Topic: Anybody remember when they bought their first Chumby?

Hey everyone,

I just bought an Insignia Infocast 3.5' at a garage sale. It was only 3 bucks so I thought it was a fairly old little T.V. For 3 bucks, I was willing to take a chance on it and even though it wasn't what I was expecting, I'm still impressed by what it can do. I was disappointed when I heard that the service isn't fully functional but I'm glad whoever bought it has kept up some semblance of a working product.

Does anyone here remember the first Chumby they bought and how much they paid for it?

Re: Anybody remember when they bought their first Chumby?

1) welcome to the chumbyverse.

2) stand by, for more exciting things to come shortly.  (no, really!, I think chumby may be better than ever soon)

3) my first one was in the 80-100$ range, for a chumby1

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Re: Anybody remember when they bought their first Chumby?

The first Chumby I bought was a black Chumby Classic.  I want to say I paid $249 for it, which seems like a ton of money for what it was at the time.  I remember putting it off for a while due to the price point and eventually giving in.

I put off buying the Chumby One until it dropped to $99.

I became hooked to the platform, open nature of everything and somehow an addict.

I now own the following:
2 Chumby Prototypes
3 Chumby Classics
2 Chumby Ones
1 Chumby 8
5? Infocast 3.5"
8? Infocast 8"

I know it's an addiction since I own so many I don't even know the count.

Linux Guy - Occasional Chumby Hacker

Re: Anybody remember when they bought their first Chumby?

Materdaddy wrote:

I know it's an addiction since I own so many I don't even know the count.

Have you considered looking into Chumbyaholics Anonymous? smile

I've only got

2 chumby ones
1 I8 that thinks it's an C8
1.5 Chumby 8s

(one keeps giving me a white screen after a few minutes and i haven't tracked down what's wrong with it)

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Re: Anybody remember when they bought their first Chumby?

Welcome! Some fresh blood doesn't hurt. I got my I3.5 on eBay for $25 from a liquidator that resells used items that retailers get (Apparently, the original owner of this thing was a moron). You may want to look at this thread for updates on the Chumby service. If you want to give money to Duane, the guy who's keeping Chumby alive, check out this thread.

Re: Anybody remember when they bought their first Chumby?

Looking for a new bedroom "clock radio", I bought a black Classic in March 2008. I immediately loved it. Got one for my wife's office soon after.
I then got a blue/white Classic and moved the black one to my office (you may have seen it on Chumby's fb):
black Classic
I then got a Chumby One for the bedroom, moved the blue/white Classic to the office (color schemes match perfectly) and retired the original black Classic. Good ole blackie has recently come out of retirement to adorn my home office.

Re: Anybody remember when they bought their first Chumby?

Thanks everyone for the response, I appreciate your feedback.

Carl, how did you get another app to come up on your chumby? The only thing I can get on mine is the alarm clock and Pandora basically.

Re: Anybody remember when they bought their first Chumby?

lacey1126 wrote:

Thanks everyone for the response, I appreciate your feedback.

Carl, how did you get another app to come up on your chumby? The only thing I can get on mine is the alarm clock and Pandora basically.

That picture is from when the full Chumby service was active. If you want multiple widgets now, and aren't afraid to manually edit configuration files to do so (It's actually pretty easy, if you've used HTML before) you can get files for a USB stick that you plug into your Chumby with a bunch of widgets on it here.

Re: Anybody remember when they bought their first Chumby?

My first Chumby was a Chumby One. I think I paid $129 for it. I picked up an I3.5 and an I8 when Best Buy was blowing them out. The I3.5 is not being used at the moment but the other two are still running fine. I did have to replace the power suppy on the Chumby One.

Tar, feathers, congress. Some assembly required.

Re: Anybody remember when they bought their first Chumby?

lacey1126 wrote:

Thanks everyone for the response, I appreciate your feedback.

Carl, how did you get another app to come up on your chumby? The only thing I can get on mine is the alarm clock and Pandora basically.

I didn't. It's an old picture.

Re: Anybody remember when they bought their first Chumby?

lacey1126 wrote:

Does anyone here remember the first Chumby they bought and how much they paid for it?

Why remember when it's in my email? :-)

C1 from from "woot.com" on 10 Mar 2011 for $50.

Re: Anybody remember when they bought their first Chumby?

Thanks Nathan, I might check it out to see if I can do it. I'm not that technologically savvy but I might as well try.

I'm guessing you guys don't get many new members that often?

Re: Anybody remember when they bought their first Chumby?

A: If you're fine with the default widgets (Clocks, news, and fun apps) then you don't need to edit a thing. Everything's explained in the thread.
B: We don't get a lot of new members that may stick around. Don't worry, though. They did the same thing to me when I registered.

Re: Anybody remember when they bought their first Chumby?

nathanm wrote:

B: We don't get a lot of new members that may stick around. Don't worry, though. They did the same thing to me when I registered.

we get a fairly steady flow of new members, but they're usually not as mouthy as you wink  more lurkery types.

