Topic: Success!

So, we've been successful in getting a dash to boot into a Control Panel of our creation, activating it on the chumby.com site, and playing apps from channels in existing accounts.

There's still a lot of work to do - disabling the middleware that relies on the soon-to-be-gone dash service, adding the device as a validly supported one, etc.  However, my guess is that we'll be in very good shape before the official shutdown.

The very, very good news is that we've been able to do this without having to modify the Sony firmware - this will work with a stock device that's running the latest (1.7.1526) Sony firmware release.  Should Sony issue another firmware release before the July deadline (which is highly unlikely under the circumstances) please don't install it if you want to carry the device forward with chumby.

In the worst case, you might have to run the device with a USB dongle inserted at all times - you should be able to find one that's small enough to fit with the panel closed - and we're actively working towards a method of doing a one-time install of some software on the device and not needing the dongle from then on.

In any case, the bottom line is that Blue Octy should be able to provide most chumby services to the dash.

Re: Success!

wow.

Re: Success!

It's still too early to say much about what the Control Panel will be.

Re: Success!

Woohoo! Thanks, Duane.

Re: Success!

Here's a photo of a dash running our CP and a custom theme:

hacked_dash

This theme was originally created to test the entire theme API supported by the dash Control Panel.  Most of the themes that shipped didn't do everything that was possible but this one does.  For somewhat obvious reasons, it never shipped with the product.

The upper section toggles between weather (with 5-day forecast) and the time/calendar, the bottom can be navigated between widgets (with channel picker), photos, videos, and music.

The device was new out-of-the-box, was updated to the latest firmware but has never been activated with Sony's servers.  It's pulling widgets from channels in my personal account.  Activation was done through the same "ovals" method that regular chumby devices use, on chumby.com.

6 (edited by infocastme 2017-04-11 19:36:19)

Re: Success!

Darn you Duane! ( I mean that with love!)

I will now have to get a dash (or 2 or 3 or ...) and add it to my collection. I am sure they will be dumped on Ebay before people know that Duane is supporting them again.

Darn! Darn! Darn!

Re: Success!

Can you pull a rabbit out your hat too?

Owner of 3 Sony Dash, 2 Info 8.

Re: Success!

thank you so much for giving us Sony users a glimmer of hope to say the least.  BRAVO

Re: Success!

Duane wrote:

... In any case, the bottom line is that Blue Octy should be able to provide most chumby services to the dash.

Thank you, Jeebus!

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And here I was doing research on useful things to do with my dash's parts once it became braindead. You're the best!

Re: Success!

I just signed up to these forums just for this. I am excited for this and looking forward to moving over. Any ETA?

Re: Success!

thrasher086 wrote:

I just signed up to these forums just for this. I am excited for this and looking forward to moving over. Any ETA?

Sorry, it's too early to give an ETA.

Re: Success!

Duane wrote:
thrasher086 wrote:

I just signed up to these forums just for this. I am excited for this and looking forward to moving over. Any ETA?

Sorry, it's too early to give an ETA.

No worries.  Keep up the great work.  We patiently await the fruition of your sorcery.

Re: Success!

Awesome! I'm going to keep a watch on this thread. I would love to fix my Sony Dash.

Re: Success!

"No worries.  Keep up the great work.  We patiently await the fruition of your sorcery."....

yeah I only check once an hour  :-)

Re: Success!

Thanks for putting a light at the end of the tunnel. It's good to hear that I'm not going to have an expensive paperweight.

Re: Success!

I just subscribed ... I'm thrilled to find someone working on this! Thank you!

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Certainly would be nice for the Dash not to go in the Trash.  Even though that rhymes.

Anyway, really appreciate your efforts and would be totally willing to pony up $36 bucks to keep her running.

Really disappointed at Sony but in a way surprised it lasted this long....

Re: Success!

Duane, do you intend on releasing the source for whatever mod you have done? I'd love to be able to build my own control panel.

Re: Success!

I will provide source code/technique for the hack that allows running a custom controlpanel.swf after the Sony shutdown date.

To write your own Control Panel, you'll need a version of the Flash IDE that can generate a Flash 9 movie with Actionscript 1 or 2.

The supports all of the "ChumbyNative" calls documented here.

The dash uses FlashLite3, which does not support Actionscript 3.

Unfortunately, the latest CC tools suite from Adobe has removed support for AS1/2 (what was called "Flash" is now called "Animate"), so you'll need to find/run Adobe Flash CS6 or older, or use Open Source tools that can generate compatible SWF files.  for Mac owners, this is a little problematic, since CS6 doesn't run very well on the latest couple versions of MacOS.  I'm doing my development for dash on an iMac running 10.6.

Alternatively, you can choose to not use Flash, and come up with something else - you'd have to build it targeting the dash, though.  My suggestion is if you're planning on that it to locate the Sony site for the dash's GPL source code and download it, and try to find the appropriate GNU tools of the correct generation somewhere.

Re: Success!

Duane,

On the new custom panel, will you be able to hit snooze to bring up the task bar and select night mode to dim the display and just display the clock, as original?

Re: Success!

The goal will to be to preserve as much of the original behavior as practically possible in the given timeframe.

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this sounds positive - I bought 2 of these units new and still have one in an unopened BOX - had it if the 1st ever died. 1!st still working - it's my kitchen clock that shows the weather every day..did the latest update from Sory that tells about end of life and I do have a 1 gig usb plugged into the unit that works.

Re: Success!

Since the partitions are locked down, can a ROM be made to boot from USB?   

Duane wrote:
There was a very old version of Android running on the dash device at one point (before it shipped), but the hardware is not really sufficient to run it very well.  However, that was on a development unit, which allowed unsigned partitions.  The production devices use signed partitions with the security fuse blown, and only Sony has the keys.

Re: Success!

So Incredibly Awesome! Super exciting. Major kudos for being so savvy and also helping the environment- (recycle to avoid the landfills, right?!) I'll be a beta tester for sure. Thank a million for even trying!