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  0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 
It's a good product November 8, 2010
Reviewer: Dimitri from Geneva, Geneva Switzerland  
Chumby up and running! I'm working on the case, received a missing part at no cost from the makershed. Product is a bit outdated if you compare it to an ipod touch but it works and is a good start for prototyping embedded electronics.

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  1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
 
Chumby Guts October 4, 2010
Reviewer: Hugh O'Hare from Mount Penn, PA United States  
I am in the process of building a cabinet for the Chumby.  So far it has been a great project. But I needed a longer mother daughter cable.  I found three at Mouser with the part numbers 1M-1010-26-3365-006.  These cable are not keyed so installation requires some care.

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  2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
 
Great fun December 30, 2009
Reviewer: Dan from Maynard, MA United States  
The kit was exactly as advertised.  I had a problem with one of the components, but thanks to some spectacular support from both Chumby Support and Maker Shed I'm up and running!

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  2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
 
Fun Project December 21, 2009
Reviewer: William L from Toronto, ON Canada  
Watched the Video before attempting assembly.
Connected the small four pin wire to the riser card before the motherboard (much less fighting for finger space)  Also note that the wire soldering must be on COM (the metal connector on the side by itself) and NO connector on the bottom.  Leave the last connector empty.
Like other I now must come up with a creative but workable enclosure.

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  6 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
 
I've changed my mind! (And apologize for my rant) December 14, 2009
Reviewer: Patrick Wiseman from Atlanta, GA United States  
I wrote: "Shame on you.  Chumby 'guts' for $139 when Chumby One (with the same guts) was about to be released for $100?  There's no way you didn't know that was coming."

I ordered the guts anyway, and have had fun assembling.  On first try, apparently I screwed the panel in too tightly because it was in 'pressed' mode.  I relaxed the screws and it worked fine.  Then I took the chumbilical apart and replaced the 3" cable with 18".  (I was frankly amazed when that worked on first try, but it did.)  I'm in the process of designing the housing - something suitable for our kitchen.  The only glitch, probably because I'm an infrequent solderer, was the top switch, but a quick touch of the terminals with a small screwdriver gets me the control panel!  (And I'll fix the switch.)

I apologize for my earlier rant.  This has proved to be a fun project, and, because Chumby is a Linux device, I can hack it too.  (See http://wiki.chumby.com/mediawiki/index.php/Chumby_tricks)

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  3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
 
A couple little things, and one bigger thing... November 20, 2009
Reviewer: Liam McNerney from Sioux Falls, SD United States  
I used the video as a guide - Thank you Becky! - and assembly was straightforward, taking maybe twenty minutes.  It booted when plugged in, and I was able to get it working on my (WPA2 encrypted) network with NO ISSUES.

One hardware fail: the bend sensor switch (which accesses the control panel) doesn't work.  It's a standard switch, easily replaced, so not a big problem.

Snags I hit assembling:
*  Plugging the screen connector into the motherboard.  The black part of the connector is a latch; gently lift it up, place the connector, then lock the latch back in place.
* The three screws connecting the circuit boards to the face frame were VERY hard to put in - I had to leave them all loose.  After running a couple hours I was able to screw them down tight.  Not sure why; maybe the heat from running it softened the plastic face frame just enough to accept the screws.

Aside from those issues this was a very enjoyable project.  Now I just need an enclosure...

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  8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
 
Chumby Guts exactly as promised November 16, 2009
Reviewer: ROSS HERSHBERGER from HUNTINGTON WOODS, MI United States  
It took me a half hour to assemble this and a short time to set up an account and configure it.  Everything worked perfectly the first time.  The device operates without a case if desired.  I'm completely satisfied.  Chumby is an amazing product!

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  5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
 
Chumby viscera received, user mostly happy November 16, 2009
Reviewer: Douglas Henke from Houston, TX United States  
Good: Complete, worked on the first try, easy assembly. The only soldering is two super-easy connections for wires to the bend switch.

Less good: The instructions were a single badly photocopied page, missing the leftmost half-inch of text from the second half of the directions.

The bend switch shown as SPST NO in the directions was actually SPDT as delivered. Hook up the wires to the COM and NO pins. The wire for the COM pin on the switch had to be extended to reach. Two screws needed to secure the switch bracket to the speaker assembly were not included.

My biggest problem was a lack of wireless network reception. I had to put the Chumby right next to my AP to get anywhere. After I downloaded the firmware update, the problem seemed to go away. Maybe just a software issue.

Great fun and nifty concept. Questionable value given that the new Chumby, assembled, is going to be available RSN for something close to the same price. Overall, I'm a very happy mutant indeed.

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  6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
 
chumby guts - double plus cool November 16, 2009
Reviewer: bobby from oakland, CA United States  
grab your soldering iron and screw drivers and your box of guts and 30 minutes later you've got a cool li'l network widget.

skip ahead in the instructions and start with soldering the wires to the switch that way your iron will be cool by the time your done.

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  7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
 
Great Device, ships with broken firmware November 16, 2009
Reviewer: m Hoying from Hawthorne, NJ United States  
I've had a chumby for a year or two now and decided to get one for my girlfriend.  Wait, you are saying i can build my own and i save another 70$?  Sold.  
Aside from some slightly unclear directions, it went together easily and in under half an hour (note, you need to solder two leads.. other than that, just a small philips head).
After the chumby tour, it got in a cycle of rebooting (right after loading the control panel.  Apparently this is common with the Ironforge Core (this kit).  You just have to go to chumby.com (http://www.chumby.com/pages/latest_software for the firmware and instructions) and download the new firmware and load it via USB.  A few minutes of flashing the firmware later, it worked perfectly.  Just be aware this may happen and don't freak out.  It's an easy fix (especially if you consider the average person who is buying the chumby kit when you could just buy one preassembled).

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