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15 (edited by bobsz 2014-02-15 22:52:08)

Re: Anybody remember when they bought their first Chumby?

I bought my first C1 when it was a fairly new introduction. I had a tough time deciding between it and the Classic. I bought my first direct from Chumby. I had been shopping for an internet radio, and all seemed absurdly overpriced or tied to costly subscriptions. It was briefly on sale well below list price, I think some tie-in promo. @carldc, love the "family picture." What do they call those things on the table? I remember Amazon.com invented something that looked like that called "books."

@lacey1126- you certainly belong here- buying that thing thinking it was a TV, plugging it in and finding yourself on the Starship Enterprise, and appreciating it even more! BTW, none of us will mention how jealous we are that you got it for only 3 bucks. BTW, don't mind nathanm's avatars. He changes them every time he gets bored.

Re: Anybody remember when they bought their first Chumby?

Ha, I guess I am a bit of a loud mouth Diamaunt.

Bobsz, I didn't even know the default was a Star Wars clock. Was I the only one thinking that the little tabs on the clock work? I thought the touchscreen was broken. I was trying to press widgets and nothing was happening. I guess it's nothing to be embarrassed about.

Re: Anybody remember when they bought their first Chumby?

lacey1126 wrote:

Ha, I guess I am a bit of a loud mouth Diamaunt.

Bobsz, I didn't even know the default was a Star Wars clock. Was I the only one thinking that the little tabs on the clock work? I thought the touchscreen was broken. I was trying to press widgets and nothing was happening. I guess it's nothing to be embarrassed about.

active participation is a great thing, I personally am delighted to see new folks come in and start talking about stuff, exploring what's what in the chumbyverse.   it gives me more hope that the chumbies will keep on doing their thing in the future.

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Re: Anybody remember when they bought their first Chumby?

Well, my registration date on the forum is 2007-12-25, so I guess I got it (Classic Chumby - biege) for Xmas in '07.
I just picked up another one at Goodwill today for $7, it booted fine (and the touch screen seems a lot better than my
old one ever was). Had to log the previous user out of Pandora (was full of kiddie music and Dave Matthews channels).

Re: Anybody remember when they bought their first Chumby?

I just adopted a classic off ebay, just got it today, and found that the touchscreen worked much better after I ran the calibration routine again.

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Re: Anybody remember when they bought their first Chumby?

diamaunt wrote:

I just adopted a classic off ebay, just got it today, and found that the touchscreen worked much better after I ran the calibration routine again.

Are you one of the people driving up the prices on ebay of late? tongue

Linux Guy - Occasional Chumby Hacker

Re: Anybody remember when they bought their first Chumby?

I got my Chumby in November 2007. I was lucky that my brother had been on a business trip in the US at that time so he was able to pick up the package, as Chumby Industries wasn't shipping to Austria that days.

Re: Anybody remember when they bought their first Chumby?

Materdaddy wrote:
diamaunt wrote:

I just adopted a classic off ebay, just got it today, and found that the touchscreen worked much better after I ran the calibration routine again.

Are you one of the people driving up the prices on ebay of late? tongue

mayyyybe... but not much, I've only bid on a couple, one or two classics, and the on the one I got and on a 'dead for parts' chumby one last week that I'm 99% sure just had a bad cap in it's power supply.

Cleaning up any loose bits and bytes.

Re: Anybody remember when they bought their first Chumby?

March 15, 2008.  Purchased it directly from Chumby Industries for $180.

Re: Anybody remember when they bought their first Chumby?

diamaunt wrote:
Materdaddy wrote:
diamaunt wrote:

I just adopted a classic off ebay, just got it today, and found that the touchscreen worked much better after I ran the calibration routine again.

Are you one of the people driving up the prices on ebay of late? tongue

mayyyybe... but not much, I've only bid on a couple, one or two classics, and the on the one I got and on a 'dead for parts' chumby one last week that I'm 99% sure just had a bad cap in it's power supply.

Probably the same one I bid on.  Sorry for driving your price up a little bit.  I have a broken I8 from eBay that should be here today.  I picked it up even cheaper than the C1 I had bid on.  The listing said the touchscreen is bad, but I'll be the judge of that... tongue

If it is, I have a use for it anyways as a simple display and for $5 plus shipping, I can't lose!

Linux Guy - Occasional Chumby Hacker

Re: Anybody remember when they bought their first Chumby?

Materdaddy wrote:
diamaunt wrote:
Materdaddy wrote:

Are you one of the people driving up the prices on ebay of late? tongue

mayyyybe... but not much, I've only bid on a couple, one or two classics, and the on the one I got and on a 'dead for parts' chumby one last week that I'm 99% sure just had a bad cap in it's power supply.

Probably the same one I bid on.  Sorry for driving your price up a little bit.

well, someone else outbid me, hopefully it's somone that'll fix up its ps an love it like it deserves wink

Cleaning up any loose bits and bytes.