jasoncoon ,
@jasoncoon@leds.social avatar

This kind of bullshit should be illegal. Spotify is effectively remotely bricking every single "Car Thing" device it ever sold, telling users to factory reset and "recycle" them. The devices were initially made publicly available only two years ago in Feb 2022, then discontinued production in July 2022.
https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/23/24163383/spotify-car-thing-discontinued-december-2024

jasoncoon OP ,
@jasoncoon@leds.social avatar

Thanks to @timonsku, I'm now backing up my Spotify Car Thing and preparing to flash this "Debian Chromium Kiosk" firmware to it, to convert it to a "Wall Thing". I'm thinking it might make a nice touch control panel for @octoprint or ?
https://mastodon.social/@timonsku/112502959970399691

jasoncoon OP ,
@jasoncoon@leds.social avatar

Wow this backup is taking forever. I tried using a USB-C cable directly connected to my MacBook, but I could not get it to boot into burn mode. I finally used a USB-C to USB-A cable connected to my MacBook through a USB-A to USB-C adapter. 🙄 So I assume I'm only getting USB2 speeds. Backup says it's transferring at ~266KB/s.

jasoncoon OP ,
@jasoncoon@leds.social avatar

The Spotify Car Thing firmware backup finally finished after 3 hours 51 minutes! I'm honestly not sure why I bothered, it'll be useless soon anyway.

jasoncoon OP ,
@jasoncoon@leds.social avatar

Started flashing this Debian Chromium Kiosk to my Spotify Car Thing this morning. So far it's writing much faster (~1.58MB/s) than it was reading while backing up the stock firmware last night (~266KB/s), but it's still going to take a while.
https://github.com/bishopdynamics/superbird-debian-kiosk

jasoncoon OP ,
@jasoncoon@leds.social avatar

Flashing the firmware only took ~38 minutes. Now to set up a host. Going to try a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W first.

The same device showing a screen with a white background, the "missing site" frowny-face page icon, and the text: "This site can't be reached https://192.168.1.144:8123/lovelace/ is unreachable. ERR_ADDRESS_UNREACHABLE" and a blue Reload button in the lower-right corner.

Photo of the (formerly known as) Spotify Car Thing. It's a small, thin black, phone-looking device that is mostly screen, a fairly thin bezel, small button in the lower-left corner, and a large knob partially hanging off the bottom right corner. The screen is displaying a boot logo of a blue toy triceratops and the text: "debian 13 TRIXIE Testing"
ALT
  • Reply
    • jasoncoon OP ,
    @jasoncoon@leds.social avatar

    Progress

    jasoncoon OP ,
    @jasoncoon@leds.social avatar

    While working on getting the Raspberry Pi Zero 2W configured as a host to repurposed Spotify CarThing, I've been 3D printing this desktop stand. It uses the magnetic mount, works great.
    https://thangs.com/designer/jusplainmike/3d-model/Spotify%20CarPi%20Zero%202%20W-988557

    Another photo from the rear iso angle, showing the magnetic swivel mount and the Raspberry Pi Zero 2W.
    Same, but from the rear view, straight on.
    Closeup photo of the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W inside the case. The main CPU chip is visible through a cut out.

    claudius ,
    @claudius@darmstadt.social avatar

    @jasoncoon Thanks for sharing, this was just what I needed :-)

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