[HN Gopher] Watchy: Open-source E-Paper Watch with ESP32 ___________________________________________________________________ Watchy: Open-source E-Paper Watch with ESP32 Author : lnyan Score : 120 points Date : 2021-06-20 15:59 UTC (7 hours ago) (HTM) web link (watchy.sqfmi.com) (TXT) w3m dump (watchy.sqfmi.com) | teddyh wrote: | I wonder if they are RYF certified. | moreati wrote: | RYF is probably Respects Your Freedom | <https://ryf.fsf.org/main-page>, for others wondering. | | > The "Respects Your Freedom" certification program encourages | the creation and sale of hardware that will do as much as | possible to respect your freedom and your privacy, and will | ensure that you have control over your device. | Fnoord wrote: | Does this mean you are able to put off BT and WLAN? | gammalost wrote: | I've ordered one of these. Were supposed to ship on may 30. Got | no message from them but the site now says 27 of July. Wrote to | them to ask what's up but haven't recieved a response, they did | however post an update about that they've started shipping (it | still says july 27 for me though). | | It's probably a great clock and some people seem to have gotten | it. But at this stage I'm unsure if I'm going to get it and | haven't heard from them | craftinator wrote: | I had the same ship date as you, and got mine yesterday. Lot of | fun to play with. My case was a bit nasty, seemed the injection | mold was just a touch off, but I printed my own case so not a | big deal. | squarefoot wrote: | Chip shortage probably. It's affecting a lot of products, not | just high end video cards. | ddlsmurf wrote: | Chip shortage is an issue, but they're definitely coming out, | can tell by the chatter on discord. If you want to ask them | about it, come on it and tag @sqfmi . | gammalost wrote: | I get that you're trying to help. But when crowdsupply has a | specific page that says "contact the product creator" then I | kind of expect to get a response using it. Having to tag a | specific person on a discord server is in my opinion asking | too much from a customer. | | But everybody else here seems to have gotten theirs, even the | person with the same delivery date as me. So I have a bit | more faith in it arriving sooner rather than later | CraigJPerry wrote: | Mine had that same updated date but it arrived last week. I | haven't played with the code yet but i did wear it one day last | week and no complaints | alfongj wrote: | I got mine two days ago | spicybright wrote: | Took a while to find an actual picture of it. Scroll down on this | page to see: https://www.crowdsupply.com/sqfmi/watchy | | Another interesting device in this arena, Pine Time: | https://www.pine64.org/pinetime/ | | Of note, PineTime is water proof. Which at least for myself is a | big deal. | | The breakdown chart on the first link above comparing with other | watches is interesting. Watchy seems like it can do a lot more. | But I do wonder about battery life. | FreakyT wrote: | I'm still a bit disappointed the Pine64 folks didn't go for a | low-power reflective LCD like the ones used by this or the | Pebble. | bluedays wrote: | The Pine Time device looks way cooler than the OP. In my | opinion. The OP just looks like a circuit board strapped to | your wrist. | johbjo wrote: | It seems the easiest and coolest way to make a watertight case | would be to plug the usb-port with hot-glue and then pot the | assembled board in resin (epoxy/polyurethane). Either pigmented | or clear. | numpad0 wrote: | There are special "cap-less"/cap-free watertight USB | receptacles for phones | | Ref: https://www.jae.com/en/releases/detail/id=1739 | criddell wrote: | I think the USB port is required to charge it. | taylorfinley wrote: | That's why you'd plug it with hot glue, it could be easily | removed after the resin cures. Better yet use black silicone | and make it reusable. | dheera wrote: | I really wish this had a few more sensors, particularly a | barometer, heart rate sensor, and touch screen, these would make | it much more useful. | | I realize it's FOSS hardware but I'm more of a software person | and would probably take me too long to figure out how to hack all | those things in _and_ get it manufactured ... | Fnoord wrote: | Heh, I actually prefer the smartwatches without touchscreen. | Physical buttons keep the screen clean. You just need enough of | them. I believe the sweet spot is 4. Pebble did it right. | djrogers wrote: | Strongly disagree there - I put up with my pebbles' poor UI | and controls until I got my first Apple Watch. It's 10x more | useful, and way more user friendly. | mmoskal wrote: | I wonder what the battery life. ESP32 tend to be very power | hungry with WiFi, not sure about pure BLE operation. This is why | simple long-lasting (eg Withings, misfit) watches use nrf52 | chips. | dementik wrote: | Something between 2 to 7 days, see | https://watchy.sqfmi.com/docs/battery-life | Fnoord wrote: | Quite disappointing. They're comparing with Pebble OG, but I | owned both a Pebble OG and a Pebble 2. The battery life of | the former went away with the OS update to the OS version on | v2, but the 2 lasted easily for a week, and it looked better | IMO. The HR is like RNG, and the case eventually deteriorated | (and I sadly failed to replace it with), and of course the | support did not last long. | | I now use a Fossil HR Collider. It lasts for 2 weeks probably | thanks to e-ink. The HR also isn't useful, but it looks good | for a round watch (except for the stage light) which you can | make look like a normal smartwatch, and it can control e.g. | Spotify and weather. I don't need much more on a smartwatch. | The only thing I miss is the ability to put Bluetooth off. | ajju wrote: | " The battery life SQFMI estimates depends on your use case -- | it says if you're just keeping time you should get five to | seven days, but if you're fetching data frequently you may only | see two to three. Its open-source nature, however, means that | you could always fit a larger battery into it, or try and make | some software optimizations if there are features you're | willing to cut." | | From the verge review | [deleted] | craftinator wrote: | I've gotten 2 days of constant use, and it's hardly dropped | voltage at all, will likely last 6. The eink screen uses no | electricity between screen updates, and the stock firmware | turns all peripherals off when not in use. | dheera wrote: | I suppose you could put it into light sleep mode (0.8mA) or | deep sleep mode (<0.15mA) most of the time, and only switch on | the Wi-Fi/BLE occasionally to sync data or when the user wants | to interact with it. You could also use the hibernation mode | (0.005mA) at night, and set up an RTC timer to wake it up in | the morning. | | I do like the idea of a fully open source watch though, I used | to do quite a bit of Android Wear development in its early days | [0] [1] [2] but got frustrated with Google breaking my apps | every 6 months with new APIs, breaking my Android Studio | projects with every new version of Android Studio, and removing | them from the Play Store because of new rules. I much prefer | hardware and software that just continues to work if you do | exactly nothing, which is kind of how all my other appliances | work. It's not like my air fryer or rice cooker just stop | working if I don't update their software. | | Also I absolutely hated Java and would much rather develop in | C++, (Micro)Python, or even C, all of which are possible with | the ESP32. | | [0] https://www.pcmag.com/news/attopedia-for-android-wear- | puts-t... | | [1] https://www.androidpolice.com/2014/07/15/there-is-now-a- | matr... | | [2] https://www.androidauthority.com/android-wear-remote- | app-404... | [deleted] | lxe wrote: | Nice to see the watch faces page using the Web Bluetooth API! | ohazi wrote: | This seems conceptually similar to the 2019 CCC card10badge. | | schneider has a great overview of some of the challenges of | (barely) getting that project out the door on time: | | https://twitter.com/schne1der_/status/1232055729202323456 ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2021-06-20 23:00 UTC)