Topic: Release Notes - Control Panel 2.6.49

To run the Control Panel Beta on your chumby, select it from the popup menu on the website on the "My Chumby" page - it's in the lower right - and reboot your chumby.  To return to the release Control Panel, just reselect "Control Panel" (without the "Beta") and reboot your chumby.

If you decide to revert back to the release Control Panel, you may need to "restore to factory defaults" in Safe Mode if you've made changes to the first alarm in the Alarms screen, since it's interpreted by the older Control Panel as alarm2.

if you are running a previous beta, simply reboot your chumby.  Please review previous release notes if this is your first beta.

Release Notes:

Version: 2.6.49
Release Date: 12/6/07

Summary: Adds SHOUTcast and Radio Free Chumby as alarm audio sources, adds Night Mode and Power post-alarm actions, fixes bugs in the Clock/Alarm and Channels subsystems.  Improves reliability of alarms in general, although they are still not completely dependable.

Music:

* replaces scrollpad control in SHOUTcast, now direct scroll like Radio Free Chumby.  Still evaluating.
* adds mixer to Radio Free Chumby stations in order to play wider selection
* fixes "back" button on Mediafly panel
* fixes misc minor bugs

Alarms:

* adds SHOUTcast and Radio Free Chumby as alarm audio sources
* adds Nightmode on/off post-alarm action
* ands Power off post-alarm action - should power up again for next alarm
* misc artwork changes on action and audio pages
* fixes misc minor bugs

Night Mode:

* correct computation of "next alarm"

Channels:

* fixed some confusing button names
* changed screen routing on completions - reload and change channel return to main Control Panel

"Pi" Panel:

* added "off" button - this is a "hard" off - will not power up for alarms.

Known bugs:

* Internet Radio alarms do not current honor duration
* "Music Files on USB" will not recognize complicated file names (requires firmware update)
* occasional failures to alarm
* occasional "ghosting" of alarm screen

Re: Release Notes - Control Panel 2.6.49

Why can't all betas be like this.

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

Re: Release Notes - Control Panel 2.6.49

I like the alarm additions alot, thanks! Still playing around with the direct scroll...I didn't even realize that Radio Free Chumby HAD that. *grin* I think personally I'd just prefer buttons/arrows...but that's a quibble.

Thanks for all the hard work. This is quickly getting ridiculously cool...

Re: Release Notes - Control Panel 2.6.49

Wow, this internet radio functionality is everything I've been hoping for and more! I also really enjoy the radio scrolling method, it's fun to toss the list up and down. I didn't realize it was a list at first, maybe a little arrow at the top and bottom to show there is more. It's exciting to see new features coming out that really hit the mark and make this device what it should be.

And you got things right with letting us set the alarm to a radio station, I can't wait to try it out tomorrow and wake up to NPR.

5 (edited by wayn3w 2007-12-07 05:15:31)

Re: Release Notes - Control Panel 2.6.49

Could we please have an option where we can choose no sound (silence) for an alarm?  This would be helpful to be able to schedule turning on/off night mode.

Also, if we could be given an option to add a display name for the alarm, that would be helpful, too.  This way my alarm for turning on Nightmode will show up in the list of alarms as "Goodnight Chumby"

And if you wouldn't mind adding an easter egg... look for and execute alarm.sh, alarm1.sh etc so we can do some user-defined (hacker-defined?) actions like set the dimness to all the way off for those who want the capability, or wget something.

Thanks!  My hats off to you guys.  This business model where you work with your customers to define the features is truly the way to go.

Re: Release Notes - Control Panel 2.6.49

Question about listening to npr...

Is that in shoutcast or ragio free chumby?

What is it listed as?
thanks

Re: Release Notes - Control Panel 2.6.49

bengaldave wrote:

Question about listening to npr...

Is that in shoutcast or ragio free chumby?

What is it listed as?
thanks

National Public Radio (NPR) isn't a station - it's basically syndicated content, played by a number of local stations. In Radio Free Chumby, there's KCRW Santa Monica which plays NPR stuff.  In SHOUTcast, there's WBUR, which seems to lurk around 30 and KQED at around 60.

In the Mediafly section, NPR podcast content shows up in a few places.

Re: Release Notes - Control Panel 2.6.49

Woot!  This is ribs!  big_smile  Thanks!

Re: Release Notes - Control Panel 2.6.49

kqed is not working. Is this a temporary thing? The other stations work.

Re: Release Notes - Control Panel 2.6.49

bengaldave wrote:

kqed is not working. Is this a temporary thing? The other stations work.

Well, we really don't have any actual control over the availability of the stations themselves.  We rely on SHOUTcast for the feed - my guess is that this is all self-reported by the stations.

It's also possible that the station is producing audio in a format we're not handling properly - I'll check.

Re: Release Notes - Control Panel 2.6.49

OK, it looks like KQED is broadcasting in mono, which we don't handle well at the moment.  I can force it to work - I'll give it a shot in the next beta.

