panel when you're disassembling the I8.  I don't know if there's an RTC chip on board or what, but I presume the battery serves the same purpose of allowing the I8 to retain its settings (and time!) in the event of a power failure.

@Kurtois: have you considered getting a battery for your C1?  They're going on eBay for ~$10, or you can get one on Amazon for ~$11.

msharp42 wrote:

the offline firmware does make the chumby know what time it is. it simulates a network even if none is present.

Simulating a network doesn't do any good if there's no time server on that simulated network (which there isn't) -- if the power goes out and the C1 doesn't have any sort of battery backup it WILL lose track of time, and no amount of firmware wizardry will fix that.

This did make me think of a possible workaround -- if the Chumby provided itself a time server on its simulated network, which would act as a relay to a legitimate server, and if it can't get a response from a legit server, just provide some random bogus time (in which case the C1's time would be off until the "relay" server actually gets time data from a real server).

7 Reply by Kurtois (edited by Kurtois 2012-07-25 06:18:48)

  • Registered: 2011-03-20
  • Posts: 50

Re: Chumby One (C1) - Cold Boot : Power-On Behavior

First, a big THANK YOU for the plethora of support on the forum.  I appreciate everyone's input.

Next, I did just a small bit of research on a battery, and settled on the 'Lenmar' brand.  It seems to be a good name in batteries, and after discovering the battery is on sale at Best Buy for $10, I bit.  Free shipping too.

Given the sale, would it be a wise move to purchase a second battery as a backup for the future?  I always thought batteries just sitting around are not a good thing.

  • Registered: 2011-03-20
  • Posts: 50

Re: Chumby One (C1) - Cold Boot : Power-On Behavior

Duane wrote:

@Kurtois - just for sanity purposes, could you check the setting Control Panel ->Settings ->Time/Date and verify that the "Set time from Internet" checkbox is checked?

It is checked.

  • Registered: 2012-02-07
  • Posts: 535

Re: Chumby One (C1) - Cold Boot : Power-On Behavior

Lenmar is indeed a pretty good manufacturer (in my experience, at least).  However, Lithium Ion batteries tend to have a rather short shelf life, and even sitting unused I would not expect a Li+ battery to last more than 3-4 years -- so by the time you needed to replace the initial battery, its replacement would already be half way through its usable life.  The battery used in the C1 is a relatively standard size (about as standard as you can get for Li+ batteries) -- multiple brands of cameras use this size, which speaks well for its potential market life.  Worst case scenario, there will probably always be a Chinese manufacturer willing to sell you one on eBay wink

  • Duane
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Re: Chumby One (C1) - Cold Boot : Power-On Behavior

When a C1 powers up, the clock is initially set to the epoch (12am. Jan 1, 1970 UTC).  Upon launch, but after the network has been initialized and an attempt has been made to contact a time server, the Control Panel will present the "set date/time" panel if the year on the device is before 2000.

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  • Registered: 2012-02-07
  • Posts: 535

Re: Chumby One (C1) - Cold Boot : Power-On Behavior

Duane wrote:

When a C1 powers up, the clock is initially set to the epoch (12am. Jan 1, 1970 UTC).  Upon launch, but after the network has been initialized and an attempt has been made to contact a time server, the Control Panel will present the "set date/time" panel if the year on the device is before 2000.

So putting in a backup battery would only prevent him from getting the date/time panel if the battery can last through the outage and keep the C1 from powering down, correct?

Do you know if the C8 has a backup battery similar to the I8?  I have a C8 somewhere but I've been playing musical cubicles at work lately and am not sure which cube I left it in >_<

  • Duane
  • Duane
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Re: Chumby One (C1) - Cold Boot : Power-On Behavior

I *think* the battery will keep the "crypto processor" alive even if the main device is off.

If I recall correctly, the crypto processor has a simple second-resolution counter/timer, not a TOD cock, but the main system at some point records the counter and the current time in /psp, then upon boot will check the delta of the timer (if the delta is positive)  and use the previously recorded time and counter delta to restore the system clock.

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