• Registered: 2006-08-28
  • Posts: 18

Topic: Sun/Moon clock freeze-ups

Hi,
  I'm using the beta control panel (...54, I think) and a couple times now the Sun/Moon Clock has gotten "stuck", showing a time that is literally hours out of date.  The Chumby hadn't frozen or crashed (I was able to revive it by poking on the control panel a few times).  But showing time that's hours off is Really Bad.  There's little excuse for an Internet connected clock to be that far off, even if the connection goes down.

Is this a bug that's due to the particular clock widget, or is it a deeper issue?  I'd like to know if I should just switch to a different clock widget, or roll back to the release (non-beta) software.  This Chumby's WiFi connection isn't great (up to 20% packet loss), but that still shouldn't freeze the clock...

  • Registered: 2008-01-24
  • Posts: 15

Re: Sun/Moon clock freeze-ups

Is it the only widget in the channel or pinned to the channel? I've seen the same and I suspect that the chumby is trying to load the next widget when it encounters an error or loses wifi. What you're seeing is really the old screen of the clock that hasn't been replaced yet. Atleast that's my theory.

  • Duane
  • Duane
  • Blue Octy
  • Offline
  • From: San Diego, CA
  • Registered: 2006-08-24
  • Posts: 8,209

Re: Sun/Moon clock freeze-ups

taraba is correct - apparently what you're seeing is the last image of a widget that's no longer running, and your chumby seems to be locked up trying to load the next widget.

To confirm this, try using the "stay" button on that widget and see if it still happens.

Duane's Website

  • Registered: 2006-08-28
  • Posts: 18

Re: Sun/Moon clock freeze-ups

Duane wrote:

...apparently what you're seeing is the last image of a widget that's no longer running, and your chumby seems to be locked up trying to load the next widget.

This indeed is probably what happened. After posting the message I noticed in our home server's logs that the DSL line had been down for a while earlier in the day.

That said, the appearance of a clock screen telling the wrong time (by hours) is a serious issue.  On my wife's nightstand, telling the correct time is mission critical.  Even a "failed to load" screen would be an improvement over outright misinformation.  Could a network hang prevent the alarm from going off?  That would also be Really Bad.

Is this sort of lock-up a beta issue, a bug in a particular widget, or a basic design issue?  I've already downgraded back to the release control panel in hopes of preventing it from happening again.  It's not unusual for our DSL line to go down from time to time (we're on the hairy edge of the permissible distance to the telco's switching office) so the clock function of Chumby needs to be robust in the case of network outages.  We were also running a few news widgets (NYT, /., Huff Post & Goog news) along with the clock.

Any suggestions for preventing bogus clock screens from ever appearing again would help prevent Chumby's rapid egress out the bedroom window (a consequence of timekeeping failures that might not be covered by the warranty...)

  • Duane
  • Duane
  • Blue Octy
  • Offline
  • From: San Diego, CA
  • Registered: 2006-08-24
  • Posts: 8,209

Re: Sun/Moon clock freeze-ups

Well, it's hard to know in advance that a fetch is going to fail.  In the prototype chumbys, there was a black screen in between widgets that would be there instead of the remnants of the previous widget - however, that was interpreted and being a different problem ("OMG my screen is broken! It's all black!!").

Going back to the release CP isn't going to change the behavior you're seeing, since the widget management is quite similar between the betas and the release versions, at least in that regard.  However, the client guys have added some support in the Flash Player that makes it easier to detect the failure to load widgets from the CP, and, more important, network failures - the next Beta uses that to some degree, but not yet to the extent that you're talking about.  Ideally, when the chumby figures out the network is toast, it should more gracefully switch to the built-in clock widget until the network is (hopefully) restored.

I'll file of bug for myself to address this issue a bit better.

Duane's Website

  • Registered: 2006-08-28
  • Posts: 18

Re: Sun/Moon clock freeze-ups

Ideally, when the chumby figures out the network is toast, it should more gracefully switch to the built-in clock widget until the network is (hopefully) restored.

That would be great - perhaps even with a little bit of "Unable to reach network" text so you know why.  When access to the Cumby.com servers go down, does the Chumby keep trying until they come back (yes, I hope) or does it give up at some point?  It's not unusual for our DSL line to go down for a period of couple of minutes to a couple of hours when it's having a bad day.  I'm hoping such episodes don't derail the Chumby.

I'll file of bug for myself to address this issue a bit better.

Looking forward to it, thanks.