I came across some posts on a different discussion board about a nice Wireless internet radio clock called Chumby One. I have found out that it has linux inside and is easily hackable to be used as a robot brain. There are already sample bots out there, I have just started to look into it and thought it might be interesting for some of you. I have almost no knowledge of how linux stuff goes and I don't think I can do much with Chumby at the moment, so I will be interested if some of you guys manage to make it your robot's brain. Perhaps using Python? or Processing? Since Chumby has a USB port, connecting it to an Arduino isn't much of a problem, and I suppose by using a usb hub will let you add a webcam as well. Anyways, here are the specs of Chumby and some links of interest:
chumby one specs:
3.5" LCD color touchscreen
Uses rechargeable lithium ion battery (not included); about one hour on a full charge
The board SF has has some advantages and some disadvantages. First, it is easier to hack, but it doesn’t have the display and sound features that Chumby has. Also, it is $10 more expensive than getting it at Cosco. Of course, you need to be member at Cosco, but most of the people I know are. And I don’t know too many people here. If you compare the original price of Chumby with just the board, I believe the board is good priced. Luckily for us, the commercial products loose part of the price over time, so at the moment a Chumby is a better value. I’ll try to get one soon, as it is hard to use some features in a 8 bit microcontroller (mapping, SLAM, vision, etc).
So I bought a Chumby One and hooked it to a simple robot controlled by one of my µBotinos. Chumby uses the built in hardware serial port to talk with the µBotino. So far I am using RobotSee from a USB stick to drive the robot around remotely from my laptop (ssh), but I want to integrate some vision into it. The problem I have is that it is not documented on the RobotSee website how to actually do it (I can see in the videos the guy did it) and he did not responded to my emails. I have almost no experience with Linux systems so I need some guydance here what else I can do, perhaps try out MyRobotLab? I can install it (need some info how to do it) on the SD card directly on Chumby or on a USB stick (but in this case I need to use a USB hub to also hook up the webcam). Thanks guys.
Not sure if you seen the insignia infocast, but they are essentuallly an updated version with a faster proc and can still be moded. I’ve read that people have found them for bargain prices $50(in some cases $40) us at Bestbuy or similar outlets. can’t beat that!!!
At the moment I can’t order a new Chumby, but I asked them if I can order spare parts. I think I need just the mother board, but I also need to test the wireless stick. Everything else it should still work (I mean the LCD, other peripherals…). So we’ll see what they say.
Ross from Chumby Support is mailing me a motherboard so I can fix my Chumby. For free! Yay! Go Chumby!
Oh, and I tested the wireless dongle on my laptop and it works, so it’s just a voltage regulator on the motherboard that got bad. With a new motherboard I should be up and running soon.
