Topic: Tingbot

This Kickstarter project looks very Chumby like, uses the Raspberry Pi.

I wonder if there distro could be made to run the Chumby widgets

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/74 … i-made-fun

It's a bit off it's funding target at the moment...

Re: Tingbot

Yeah, saw that one when if first came up, it seemed like every mention on Twitter compared it to the chumby.

We'll see if they are able to meet their goal, only a few days left...

I think one of the big issues is that it doesn't have speakers, and from what I see on the video, no touchscreen.  I might be wrong though.

Re: Tingbot

The description says "Use the touchscreen to make a doodle pad", so I guess it has one of them :-)

Doesn't come with speakers, but since it's based on a Pi you can plug in USB stuff.  However it's GBP50... plus the cost of a Pi.  Not cheap.

Re: Tingbot

True, but Chumby was originally $180, and even the Chumby One was $99. So not so different in price.

Re: Tingbot

It does appear to be a touch screen, and since the chumby can be made to serve up images from its framebuffer to HTTP, you could probably get (non interactive) widgets working on the Tingbot.

Re: Tingbot

I think the price is way out of line for what you get. You still have to supply your own PI and of course peripherals.

I will stick with my Chumbys!

Re: Tingbot

The other thing is that now every device of this nature has to compete with the smartphones that everyone already owns. This makes price more of an issue, since the function and usefulness of the new device is less plain. (We've all had that Chumby-related conversation that ends with the non-Chum saying "But what's the point of it? I just do all that on my phone!") In Chumby's day, it was pretty much the only thing that did what it did, and was correspondingly less price-sensitive.
Also, every year consumer electronic devices improve. They do more and cost less, so a $99 device today needs to be distinctly better than was a $99 device five or so years ago.

Re: Tingbot

I wonder if it works with the new $5 Pi Zero..

Re: Tingbot

It also has to compete with the $50 Fire tablet (which is $35 this weekend). It is a closed environment but can be hacked to gain access to the Google play store or even run vanilla Android.

Tar, feathers, congress. Some assembly required.

Re: Tingbot

Ooh, for $35 I would have bought a fire tablet... but it wouldn't arrive until Dec 22nd, which is far too late.

Re: Tingbot

Hello -

Just saw this :

Tingbot Wants To Embody Your Pi Projects
http://techcrunch.com/2015/11/27/tingbot/

Another U.K.-based team is gunning to build a business out of simplifying using the Raspberry Pi single board computer.
...
The device-in-the-making is called Tingbot. It’s designed to embody Pi apps in a neat form factor that can sit on your desk or bedside table, with a built-in touchscreen and programmable buttons enabling the user to view and interact with Tingbot Pi apps (without having to first faff around combining Pi hardware with a display accessory or other hardware themselves). 
...
If you’re comfortable to take the risk, the Tingbot is currently priced at £50 ($75) to Kickstarter backers.

Looks like a Chumby-tainer to me.  What do you think?

cfg83

Re: Tingbot

Looks like they've hit their pledge goal.

I hope they haven't underestimated the actual costs of doing this sort of thing - I am often amazed how naive a lot of hardware Kickstarters are about that.  So many just consider the per-unit BOM as the only expense, when that only matters once you've achieved significant volume.

Re: Tingbot

Kickstarter scares me for just that reason. I think there should be experts mentoring the heads of these projects. You rarely hear about the number of projects that crash and burn.

Tar, feathers, congress. Some assembly required.