Please read this post carefully and in its entirety before doing anything

We're happy to announce the release of the initial version of the Chumby software for the Sony dash HID-C10. This is work in progress, so expect a few rough edges, but in general, this software should restore a significant amount of the functionality you are familiar with when using your dash in the past.

This software is only for the Sony dash HID-C10 model, we do not currently have a similar patch for the HIDB7 or HID-B70 devices.

This is not a firmware update - you do not use "Special Options" to install it like a firmware update.

This is not official software, and we do not warrant it in any way - use it entirely at your own risk.

What you'll need:

a Sony HID-C10 running firmware version 1.7.1526. There are instructions elsewhere on the forum to install that version if it's not already installed. If your device has 1.7.1604 installed, we recommend that you reinstall 1.7.1526, and if your device is unable to be rolled back due to the touchscreen being unresponsive, please see this thread a USB dongle of at least 256K in capacity, formatted as FAT or FAT32

Installing:

download the file "chumby-HIDC10-1.0.0.zip from here. and copy it to the USB dongle. The size of the file should be 1431349 bytes, with an MD5 of 4fd7b88a993125a0c3d82aca8fe5673c. unzip the file, and make sure all of the contents are on the top level of the dongle. Some unzip utilities may put the files in a folder or directory - if so, you'll have to move them. There are some directories in the zip file - make sure they are at the top level of the dongle, but do not move the contents of those directories. be sure to eject your dongle correctly from your computer - simply unplugging it without ejecting or dismounting could corrupt the files. make sure your device is off, and plug in the dongle. power up the device normally, without touching the top button You will see the Sony logo appear on the screen, and the blue dots as before. Once the last dot has gone by, you should get a "Welcome to chumby!" screen.. press "Install chumby". the device should install the software and transition to a black screen with white "chumby eyes" then continue to boot into the Control Panel.

What if it doesn't work?

If you do not see the "Welcome to chumby!" it means that something has prevented the device from reading the files on the dongle. Given our experience with the "Unbrick" fix, the most common problems are:



not following the instructions exactly

using a dongle that the device does not recognize - please try another, and/or check the formatting

not realizing that Windows will typically hide file extensions

not having the files at the top level of the USB dongle.

Yay! It worked! Now what?

Your device should prompt to be activated to the chumby servers. If you don't have a chumby user account, you'll need to create one. Once you have an account, log in, hit the "Activate a chumby" button on the right side of the web page and follow the instructions. We recommend Safari or Google Chrome for activation, and make sure that Javascript is enabled. You should also grant chumby.com permission to run Adobe Flash Player Plugin for best use of the site, since the chumby is a Flash-based device. Some users have reported that some ad blockers might interfere with the activation process, so you might need to disable them temporarily or whitelist the chumby.com domain.

Note that chumby.com requires a monthly subscription to run apps/widgets on your device - to subscribe, hit the "Subscription" button on the front page of the website. You subscription goes toward paying for the backend service and the costs of the development to bring you this software. We appreciate your support.

You are not required to obtain a subscription to use the built-in clock functionality, alarms, and music. We are not currently charging for weather functionality, but that may change if our costs change.

Do I have to keep the dongle in?

Once you've installed the software from the dongle, you may remove it, and the installed software will continue to work after a reboot.

However, if you do a "Restore Factory Settings" in Special Options mode, the chumby software will be erased and you'll need to reinstall it.

Therefore, we strongly recommend that you keep your working dongle in a safe place. You'll may also need it to install further updates, especially during these early days.

If you plan to resell your device, we recommend that you boot with the dongle to "Uninstall chumby" before it leaves your control.

What about themes?

This release has three themes available, more will be added over time. Themes generally do not require an update to the Control Panel, so they may show up at any time.

How about the future?

This is an initial software release. It will have bugs. It will be updated. We recommend that you monitor this forum to keep up with any updates we will certainly be releasing. At some point, a lot of this will be possible "over the air" but for now we'll be doing USB updates.

If you do not keep up, there's a strong chance that things may break, since many parts of the system work together. Backward compatibility at the expense of fixing bugs and adding new features is not our top priority.

We are aware of some incompatibilities with some of the widgets in the chumby catalog. Over time, we will attempt to update them to be more compatible with the dash.