1 Topic by chumbychumbchumb (edited by chumbychumbchumb 2013-05-17 20:01:27)

  • Registered: 2013-05-17
  • Posts: 1

Topic: Issues using never before used Infocast? Can't connect to chumby.com?

So I bought several Insigna infocasts (the 3.5 screen, small ones) when they were on sale at best buy and stored them in a closet, hoping to do a project some day. Recently, a friend came to me and said they needed an internet radio solution. I gave them an Infocast to try out, but was concerned since it was never opened, never powered on, never registered, etc.

The friend took the Infocast back home and said that she went through the steps to connect to her wireless network, but it's giving her some sort of message about not being able to connect to Chumby.com. Sorry that I don't have more information than that, I would have to have her write down the exact information.

She's not great with computers so it could just be user error, but I have a sinking feeling the old, old firmware on the device is trying to connect to some dead service. If this is the case, is there anything that can be done, or do I just have a useless device? Is there a newer firmware I can force load from a USB stick or something?

  • From: A not too distant future
  • Registered: 2013-03-03
  • Posts: 478

Re: Issues using never before used Infocast? Can't connect to chumby.com?

The instructions on updating firmware and the download links are on this page: http://forum.chumby.com/viewtopic.php?id=8654

  • From: Oceanside, CA
  • Registered: 2008-04-17
  • Posts: 650

Re: Issues using never before used Infocast? Can't connect to chumby.com?

chumbychumbchumb wrote:

So I bought several Insigna infocasts (the 3.5 screen, small ones) when they were on sale at best buy and stored them in a closet, hoping to do a project some day. Recently, a friend came to me and said they needed an internet radio solution. I gave them an Infocast to try out, but was concerned since it was never opened, never powered on, never registered, etc.

The friend took the Infocast back home and said that she went through the steps to connect to her wireless network, but it's giving her some sort of message about not being able to connect to Chumby.com. Sorry that I don't have more information than that, I would have to have her write down the exact information.

She's not great with computers so it could just be user error, but I have a sinking feeling the old, old firmware on the device is trying to connect to some dead service. If this is the case, is there anything that can be done, or do I just have a useless device? Is there a newer firmware I can force load from a USB stick or something?

See this thread for firmware help:
http://forum.chumby.com/viewtopic.php?id=8654

The old firmware might be having trouble connecting to the new stub servers.  The original Chumby is now defunt and the assets were acquired by Duane under the new name "Blue Octy" where a stub server is hosting a small subset of things.  Luckily for your friend, Internet Radio services are one of the things still working.

Linux Guy - Occasional Chumby Hacker

Materdaddy's Website

  • Registered: 2012-02-07
  • Posts: 535

Re: Issues using never before used Infocast? Can't connect to chumby.com?

As the others said, you can update the firmware offline (using a USB drive - 2GB should be sufficient IIRC), which should resolve these issues... then the internet streaming should work just peachy. If you run into any problems updating, feel free to come back here and post! Duane or any of our regulars around here should be able to talk you through it.

I must say, while I've been a part of many communities, the Chumby community is one of the precious few that I can truly claim to be proud -- really honestly proud, not just happy -- to be a part of. With very, very few exceptions the community members here are fantastically helpful and friendly smile

  • From: A not too distant future
  • Registered: 2013-03-03
  • Posts: 478

Re: Issues using never before used Infocast? Can't connect to chumby.com?

chumbychumbchumb- I quite like the Chumby. As is presumably obvious by my registration date, I've picked up my Infocast 3.5 (Nicknamed "Stubbs" because the current solution's called the stub server) after the old server went down, and I've never looked back. The clock's functional if a little geeky and it's one of the best clocks you can get on a small device.
Here are some links I recommend for you or your friend to look at.

1. Here's the SWF file for the current clock. It's the same as the one that will be on your Infocast 3.5.
http://chumbyfiles.s3-website-us-west-2 … 2.8.85.swf
2. Here's a forum post by Duane (the person currently running the servers) that should explain what happened, if the homepage didn't provide enough information.
http://forum.chumby.com/viewtopic.php?id=8457
3. Here's a topic entitled "What I've been doing lately. It shows what Duane's been doing with the service since that last message, and is sometimes updated with updates on the current progress.
4. Last, but certainly not least, if you haven't installed the firmware update yet, here's a custom one I made with the Chumby opening (the one in the video called "Save Chumby" on the main page) instead of the Insignia "Please Wait" screen. I  run it on my Infocast, and it's no different from the actual firmware apart from the opening. I just went into the file with 7-Zip and renamed opening.swf to opening-insignia.swf and vice versa. Just install it the same way you'd install the real one, and remember that it'll erase all the files you currently have (eg: custom My Streams radio streams and your Pandora login). You will still be connecting to Duane's server.
https://mega.co.nz/#!RkhU1ABK!Y2QhEmh9O … BuykyEXbfw

Doktor Jones: I also love this community. While I may post a little too much, I try to make my posts as informative as possible. There's only one guy who wasn't helpful, and he got banned after a while. There's spam also, but that usually gets deleted in a few hours, thanks to you.