[HN Gopher] Watchy: The Hackable $50 Smartwatch ___________________________________________________________________ Watchy: The Hackable $50 Smartwatch Author : ystad Score : 65 points Date : 2021-03-02 20:53 UTC (2 hours ago) (HTM) web link (spectrum.ieee.org) (TXT) w3m dump (spectrum.ieee.org) | ourcat wrote: | I have a couple of the PS30 LilyGo 'TTGO T-Watch 2020' ESP32 | based 'watches'. Lots of fun to tinker with and has a colour TFT | touchscreen which introduced me to the very impressive lvgl | library to create UI. But the battery life is not great (though | that teaches you how to write and use deep sleep modes). | | An e-ink display would naturally help with the battery life, but | the screen refresh times can be an issue for some ideas beyond | telling the time. | xtiansimon wrote: | Funny the picture shows a subway exit. One of the apps I want | from a smart watch is a compass. I work(d) in NYC and I'm always | turned around when I exit the subway at an unfamiliar stop. | johnjboren wrote: | When I lived in NYC during the Summers of 2005 and 2006 I | carried a real compass for this exact purpose. | | Walking a block in the wrong direction before figuring it out | was not worth going without. | dheera wrote: | I found compasses don't work well in NYC either. My phone's | compass is always wrong in NYC. | | I really wish NYC would paint or engrave a N/S/E/W indicator on | the sidewalk at every subway exit. | kingbirdy wrote: | Why does this article not have any pictures of the watch? It only | has renders, even though the author supposedly has one. | seism wrote: | There are a few photos at | https://www.instagram.com/p/CLfUCmVrChY/ | monocasa wrote: | AFAICT, those are renders too | ohazi wrote: | Real pictures here: https://twitter.com/sqfmi | | (scroll down a bit) | gardenfelder wrote: | Great link. Shows the product has evolved from the video | linked elsewhere. | dandelany wrote: | Photo (of mine) here: | https://twitter.com/dandelany/status/1348224456640974850 | | Just measured it at 9.3mm thickness with the battery - but it | has no case. | IrishJourno wrote: | I'm the author of the article and the editor of the section: a | while back we decided to use illustrations rather than | photography for this section of IEEE Spectrum--it was a style | choice, but it gives us more options in terms of showing | components and process diagrams. | jore wrote: | There is an assembly video at https://youtu.be/PCPxTS1aF3w | mumblemumble wrote: | There are some on the manufacturer's website: | https://watchy.sqfmi.com/gallery | tyingq wrote: | I suspect they are having trouble with their claimed 9mm | thickness...thinner than the Apple watch. | Sodman wrote: | Very excited for something like this! I can think of a few fun | projects to try that would be useful to me nearly everyday but | are too trivial or niche for an Apple or a Samsung to ever spend | time actually building. Some ideas off of the top of my head: | | - Vibrate a bunch and notify me on-screen if my usual commuter | train is running late or cancelled (but only if I haven't left my | house yet). Also the same, but in reverse for my commute home | | - One-button touch activate my IoT devices (toggle houselights, | garage door opener etc) | | - Show me how many bikes/docks are left at my local citibike | station | | - One-button touch to fake a phone call to my phone to get me out | of a meeting/conversation in a pinch | | - Show me how many minutes until it's predicted to rain | | Nothing life changing, but a fun side project that will continue | to be useful once it's finished by saving me 5-10 seconds here | and there! | sfRattan wrote: | Maybe I'm a curmudgeon, but I have subzero interest in | smartwatches, even hackable or open source models. I want my | watch to tell me the time, and I want it to do so 10, 20, and 30 | years from now without having to fiddle with software. | | I love Linux. I cut my teeth on it in high school after one too | many viruses on Windows XP made me bite the bullet and try | debian. I love my Raspberry Pi. It went from retro-gaming console | to brief dev environment to Pi-hole server. There are tons of | other hacked up solutions in my home. | | But sometimes I just want a tool that does one thing, essentially | unsupervised, essentially forever. | | Apple Watch, Android Wear, Pebble, and now Watchy... All these | devices will be e-waste in 30 years (most in less than 10). My | Seiko automatic will still be ticking (and, as I wear it almost | every day, I only wind it once or twice a year). | pthreads wrote: | I feel similarly. I bought a hand-wound mechanical watch. And | my electric blender - does only one thing i.e. blend. Then | there is the stone knife sharpener. | | I am making a list of things along similar lines i.e. devices | that do one or two things really well, preferably mechanical, | well-built etc.. Suggestions? | jakecopp wrote: | I currently own a Pebble Time Steel, but I love the idea of | getting an open source watch I can build my own (very simple) | UI for that might outlast the hardware. | | I guess it's a bit like the itch of building your own desk or | some beautiful wooden furniture - I like the idea of slowly | refining my own watch software until it's perfectly suited for | me. | jagger27 wrote: | I found I had to wind my Seiko far more often than that. Is | this because you wear it daily and the self winder keeps it | going? How often do you have to adjust the time? | sfRattan wrote: | I adjust the time maybe once every three months, which has | naturally fallen into a pattern that lines up with daylight | savings time. My watch gains at most few minutes over that | interval. There's a single complication for date (1-31) that | I adjust on the first day of every month. | | Seiko watches aren't the absolute best, but as long as I | don't leave it on the shelf for more than 24 hours the self- | winding mechanism still works. I'd call them the Toyota of | watches. | | I'm not a watch-o-phile per se (is there a better word for | that hobby/interest?)