Re: Release Notes - Control Panel 2.6.49

Duane wrote:
bengaldave wrote:

Question about listening to npr...

Is that in shoutcast or ragio free chumby?

What is it listed as?
thanks

National Public Radio (NPR) isn't a station - it's basically syndicated content, played by a number of local stations. In Radio Free Chumby, there's KCRW Santa Monica which plays NPR stuff.  In SHOUTcast, there's WBUR, which seems to lurk around 30 and KQED at around 60.

In the Mediafly section, NPR podcast content shows up in a few places.

I see KQED at 32, I do not see wbur.

Re: Release Notes - Control Panel 2.6.49

I like the controlpanel, but a really pain for me is this AM/PM thing on clocks/alarms. Is it really that comfortable for Americans to enter/see time data in this format?

It would be great if there was an option for a 24-hour-mode.

Re: Release Notes - Control Panel 2.6.49

Hi
I would also like the option so when you set chumby to go into nightmode it doesn't sound an alarm. I tried adjusting the duration of the alarm to 00 but it still beeps. It would also be nice if you could disable  the snooze feature in this case so you can go directly to nightmode without having the alarm off or snooze screen appear.

Keep up the good work and thanks
John

Re: Release Notes - Control Panel 2.6.49

Did you try setting the "Don't show the alarm screen" checkbox?

Re: Release Notes - Control Panel 2.6.49

I didn't realize that's what that option did
Thanks for the quick reply
John

Re: Release Notes - Control Panel 2.6.49

notbeinguseful wrote:

... as for Americans reading 24-hr time, it's not that we can't do it, it's just that we're not used to it. If everything on the Chumby were in 24-hr mode, we'd probably feel exactly how you do about the reverse.

At least as soon as chumbies are sold in Europe there must be a 24-hr mode, because I think you can't sell it here without smile

Till then I will avoid wakeup-times about noon and midnight ... wink

Re: Release Notes - Control Panel 2.6.49

Just a little feedback on the shoutcast revised scrolling -

Scrolling by grabbing the list (like RFC) is pretty easy because the window to scroll with is pretty large and the RFC list of stations is pretty small.  With the old scroller on Shoutcast, it was pretty easy to navigate up and down 50 radio stations. 

But with the new shoutcast scroller, it's pretty painful to get to the bottom of the list.  A couple of ways to fix this;
1 - make the shoutcast list bigger, so you can scroll through more stations at once
2 - put back the scroll thingie you had before (admittedly, it took me a little bit to figure out what it did, though)
3 - add momentum (ala iphone scrolling).  might also do the job

Want to see a cool project? check out my projects on Gadget Gangster

Re: Release Notes - Control Panel 2.6.49

Hey Guys,

I was really excited to see this release -- Honestly I was a bit disappointed with my chumby until this release, finally intelligent alarm clocks.

One Request to make it almost perfect.

Please, Please, Please allow alarms to use RSS feeds.  There are a lot of podcasts that have short format (such as Daily Giz Whiz, Tech 5, etc.) and I'd love to use them as an alarm in the morning.   In reality I'd probably mash up my own custom feed using Yahoo pipes so letting me specify a URL as a feed is critical.

-John

Re: Release Notes - Control Panel 2.6.49

I just got back from vacation and was vry excited to see this release. Good job!

-John Forsythe
www.jforsythe.com

21 (edited by robdam1001 2007-12-14 16:36:38)

Re: Release Notes - Control Panel 2.6.49

I'm so confused; How can I try the Beta Control Panel?

EDIT: NVM, I found it, instructions should say select go to MY CHUMBY, then go to NOW PLAYING

Re: Release Notes - Control Panel 2.6.49

I love this so much! Can't wait to see it officially get released and then have chumbys released to the public. I'm really glad that I get to be one of the people that gets a sneak peak at this thing.

Re: Release Notes - Control Panel 2.6.49

Nice beta.  Love having more music options.  My only complaint is scrolling.  Dragging across the screen is tough.  There should be some page up/down buttons to speed it up.

Re: Release Notes - Control Panel 2.6.49

It seems to make sense that Nightmode have it's own control panel... similar to how PCs have control pannels for their Energy Saver and Screen Saver features. It could be a browser-based (thru chumby.com) control panel to keep the actual Chumby's interface simpler... but it feels very afterthought-ish to have it kind of smuushed into the Alarm's functionality.

The Chumby.com channels and widgets stuff (and really, anything/everything pertaining to controls of my Chumby device), are all kinda awkward-ish in terms of usability and features discoverability- as a whole other subject, which I know has it's own category for postings. Just FYI.

Overall tho- kickass, man!

Re: Release Notes - Control Panel 2.6.49

The Shoutcast screen is in the order of most listener, so getting down to smaller stations is imposssible!

btplay --output=alsa:plug:dmixer http://sc2.spacialnet.com:12902

AsB4,
HM

Keep cool, but care!
AsB4,
Henry Mu
http://www.urdomain.us/kcuf.htm