Insignia Infocast 8" Touchscreen $99

[tmbrown97]

Shot in the dark - but you've already covered having DNS - so hopefully you've tried manually entering a local DNS server, or one that's generally reachable? The other think I've seen with Linksys routers is problems with SPI (Stateful Packet Inspection) in the firewall.

Beyond that, well, I'd probably trash the Linksys and go with anything but - but that's because of how many problems I've had with them, so I'm still a tad bitter... Of course, if it's working otherwise, that wouldn't make sense for you...

 

[apostolakisl]

So, I gave up on changing settings to get this thing to work and just keep booting it over and over until it works and then try not to turn it off. I tried every conceivable set of ip addresses and dns to no avail. Once it boots, it does work normally.

Question. I can't seem to get the alarm clock to turn on the streaming music. I had read that you could do this, but can't seem to find out how it is done. The alarm clock page will start an app, but it won't start a shoutcast channel.

 

[roussell]

For those diving into hacking these awesome little devices - here are a few things I've discovered after poking around the schematics and directory structure today:

ssh into the device (enable press the Insignia logo on the LCD, then press the "pi" symbol in the corner of the pop-up, then press the sshd button to enable ssh. Login as root with no password.)

To read the state of the top button on the device, read the file: (Where 0=pressed 1=not pressed)

/sys/devices/virtual/gpio/gpio89/value

To adjust the brightness level of the LCD place a 0 to 100 value in this file:

/sys/devices/platform/silvermoon-bl/backlight/silvermoon-bl/brightness

To read the actual brightness of the LCD at any moment, read this file:

/sys/devices/platform/silvermoon-bl/backlight/silvermoon-bl/actual_brightness

To set the maximum brightness of the LCD write a 0 - 100 value in this file:

/sys/devices/platform/silvermoon-bl/backlight/silvermoon-bl/max_brightness

To turn the LCD back light on and off write a 1 or 0 here: (Where 1=backlight OFF 0=backlight ON)

/sys/devices/platform/silvermoon-bl/backlight/silvermoon-bl/bl-power

Terry

 

[Desert_AIP]

Western Mountain updated their Chumby UPB app for use with their RUC UPB IP interface.
The app is available for the Insignia.

Links are in my post at the end of this thread.

Chumby UPB App

 

[damage]

did a little work on the infocast the last couple days. i used the Chumby2MPD sample on this page and the flashdevelop package to create a simple flash app that accesses php scripts on my webserver to issue xPL commands. i just need to make some nice buttons/guis & i'll be able to deploy these things around the house.

 

[damage]

i've been slowly learning flash and how to make it all work together and finally have something to show.
i've uploaded a video to youtube showing my progress on a sagetv control panel running natively on the infocast. the path is infocast -> php script on my HA webserver -> xPL sender -> sagetv. it's very responsive.

 

[apostolakisl]

That is great! I would really love to get my chumby running my ISY and thus Insteon. I am not familiar with xpl. At first glance it seems like the easiest way to do it would be to use x10 as an intermediary. Any comments from your experience?

 

[damage]

thanks! within the chumby environment, there's not a whole lot you can do for direct control of things. you need to go through intermediaries, like a webserver in my case - and from there you can execute anything. xpl is a lightweight network protocol used to provide a simple interface to disparate apps & devices.

based on what i've done, you would set up a webserver running php (like apache). then write php scripts to execute commands to control whatever software interfaces to your isy. then build your gui to have button clicks fetch the URL of php scripts when clicked. you can also have the scripts return status that can be updated on the screen.

 

[damage]

i've also read about a method where you can have a script running on your chumby (started from a usb flash disk when the chumby is booted). the chumby app would communicate with the script and the script could then communicate with whatever device/app you want to control.

 

[damage]

i've created a public chumby app called Panel Builder. it was a by product of some things i was working on. it's a bit rough and loading/parsing the xml file is a tad slow at startup (slowness of the infocast cpu?), but it works. it builds a control panel from an xml file you create and serve from your local web server. the xml file specifies the panel layout, how the buttons look, where they're placed and what actions they perform. the actions are specified as URLs to a PHP script on your server which executes the command you specify. there are options to create rectangle, circle, ellipse and triangle buttons. you can also create labels and status icons. the app should eventually be available at the chumby website (i guess it has to be approved?)

the attached screenshot shows the screen built by the sample XML file http://goo.gl/ZOZer

 

[hobbes487]

That is fantastic! Can't wait for it to be approved so I can test it out

 

[damage]

it's supposed to approved within 24 hours so it should be available sometime late tonight. youtube video of the demo screen http://goo.gl/cM5Ex

 

[apostolakisl]

Thanks a ton damage! I started to mess with this thing but realized I have too much going on to add another project. Hopefully your tool will make things simple enough that I can actually tackle it. I would like to get it integrated with my ISY/Insteon stuff and or Elk m1G.

 

[damage]

panel builder is available now on the chumby site http://goo.gl/mxrno

 

[DaveW42]

Thanks, Damage! I will have to check this out ...

Dave