Topic: autoplay last music selection when restarted

I wish there was an option to have chumby recommence whatever music was playing when it was switched off rather than having to go thru control panel>music>mystreams> channel>play every time.

Re: autoplay last music selection when restarted

The last Music source played should appear at the top of the Music screen with a button marked 'Play' the next time you go to that screen. This eliminates a few button presses.
This is assuming that by 'switched off ' you mean Night Mode. If you mean actually switched off at the mains, then no, this won't happen. If you are switching it off - why? It uses very little eletricity or bandwidth in Night Mode.
Alternatively, if you want to play music at the same time each day, you can set an alarm to do so.

Re: autoplay last music selection when restarted

There may be a way to do this - the issue is whether or not the environment in which the device wakes up is close enough to the environment in which it shut down.  Some of these services have tokens that are short duration, and some services, like SHOUTcast have stations that are highly transient.  That means that the information the device would retain across boots could be too stale to be useful.

I'll look into it some more.

Re: autoplay last music selection when restarted

thanks to you both.
the reason im switching it off is to move it from the lounge to the patio as there is no battery to keep it running for the 60 secs it takes to make the journey.

no buttons offering to play anything on the music screen.
i also wish my most used music sources moved to the top of the list so i dont have to scroll. i guess im lazy!

Re: autoplay last music selection when restarted

or even some sort of macro widget to do all those button presses in one go!

Re: autoplay last music selection when restarted

You can move your favorite music sources to the top of the list - see this page.

Re: autoplay last music selection when restarted

thank you duane.
that looks promising. unfortunately i am a 54 year old housewife and tho i am thoroughly comfortable with everything my laptop can do, this forum is speaking a foreign language as far as im concerned!
"make a file" for example, nowhere in the instructions have i noticed being told how to make a file or where that could be done.
if i need to put something with that title on a usb stick does the stick have to be completely empty otherwise as ive tried to update youstreams with no success.
is there anywhere on the site to teach technospeak to idiots?
help!

Re: autoplay last music selection when restarted

that'l be a "No!" then!

Re: autoplay last music selection when restarted

Sorry  lornie - I suddenly got very busy and missed your followup.

However, unfortunately, this does indeed require a bit of simple hacking.

"Make a file" can be a simple as using NotePad on Windows or TextEdit on Mac.  You create a file called "music_order" and save it a a USB dongle.  The dongle does not have to be otherwise empty.

Now, here's where the hacking comes in - you need to copy that file to the memory of the chumby.  This can be done in a couple of ways - you can use a "secure shell client" to log into the device and do it from the command line, or you can create another file with a set of commands to do the copying for you.

The problem is that to make the little command file, you can't use a standard Windows text editor such as NotePad, because the Chumby is based on Linux and uses different line ending than Windows (Linux uses a UNIX standard which existed long, long before Windows was developed).  There are some Windows editors out there that *do* use the correct line endings, and they're listing on the wiki.  If you're using a Mac, it's easier, since, like Linux, it's based on UNIX so you can use TextEdit. If you decide to do that, here's the contents of that file:

#!/bin/sh
cp /mnt/usb/music_order /psp

This file would be called "debugchumby" and placed on a USB dongle, along with the "music_order" file, then you'd boot the chumby with it inserted.

if you want to try doing it manually, you'd get PuTTY for Windows, or use the command-line shell on Mac to log into the device.  The instructions on how to do this on also on the wiki.  Then you'd also enter the command:

cp /mnt/usb/music_order /psp

I agree this is all a bit obtuse.

Re: autoplay last music selection when restarted

Thank you very much for going to all that trouble Duane.
Im going to stick to Greek but will send a copy of what you wrote to a tame techi locally and perhaps he would be willing to perform the surgery.

Re: autoplay last music selection when restarted

Or you could put a battery in it.
You can put a rechargeable battery in the C1 and it will run off it for more than an hour. If you've got a Classic, you can put a 9 volt battery in it (open up the velcro at the bottom) and it will do just for quickly moving it from one power point to another without losing your settings. The 9 volt battery is not suitable for running the Chumby for any length of time.

Re: autoplay last music selection when restarted

Thanks Steelpaw. That sounds like a good idea.

My recent problem is that we get quite a few short power cuts in the night.
I leave chumby on as a very dim clock in night mode but once the power is cut and returns
instead of going back to what i had told it to do it has a bright screen that needs me to make choices.

if i had pressed the power off button i can understand being asked what i wanted when it resumes but at 3 a.m. i dont want to have to answer silly screen questions.
why cant it ask me if i want to use a new connection (i only have the details of one entered)and then after 30 seconds just use the last one.

the bright screen is a real nuisance and a screen that simply wants to say "done" is daft.
what does it want me to do, applaud?
just give me my clock back automatically please. if i want something else i can always tell it!

Re: autoplay last music selection when restarted

The only reason it asks for the configuration for connection is that it *did* try the last one and it failed.

It appears that the chumby is booting faster than the rest of your network hardware, and can't find a working network, so it asks.

Re: autoplay last music selection when restarted

oh i see thank you that makes sense.
i wish it would return to life still dimmed so i can at least ignore it until a reasonable hour!

Re: autoplay last music selection when restarted

i got an email this morning to tell me there was a new post from claudian here.
the hyperlink led to a page telling me it was broken.
when i get here there is nothing new.
mysterious!

Re: autoplay last music selection when restarted

lornie wrote:

i got an email this morning to tell me there was a new post from claudian here.
the hyperlink led to a page telling me it was broken.
when i get here there is nothing new.
mysterious!

It was just spam - it was deleted by a moderator, and the account removed.

Re: autoplay last music selection when restarted

thank you!