Chumby One gets the iFixit treatment, greets world with a cute hidden message
By Richard Lai 
posted December 18th 2009 3:46AM
posted December 18th 2009 3:46AM
We've already played with the Chumby One and fell for it, so it did hurt a bit when our friends at iFixit decided to rip this cute device apart. Actually, it wasn't as heartbreaking as we thought, especially when the hackers spotted a cute message below the Kingston 2GB microSD card -- containing the firmware -- on the logic board, courtesy of Andrew "bunnie" Huang, VP Hardware Engineering and Founder of Chumby Industries. Other notable discoveries include a Freescale i.MX233 processor, Hynix 64MB DDR RAM and a removable "Ralink-based RT2571 USB Wi-Fi dongle" (note: extra USB port!). Feel free to check out the guts after the break -- just promise you won't cry or faint.
bunnie
@Colorblue
That's MISTER bunnie to you.
Haha cute.
bunnie, the man who broke the original Xbox's hardware security using his access to powerful equipment at MIT. One of my personal hero's.
A new device release, and they _STILL_ haven't managed to get it certified for Canada yet. Will it catch fire and burn down our houses? Will it interfere with national defence radio frequencies? Will it cause Hockey Night in Canada to have another new theme song contest?
Nobody knows for certain. All we know is that despite wanting one, we can't order one directly... Which makes me sad, and comes off as pretty lame...
There's actually a couple of extra unpopulated USB signals inside the One, brought out to the "Chumbilical" connector on the board (which also can bring out Composite video and a variety of other connections, if you want it to). If someone wanted to stuff more USB devices inside, you could wire up a female jack to one or two pairs of pins, or just populate the entire header and bring the ports out to a breakout board.
It should also be noted that the bottom of the board has an unpopulated female USB-A connector (super simple SMD soldering job to populate it with the right part), though this is the same (electrically speaking) port as the one that the daughter-card with the WiFi dongle uses, so both can't be used at once. If you do decide to populate it, though, the default wireless card fits flat parallel to the board -- awesome if you wanted to, say, re-case the device.
Looking and hacking with the insides of this device really point out the beauty of it's design, and underscore how much bunnie truly designed it "with love" for the hacking community.
I might have to get one of these in the coming year.
I was tempted by the coolness and hackability of the original Chumby but was put off by the price.
@stridermt2k Same here! I almost got a last-gen Chumby despite its high price. But this new one for $99 is an absolute steal for all it can do and its hackability. This thing deserves more attention, heck the Engadget review wasn't even featured.
@ndrwme You mean the "Featured" swipe is missing? We only use it if the piece doesn't fit into other feature categories.
I just got an email confirmation saying my Chumby has shipped. Gonna be feeling the Chumby love by Monday! At a hundred bucks, it's kind of impossible to resist such a fun gadget. It fit perfectly in with my Christmas plans too: Something that is wanted, but not needed.
@tehYama
Just checked and the Chumby is up to $119.99 now..
Must've jacked up prices for the holiday seasons - maybe I'll get one after the whole holiday thing dies down.
@tastypotato It retails for $120 -- $100 was only an introductory/pre-order price. This was stated on their website during the pre-order, and I doubt it'll be going down for a while.
Got my chumby as soon as it shipped. And I love it. Its the best alarm clock ever!
I even brought Chumby to work with me today! Everybody loves him; I think he might get a higher bonus this year than I do...
The "with love, -bunnie" reminds me of the "Hello from Seattle" on the back of my Zune.
I love my Chumby....
Ya, the $99 price was for Preorders for the Chumby One, and then going up to the normal price after, which was posted, even mentioned here which is why I Preordered one myself and have had mine for a few weeks now. It's a cool little device. I'd like one with a 5" screen and larger Stereo Speakers in it. I'd pay more for that.