• Registered: 2009-01-25
  • Posts: 78

Topic: Pandora "Close" Tab Non-Functional

I LOVE Pandora.

But it's widget (I'm assuming it's a separate widget invoked from the control panel) has a major usability problem.

Tapping on the "Close" tab that appears in some options doesn't do anything. The only way to get out of Pandora is to reboot the little guy.

Is this a Chumby, Inc. issue, a Pandora issue, or something else? Pandora works fine, but you have to be extremely careful about what you tap on when using it . . . you'll wind up in a dialogue you can't escape.

  • Duane
  • Duane
  • Blue Octy
  • Offline
  • From: San Diego, CA
  • Registered: 2006-08-24
  • Posts: 8,203

Re: Pandora "Close" Tab Non-Functional

Hmmm, we're not aware of a problem here.  Can you give more specific steps to reproduce this?

Duane's Website

3 Reply by Dodge DeBoulet (edited by Dodge DeBoulet 2009-02-19 18:36:51)

  • Registered: 2009-01-25
  • Posts: 78

Re: Pandora "Close" Tab Non-Functional

Go to Control Panel | Music | Pandora Radio | GO TO

Pandora loads.

Select a station if you want, but I don't think it matters. Then press the Options button in the upper right hand corner.

You'll be presented with a "Manage your Station" dialog, with 4 options listed below and a "Close" tab in the upper right hand corner of the screen.

Tapping "Close" doesn't do anything . . . and I think it should. If there's some other way to back out of that screen, I can't figure it out.

It's not a "dead" area on the display, since other widgets respond to screen taps in that area. In fact, the above-mentioned Options button is in roughly the same area and works fine.

There's a similar "Close" tab on the ratings panel that pops up when you tap on the album art. Same result . . . doesn't close the ratings panel. Pressing any of the buttons besides "Why Play This" gets you out. It does appear to exit the panel at the start of the next song, though. Not sure what would happen if the song was paused . . . my guess is a reboot would be in the offing.

Also: I think the logic of the Pause/Play button on the main Pandora display is reversed. In other words, the Play icon ( |> ) should be dimmed when music is playing, and the Pause icon ( || ) should be dimmed when the music is paused. Currently, it's the opposite.

  • Duane
  • Duane
  • Blue Octy
  • Offline
  • From: San Diego, CA
  • Registered: 2006-08-24
  • Posts: 8,203

Re: Pandora "Close" Tab Non-Functional

OK, we'll look into the "Close" button issue.  Thanks for the feedback.

The Pause/Play button thing has been brought up before - it's the way it is because that's the way Pandora's other players work.

Duane's Website

  • Registered: 2009-01-25
  • Posts: 78

Re: Pandora "Close" Tab Non-Functional

Duane wrote:

OK, we'll look into the "Close" button issue.  Thanks for the feedback.

Thank you!

Duane wrote:

The Pause/Play button thing has been brought up before - it's the way it is because that's the way Pandora's other players work.

OK, but remember when your Mom said: "So if all of your friends jumped off a bridge, would you do it too?" big_smile

  • Duane
  • Duane
  • Blue Octy
  • Offline
  • From: San Diego, CA
  • Registered: 2006-08-24
  • Posts: 8,203

Re: Pandora "Close" Tab Non-Functional

Hmmmm, we're having trouble reproducing this problem on our chumbys.

If you could, please try a couple of things:

1) Reboot and try again (aka, the "Microsoft solution")
2) If that fails, please try the current beta Control Panel.

Duane's Website

7 Reply by Dodge DeBoulet (edited by Dodge DeBoulet 2009-02-20 12:19:30)

  • Registered: 2009-01-25
  • Posts: 78

Re: Pandora "Close" Tab Non-Functional

Since rebooting is the only way to escape when the problem occurs, you can count on the fact that I've rebooted many times smile

And I loaded the new beta control panel as soon as I found out it was available. Of course, what I haven't done is go back to the old control panel . . . will try that next.

