Special Project: Coffee Shoppe Chumby

I just don’t know what to make of Chumby: the always ON, Internet appliance critter. Just plug it in and you can see a constant stream of your desired data: news, stocks, sports, e-mail, eBay auctions, you name it, and Chumby will show it to you. In spite of all of these good info streams, there are, unfortunately, three things about Chumby that I’m not particularly fond of: portability, power choice, and looks.

• Portability: I don’t like to have to find Chumby to read my daily news feeds. I want to move around the office/house and take Chumby with me. Even better, I want to take Chumby with me to the local coffee shop.
• Power Choice: The power cord tether severely restricts the placement of Chumby. I don’t want to drape an electric cord, for example, over to my dining table for using Chumby during breakfast. And forget trying to locate an available power outlet at the coffee shop.
• Looks: There’s something about that blobby, mushy amorphous Chumby shape that troubles me. It reminds me of a techie bean bag paperweight.

So let's do something about it. Click below for step-by-step instructions for freeing your Chumby from its AC-power leash and its less-than-civilized enclosure: the Coffee Shoppe Chumby. 

TIME: 18 HOURS
COST: $206.11
DIFFICULTY: DIFFICULT

PARTS
(1) Chumby latte (Chumby #CHLATTE3NXXXX; $179.95)
(1) ¼-inch x 2-foot x 2-foot sanded pine plywood (Lowe’s #7701; $3.00)
(1) 3” leaf pewter handle (Lowe’s #140443; $4.97)
(1) Momentary SPST switch (RadioShack #275-609; $3.39)
(1) 4 oz Titebond II wood glue (Lowe’s #218256; $2.34)
(1) Semi-Gloss spray polyurethane (Lowe’s #45873; $5.97)
(1) Daily newspaper (local purchase; $0.50)
Hookup wire (RadioShack #278-1223; $5.99)

ALSO
Jigsaw
Sandpaper #220
9V battery

STEP-BY-STEP

Step 1. Remove the exterior leather trim from Chumby. There is enough synthetic batting inside this critter to make a quilter green with envy. Gently pull the leather away from the plastic screen bezel and the rear speaker plate.


Step 2. Remove the rear speaker plate from the speakers and Chumby daughter card. The speakers are held in place with some glue and the daughter card is attached to the plate with a couple of screws. There are three printed circuit boards (PCBs) inside Chumby: the main PCB, a daughter card PCB, and a riser card PCB. The daughter card contains the Chumby USB, power, speaker, and switch interfaces. The riser card holds the USB Wi-Fi card.


Step 3. Convert Chumby to battery power. This step might already be done for you! Our Chumby came equipped with a 9V battery snap connector already installed and ready for use. [This feature was included as a Chumby backup power source for use during power outages.] Unlike the stock power-cord Chumby, don't expect to run Chumby from this 9V battery 24/7. Rather, under battery power, you can turn Chumby ON for gathering your news, weather, scores, and blog hits, then turn it OFF for conserving battery life. In order to facilitate this regular ON/OFF power cycle, add a SPST momentary switch (see Step 4) to the outside of your new Chumby. Then press the switch to power ON Chumby, read your info feed and press the switch again to power OFF.

Step 4. Solder two wires to the Chumby main power switch on the daughter card. This is very delicate work with tight pin placement. These wires will be connected to the momentary SPST switch in Step 6.

Step 5. Build an enclosure for holding the Chumby PCBs. I made a five-sided (the bottom was left open for easy battery removal/replacement) plywood box. My overall dimensions were: 5 ½- x 4-inches (front and back), 2- x 4-inches (two side panels), and 5 ½- x 2-inches (top panel). Cut an opening for the touchscreen LCD in the front panel. Sand the opening for a rounded edge. Glue four panels together: front, both sides, and top panels.
Step 6. Mount all PCBs, speakers, and the LCD inside the box. Mount the momentary SPST switch on a side panel. Solder the two switch wires from Step 4 to the momentary SPST switch. Glue the back panel in place. Finish the exterior with newspaper glued over the plywood base. Finish the newspaper with several coats of polyurethane.
Eh Voilà: the finished Coffe Shoppe Chumby.

Notes: In this portable configuration, the 9V battery can be drained even when Chumby is OFF. Remove the battery when not using Chumby. Also, too much pressure on the touchscreen LCD during installation can result in Chumby displaying a “Special Options” screen. This screen can be dismissed in a couple of seconds.

This hack does not prevent your Chumby from hooking back up to AC-power when not out on the town—simply modify your enclosure to accommodate the AC cord if you desire.

And finally, we have created a special Chumby Flash Widget. Use this Widget for reading an RSS feed from the How2.0 Blog. —Dave Prochnow

Comments

[Norman Rasmussen]

From: http://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=214

"""Incidentally, you don’t have to solder wires directly onto the power switch. The same signal is routed to a much easier pair of terminals (pins 9 and 11) on the chumbilical connector! I picked a classic 26-pin 0.1″ square-pin dual row connector for maximal hacker-friendliness."""