Topic: Google Home Hub

Is the Google Home Hub just a 2018 version of a Chumby or Sony Dash?


https://store.google.com/us/product/google_home_hub

Re: Google Home Hub

In many respects, yes.
One difference is that when Chumby came out, the decision was made that people wouldn't like a device with a microphone potentially spying on their bedrooms and lounge rooms, and so Chumby did not have a mic.
The new world of over-sharing on social media means that people are much less bothered by this than they used to be.
Also, the one thing that these newer gadgets don't seem to do is to be programmable to show you the stuff that you want to see at particular times, which is the special niche skill of the Chumby. They will certainly provide information on request, but I'm not sure that you can set them up to provide that information at a designated time.

Re: Google Home Hub

steelpaw wrote:

In many respects, yes.
One difference is that when Chumby came out, the decision was made that people wouldn't like a device with a microphone potentially spying on their bedrooms and lounge rooms, and so Chumby did not have a mic. .

Actually, chumby's DO have mics in them.  With some scripts in the built in web server, you can turn them into an intercom system.

They originally were going to have a light sensor, but (iirc) it didn't work well, and they decided to put a mic in it... it's behind the three little holes on the classic/one.

Cleaning up any loose bits and bytes.

Re: Google Home Hub

Yeah I heard that someone made their chum into a baby monitor.

Owner of 3 Sony Dash, 2 Info 8.

Re: Google Home Hub

demarks51 wrote:

Yeah I heard that someone made their chum into a baby monitor.

It's actually quite easy to make a baby monitor out of two chumbys:

On the one that plays the audio (doesn't actually have to be a chumby...):

nc -ll -p 1337 -e play

On the one in the baby's room, where you replace the "ip.of.other.chumby" accordingly:

For C1:

arecord -f S16_LE |nc ip.of.other.chumby:1337

For CC:

record -f cd | nc ip.of.other.chumby:1337

There was an unreleased version of the Control Panel that had a configuration UI and PTT functionality built-in.

Re: Google Home Hub

My Chumby Ones do not have microphones...anymore. ;-)

Tar, feathers, congress. Some assembly required.

Re: Google Home Hub

OK, the point that I was making was that the off the shelf Chumby did not have a functioning mic. To make it work required a certain amount of fiddling around.
If you did nothing, it also did nothing.
There was no option in the standard Chumby setup for the reception of voice commands.
The current crop of Home Hub and similar devices have mics that are automatically active. You may be able to deactivate them, I don't know because I haven't got one, but the default position seems to be that the mic is active because that's how the commands are received.

8 (edited by demarks51 2018-10-15 06:10:29)

Re: Google Home Hub

As I understand it, the Amazon Show and the Google Hub *can* have the mic muted. Both companies would not like for you to do that though. ; 0

Can you imagine saying: "Hey, Chumby! What's the weather like in Amarillo?"
Response (in Duane's voice): "The weather is sunny and hot today."

(Call in your order for the Chumby 3?)

Owner of 3 Sony Dash, 2 Info 8.