  • Duane
  • Duane
  • Blue Octy
  • Offline
  • From: San Diego, CA
  • Registered: 2006-08-24
  • Posts: 8,203

Re: Pandora "Close" Tab Non-Functional

OK, thanks.

Duane's Website

  • Duane
  • Duane
  • Blue Octy
  • Offline
  • From: San Diego, CA
  • Registered: 2006-08-24
  • Posts: 8,203

Re: Pandora "Close" Tab Non-Functional

Could you please do one other thing - recalibrate your touchscreen (Settings->Touchscreen).  If you have a stylus or something similar, please use that to be as accurate as possible, hitting the direct center of the stars.

I'd just like to eliminate that as a possible variable.

Thanks!

Duane's Website

10 Reply by Dodge DeBoulet (edited by Dodge DeBoulet 2009-02-20 12:44:54)

  • Registered: 2009-01-25
  • Posts: 78

Re: Pandora "Close" Tab Non-Functional

Ok, I've spent the last 10 minutes switching back and forth between the GA and the Beta Control Panel.

What I've found is that, if I perform the steps that cause the problem behavior right after selecting Pandora, it doesn't happen in either version of the control panel.

However, if I wait a minute or two, the Beta control panel starts to get really flakey in recognizing that I've tapped the Close tab, to the extent that after a while it won't respond at all.

The GA control panel seems to have some occasional lag in responding when I tap on the Close tab, and I may have to try more than once in some cases.

The problem is very apparent in the Beta, though. Just seems to take a minute or two for it to really "kick in."

PS. I've recalibrated my touchscreen, too. No difference.

  • Duane
  • Duane
  • Blue Octy
  • Offline
  • From: San Diego, CA
  • Registered: 2006-08-24
  • Posts: 8,203

Re: Pandora "Close" Tab Non-Functional

Thanks - we'll try this procedure.

Duane's Website

  • Duane
  • Duane
  • Blue Octy
  • Offline
  • From: San Diego, CA
  • Registered: 2006-08-24
  • Posts: 8,203

Re: Pandora "Close" Tab Non-Functional

Hmmm, OK, I've been fiddling with this for a few hours now, and can't make it happen.

It is only the "close" button that fails?  Do any of the other options act sluggishly or fail?  How many stations do you have?  Is the music stuttering at all?

One thing that might be helpful is to SSH into the device and run "top" from the command line - that would tell us if this is something related to CPU load. Sitting on the main screen in Pandora should bounce between 60% and 80% CPU, sitting on the Options or Menu screens should take around 20% CPU.

Another thing that might be helpful is to see what the player is doing - SSH into the device, do the commands:

stop_control_panel
start_control_panel

Then go into the Pandora source.  When you press the Options button, you'll see a line that looks like:

2009-02-20 14:55:04 TRACE: Hiding/Showing elements:false

When pressing the "Close" button you should get a similar line with "true" instead of "false".

Duane's Website

13 Reply by Dodge DeBoulet (edited by Dodge DeBoulet 2009-02-20 20:10:06)

  • Registered: 2009-01-25
  • Posts: 78

Re: Pandora "Close" Tab Non-Functional

Duane wrote:

Hmmm, OK, I've been fiddling with this for a few hours now, and can't make it happen.

It is only the "close" button that fails?  Do any of the other options act sluggishly or fail?  How many stations do you have?  Is the music stuttering at all?

Seems to be only the Close tab (not really a button . . . just looks like a tab on a file folder)

I only have 5 stations, and I don't get any stuttering from any of them.

One thing that might be helpful is to SSH into the device and run "top" from the command line - that would tell us if this is something related to CPU load. Sitting on the main screen in Pandora should bounce between 60% and 80% CPU, sitting on the Options or Menu screens should take around 20% CPU.

