Hey thanks for all the info, so I did get it to Game Frame Firmware: 20161211 successfully.
As far as the random turn on issue, I never use the IR remote, only the web interface (cause I link to it from my other home automation controls which all run from my own webserver inside the house)
Why does it randomly turn on, I’m not sure. I have a suspicion it has to do with WiFi disconnects, as a few other LED controllers and Aurdino WiFi shield based things in my house also get disconnected on occasion. I think I might have discovered the reason why last night, apparently my AP was trying to use a defunct NTP server, thus never adjusting it’s time skew properly, which can cause issues with the key refresh interval, or so I believe, but this is unproven/could be totally off base.
In any case I am pleased to know it’s not so dependent on particle.io, because honestly I feel that’s just another a) single point of failure b) planed obsolescence when the dot-com bubble bursts (again?) and particle.io goes belly up and c) IoT hacking is a thing and really getting out of hand.
After looking at the source of the /help page I determined I can send it HTTP commands for directly, which is cool, cause I can send /set?power /set?menu /set?next from the back-end from my own webpages and that’s all I really need.
I do notice when loading the root / (pretty menu) it takes awhile and sometimes crashes, requiring a power cycle.