Insignia Infocast 8" Touchscreen $99

Thanks Damage.

I'm at a brick wall right now. All I have are 16Gb microSD's. Here are the steps and my predicament (think I'll order smaller 8Gb microsd's). Think the mistake was to originally load tool-chain on the source microsd - for a while copies did work though - now kind of mangled.

1 - DD'd original 2Gb microSD (after I installed toolchain on it)
2 - DD'd it to 16Gb microSD - used GParted to expand partitions 2,3,4 (made partitions 2 and 3 the same).
4 - expanded partition 4 such that it occupied rest of microSD (5-6 Gb).
5 - this completed microSD boots fine but GCC doesn't run on it. (but I can see it there).
6 - re-ran install for GCC - downloads and gets about 3/4 done and then it starts to error out not finding subdirectories.
7 - Read somewhere (related to Chumby 1 - not sure if its the same with Infocast) that partition 4 is actually an extended partition with two subpartitions on it (5 and 6) - I didn't know this earlier.
8 - tried the restoral from USB (holding the touchscreen and prompts) and for whatever reason it starts to read the memory stick and quits after about 20% (tried various memory sticks).
9 - I have another unopened Chumby and I guess I could image that microSD and start from scratch with that one instead of the image that I have been using.

Current image on the 16Gb Infocast though is working except for the problems listed above. I know I'm making more of this than necessary and more complicated than it really is.

Did you use the same size 2Gb microSD or did you go to a differently sized microSD?
 
i haven't touched my SD. i'm just running w/ a usb stick connected. i'm stuck trying to cross compile perl for the chumby so i can add all the packages required by xPL perl. it keeps fataling near the end of compile. i'm actually running ubuntu inside virtualbox on a win7 machine and running scratchbox in ubuntu set up for cross compiling.

on a different note, i pushed out 1.4 of panel builder. it has 2 new features. one is an action for when a button is released & the 2nd is status updates tied in with the OSD feature. see the sample osd/status php file and sample xml files for details http://goo.gl/4JK78
 
It would be nice to make the Infocast somewhat self sufficient (XPL wise).

I've also noticed threads on the Chumby site also related to having the Chumby not connect to the internet and continue running control panel / widgets.

I ordered little mini network USB dongle for all of my Chumby's and smaller microSD's (4Gb)

The connection to each is good but I do notice that each of them for whatever reason drop / reconnect to the network at odd times with no rhyme or reason.

I had a few various MFG USB to Cat5 dongles and they all worked just fine.

Sync'd your newest update and will download examples. Thanks Damage.
 
i've only had one unit unboxed for my testing, but i've found the usb ethernet connection drops out after a day or so. the wifi connection has never dropped out on me. been up for 5 days since i last booted it.

took the family on a short road trip to monterey for lunch (& the wife for shopping) while i raided the only "nearby" bb with infocasts in stock. grabbed 2 more 8s and a 3.5. the wife has called dibs on the 3.5 already.

didn't have much luck getting the full xPL perl running as i'm having problems getting the DB_File perl package compiled & installed so i gave up. i got everything else but this working through cross compiling. tried CPAN, but its a memory hog and always crashes out trying to install packages due to the limited memory on the infocast. i decided to go the python route using the precompiled python here http://goo.gl/zWmCW and took my python xPL logger & put it on the infocast. it ran without a hitch - no need to install piles of packages like with perl.

i've modified the logger to be able to receive and respond to xPL messages directed at the chumby. so now i have a way to control screen brightness. the path is panel builder -> php -> xpl sender sends message to chumby -> python script on chumby -> shell command to dim screen ( referencing this post http://www.cocoontech.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=17953&view=findpost&p=150594 )

a little round-a-bout but there's no other way to get the screen to dim on command since flash can't call local executables. small video also showing random status updates http://goo.gl/EL22h
 
Don't hesitate to drop into a Best Buy even if their web site indicates they have no Infocasts in stock. The one I visited had two "open box specials" for $49.99. The one I took home showed no evidence it had been opened.
 
i found that as well. i've been to the 4 local bb's in the last couple weeks and no dice. but i've been calling the stores within an ever increasing radius and finally found one yesterday that had some in stock eventhough the website said not available. the person i spoke to even pulled them from the shelves and held them for me.
 
I made an image today from a new unopened Infocast and starting from scratch.

I must have been syncing your updated panel link while you were updating it earlier today; couldn't sync it for a bit...or I had some network issues...
 
damage -

how are you able to edit the file that sets the brightness on the infocast? I opened it up with vi and set it it to a different value and tried every vi command I could find to save it, but it would never save. I thought maybe it was a permissions thing but I chmod'd it to 777 and it still wouldn't save. That is how you are changing th brightness, right? If so, are you able to save changes?
 
i'm using a shell call:
echo VALUE > /sys/devices/platform/silvermoon-bl/backlight/silvermoon-bl/brightness

where VALUE is between 0 - 100
 
My 6Gb microSD card didn't do any better. (no boot) It was an older card sitting around. I tried both an image copy (unexpanded) and an expanded copy. For whatever reason I couldn't get it to boot last night (this morning 3:30AM). Still waiting on the 4Gb cards I ordered. I'm going try a low level format of the 6Gb card and see if that helps anything.
 
pete_c said:
Does anyone know what the "night mode" clock mode command is? It would be great to make it a cron job....
Click to expand...

when i clean up my python script, i'll post it and you'll be able to set the dim levels by sending an xPL message whenever you want
 
Thanks Damage!

I did get Python running up until I took out the microsd to modify it a bit.

Then I played with GParted / hosed it.

I have no idea what I did to my test microsd; doing a byte format on it right now (takes forever). The 6Gb reads/writes were much faster than the 16Gb RW's.
 
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