I can do that. Just not tonight wink

Belay that . . . I went ahead and did it. There's no CPU total percentage in the top display that I can see, but the two busiest processes show:

  PID USER     STATUS   RSS    VSZ  PPID %CPU %MEM COMMAND
 2403 root     SW     12736  33884  2349 54.2 20.5 chumbyflashplay
 2402 root     SW      3044   5712  2349  8.6  4.9 btplayd

Another thing that might be helpful is to see what the player is doing - SSH into the device, do the commands:

stop_control_panel
start_control_panel

Then go into the Pandora source.  When you press the Options button, you'll see a line that looks like:

2009-02-20 14:55:04 TRACE: Hiding/Showing elements:false

When pressing the "Close" button you should get a similar line with "true" instead of "false".

OK, did that. Now the problem seems to be one of biology . . . when I use my finger to click the Close tab, I don't get the above result most of the time, but with an old Palm V stylus it will work every single time. Interestingly my finger works fine on buttons that look like buttons smile

So my Chumby is fussy about how it's poked, at least in that widget.

14 Reply by Dodge DeBoulet (edited by Dodge DeBoulet 2009-02-20 20:17:27)

  • Registered: 2009-01-25
  • Posts: 78

Re: Pandora "Close" Tab Non-Functional

So a followup thought . . . is it possible that the driver for the touch sensor gets confused when the CPU load is higher? This is just a WAG on my part, but I would think that a finger press would generate a different kind of event (due to its larger surface area on the screen) than a stylus. The stylus would seemingly (again, a WAG) generate a much simpler event.

Maybe Chumbians simply have hard, pointy fingers . . .

I'm one of the more distantly related species . . . a Chubbyan. We have fat, spatulate fingers wink

  • Registered: 2009-01-25
  • Posts: 78

Re: Pandora "Close" Tab Non-Functional

Any other thoughts on this, Duane? Seems weird that my only-slightly-larger-than-average male index finger would work 100% reliably under the GA control panel but not under the Beta. Doesn't make sense to me . . .

  • Duane
  • Duane
  • Blue Octy
  • Offline
  • From: San Diego, CA
  • Registered: 2006-08-24
  • Posts: 8,203

Re: Pandora "Close" Tab Non-Functional

Don't know, since the Pandora code was not affected by the Beta (it's a completely separate movie that's loaded at runtime).

I'll take a look to see if the hit area is smaller than normal for the "close" tab compared to the other buttons.

The chumby uses a resistive touchscreen - it works better the "pointier" the object is that presses on it.  Most users find that using a fingernail or tip of the finger works best in general.  This is different than the iPhone, which uses a capacitive touchscreen, which doesn't work with a stylus or finger nail (or even fingers in gloves).

Duane's Website

  • From: Kansas
  • Registered: 2008-01-28
  • Posts: 231

Re: Pandora "Close" Tab Non-Functional

Mine continues to work well, even through this aspect, in beta and regular control panel. I have not tried my finger, however, I switched to a phone stylus over a year ago and no longer even use my fingers for anything. Chumby related, that is!

  • Registered: 2011-04-20
  • Posts: 2

Re: Pandora "Close" Tab Non-Functional

I have the same exact issue as the OP.  All buttons work ok, but for the screens that utilize the Close tab (e.g., Create a new station or Options), the Close tab is very difficult to activate.  It almost acts like the active area of the tab is only one pixel.  Sometimes if I rub my fingernail back and forth over the Close tab, it will activate, but that often activates the Options button since it's in the same place and I'm stuck trying to get the Close tab to activate again.  I have calibrated the touchscreen.  I don't know how to SSH into the unit or whether or not I'm using the new beta app.

  • Registered: 2011-04-20
  • Posts: 2

Re: Pandora "Close" Tab Non-Functional

Ok, this is weird.  I googled the SSH to Chumby and found out about the hidden menu. I wasn't able to connect to the Chumby through Putty because, I think, my firewall detected it as an attack and shut down the whole network connection.  However, after leavin the hidden menu in the Chumby, the Close tab now works perfectly.  I'm not sure how that would have fixed it, but I'll take it nonetheless.  smile