Slice FiveNinjas original forum dead?

  • Is it just me or has the original Slice forum died?

    It has been in a read only mode for a few days and today "does not exist"!

    Am I to assume that the original concept has slipped its mortal coils...

    Mod edit: if you have to ask if the Slice forum is dead, don't claim it to be in your topic title

    Edited once, last by Klojum (June 7, 2017 at 8:26 AM).

    • Official Post

    I've confirmed via private channels that Gordon is aware that it's dead. I've not received any explanation or confirmation/denial that it will spring back into existence. At least for now I get my wish that people would post here for issues with the LE images ~ I get bored of checking in multiple places.

  • Seems to be back up!

    I thought we had lost a great source of all things Slice (including the historical development stuff).

    Thanks to everyone/anyone involved in its resurrection!!

    • Official Post

    Pimoroni have shipped a replacement Slice PCB and PSU to my parents who will pass it on when we meet-up in Spain in a couple of weeks. As long as the CM3 card still works I should be back in the Slice business for a public beta of 8.2 in July and release in August.

    Meanwhile lrusak is in the process of re-packaging the Slice drivers/firmware into packages we can embed into the Slice image(s). This allows us to drop a bunch of Linux patches and the build-system difference between RPi and Slice is reduced to two words in a config file. This makes it basically impossible for me to miss patches again - future breakage in a release will require deliberate sabotage. He is also creating a python add-on that hooks into Kodi to drive the LED ring. This allows us to drop the Slice Kodi patches and in the long-term we can make the LED patterns for Kodi actions user-configurable.

  • Fantastic news!

    The user-configurable LED patterns formed part of the original Kickstarter campaign and never did appear.

    Another potential feature often talked about was an "ambilight" type reactive lighting system.

    Would the LibreELEC Slice build assist in this endeavour?

    (Is this probably a separate topic?)

    Thanks again for all your hard work chewitt and team!!

  • Hyperion is in our add-on repo (and Hypercon to match is on the wiki) and should work fine as-is today with most of the frame-grabber based Ambilight kits. Normal "pi" kits that use the GPIO pins won't be compatible as those interfaces aren't on the rear of a Slice box. In theory it's should be possible to drive something from one of the USB ports but that needs some tinkering and (based on previous conversations with Gordon) possibly driver support. I am slowly acquiring the physical parts to investigate and post-vacation I have a working Slice (CM3) box again, but I don't code so wouldn't be able to complete the task unaided, and for various reasons it's currently super-low on my personal priority list.

  • Thank you for the insight into whats currently available and potential future developments!

    Great that the Slice survived its ordeal, with a bit of board transplant.

  • Hyperion is in our add-on repo (and Hypercon to match is on the wiki) and should work fine as-is today with most of the frame-grabber based Ambilight kits. Normal "pi" kits that use the GPIO pins won't be compatible as those interfaces aren't on the rear of a Slice box. In theory it's should be possible to drive something from one of the USB ports but that needs some tinkering and (based on previous conversations with Gordon) possibly driver support. I am slowly acquiring the physical parts to investigate and post-vacation I have a working Slice (CM3) box again, but I don't code so wouldn't be able to complete the task unaided, and for various reasons it's currently super-low on my personal priority list.

    I already have a patch for hyperion and it works well.


    What exactly are you looking for in "user configureable LED patterns"?

    Are you wanting to make your own? Are you wanting to set different patterns to different actions? Please let me know before I start working on it.

  • This was the original "stretch goal" for the Slice Kickstarter campaign:

    "Goal 2 - LED App - £110,000 (Reached!)

    We'll make a cool web app that will give everyone an easy way to create their own patterns for Slice's LEDs! Customise Slice's default patterns and colours, then save your creations and share them with friends"

  • Pimoroni have shipped a replacement Slice PCB and PSU to my parents who will pass it on when we meet-up in Spain in a couple of weeks. As long as the CM3 card still works I should be back in the Slice business for a public beta of 8.2 in July and release in August.

    Meanwhile lrusak is in the process of re-packaging the Slice drivers/firmware into packages we can embed into the Slice image(s). This allows us to drop a bunch of Linux patches and the build-system difference between RPi and Slice is reduced to two words in a config file. This makes it basically impossible for me to miss patches again - future breakage in a release will require deliberate sabotage. He is also creating a python add-on that hooks into Kodi to drive the LED ring. This allows us to drop the Slice Kodi patches and in the long-term we can make the LED patterns for Kodi actions user-configurable.

    Hi Chewitt,

    Any updates on your Slice operability? etc..... :)

    Regards,

    Kevin.

  • It seems that the give Ninja forum is gone. I can still see some contents trough the Google cache but I guess won't be forever.

    Would be possible to be in touch with the admins if would be possible to have an archive of it in case? I think that there is some important knowledge for the slice users there that should be preserved.