... More like a /r/BuyItForLife [1] | person. Seiko fits the bill to buy it for life without | spending luxury good money. | | [1] https://old.reddit.com/r/BuyItForLife/ | drewzero1 wrote: | I feel the same about my Casio Tough Solar. I've had it around | 6 years and it feels like it'll never get old. For the last | year or so I've been wearing a Pebble Time Steel and while I | appreciate the extra features I know that one day it will stop | working, and I'm sure my Casio will be there waiting. | | About the Pebble -- I am definitely a fan, and haven't yet seen | another smartwatch with its particular appeal. After playing | around with a lot of watchfaces I ended up almost always | sticking with an analog face which I'm finding helps me | visualize the passage of time a lot better than a digital | readout. | zepto wrote: | Will it? | | My guess is that you will need to have it serviced somewhere in | that time period. | | I am with you in regards to how great an automatic watch is, | but unless your seiko has an oil-free escapement of some kind, | e.g. silicon or DLC coated, 40 years seems like a stretch. | | https://www.rwsmithwatches.com/journal/roger-announces-nano-... | | https://www.sinn.de/en/DIAPAL.htm | sfRattan wrote: | I'll take one servicing in that period over replacing my | watch every 3-5 (2-4?) years as the software becomes obsolete | and all support vanishes into the myopically short tech | upgrade cycle. It's why I say 'essentially' unsupervised and | 'essentially' forever. The point of comparison with | smartwatches is so far to the other extreme that I believe | the language is largely justified. | Sodman wrote: | Sounds like this watch is absolutely not for you then, and | that's totally fine! For me, in 2021, a watch needs to display | more than just date/time to earn a place on my wrist. I'm also | ok spending another $50 every 3-6 years on a new watch, that | doesn't seem unreasonable to me. | | Conversely, I'm not keen on the idea of having to manually wind | my watch, or remembering to fix the date at the start of every | month. | | More options is good for everyone though, so I'm glad both | exist! | dillondoyle wrote: | Has anyone found a good fitness metrics watch that is more open | source (no monthly fee)? | | Oura looks new with no monthly subscription fee. It looks like | horrible to wear for serious sport though. | | I have Whoop but will cancel the monthly fee once my intro period | is over. | | But Whoop would be worth it for me if instead it would be a flat | price own outright + they allow 3p access to all the data not | just heart rate. | | The whoop in theory is great but it doesn't capture my sport's | 'strain' well and the heart rate lags my treadmill band. I can't | verify the sleep but it seems to be more accurate at least | measuring my interruptions. But if it was flat rate not $30 a | month i think it would be good enough. | obenn wrote: | In development: https://www.pine64.org/pinetime/ | djrogers wrote: | This looks interesting, but I'm always leery any time I don't see | any photos of the product - the linked article and it's source | both just have drawings. That's kinda concerning. | mumblemumble wrote: | https://watchy.sqfmi.com/gallery | dividuum wrote: | Relevant link to the project: | https://www.crowdsupply.com/sqfmi/watchy | airbreather wrote: | Lily Go have had something cheaper and maybe better, ESP-32 and I | think there is a LORA version, that is something worth having | | https://www.banggood.com/LILYGO-TTGO-T-Watch-2020-ESP32-Main... | statenjason wrote: | For another hackable smartwatch, see the PineTime. | | https://pine64.com/product/pinetime-dev-kit | renewiltord wrote: | Cool device. A bit short on the sensors, but I understand why for | a first iteration. Hope it's successful enough that later | revisions will include a few things I'm keen on: | | * Pulse ox | | * Continuous heartrate | | * GPS+Compass | | But it's a cool device anyway. | mwambua wrote: | Adding those would be awesome (Especially if they could still | keep the price under $100). The primary reason I use a | smartwatch is for all the health-related features. I'd | otherwise just wear a dumb watch whose battery will last me 10 | years. | airbreather wrote: | This is a bit bigger, but GPS and LORA, accelerometer, color | screen, still cheaper | | https://www.banggood.com/LILYGOTTGO-T-Watch-ESP32-Chip-Progr... | Black101 wrote: | There are no open LoRa alternatives yet? | mlillie wrote: | Comment there says they're only selling the "Basic" which | doesn't include GPS or LORA | airbreather wrote: | Search around, AliExpress as well, I think it is just that | particular vendor is out. | barbs wrote: | Looks interesting! Any word on battery life? Couldn't seem to | find anything... | dandelany wrote: | I have one... The battery life is currently OK but not great - | something like 55 hours. But I think this can be improved with | some firmware changes - and the firmware is open source. | gardenfelder wrote: | are those batteries available anywhere, or just form them? | geoffhill wrote: | For cheap esp32-based smartwatches and wristbands, I've had good | success with LILYGO and the esp-idf toolchain. | | $18 T-Wristband: | https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000527495064.html | | $26 T-Watch-2020: | https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000971508364.html | | esp-idf: https://github.com/espressif/esp-idf ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2021-03-02 23:00 UTC)