[HN Gopher] Pimping my Casio with Oddly Specific Objects' altern...
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       Pimping my Casio with Oddly Specific Objects' alternate motherboard
       and firmware
        
       Author : jgrahamc
       Score  : 220 points
       Date   : 2022-10-15 13:27 UTC (9 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (blog.jgc.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (blog.jgc.org)
        
       | CobaltFire wrote:
       | Projects like this, where the community has adopted something so
       | thoroughly and so begins making things for it that are so fully
       | developed, are amazing to me. I love it.
       | 
       | The Thinkpad replacement motherboards fall into a similar
       | category.
        
         | csdvrx wrote:
         | Same: I believe that after a few iterations, the form can come
         | very close to perfection (Casio watch, Thinkpad keyboard) or at
         | least become familiar enough that we may feel sadness if we
         | have to give it up.
         | 
         | Replacing the internals by better ones let you keep the objects
         | you love, increase their features and reduces waste.
        
           | butokai wrote:
           | I wonder if anybody has ever thought about some similar
           | project for e.g. the Nokia 3310 or the iPod
        
             | Jtsummers wrote:
             | https://hackaday.com/category/ipod-hacks/
             | 
             | Lots of entries there.
        
       | Graziano_M wrote:
       | Motherboard is sort of a misnomer. There are no other boards
       | being plugged into it. That said, it's a pretty cool project.
       | Nothing beats the good watch[1], though.
       | 
       | [1]: https://github.com/travisgoodspeed/goodwatch
        
         | jgrahamc wrote:
         | There's the small sensor board plugged into it and the LCD
         | board that attaches to it also.
        
         | ComputerGuru wrote:
         | The post demonstrates the temperature sensor as being one (of
         | many?) modular components that can be plugged in, actually.
         | 
         | Though I still agree that does not make a motherboard!
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | ComputerGuru wrote:
       | The web emulator has to be the best part of the project. It makes
       | debugging and testing so much easier!
        
       | thot_experiment wrote:
       | I really wish I could buy one of these without a billion year
       | waitlist. I really want to make a magnetometer daughter board so
       | I can have a mode which displays my magnetic heading.
       | 
       | I love the new colorways casio recently came out with, I had the
       | plain black for years but now I got myself a pink one as well.
       | The only wrist watch worn by both Obama and Osama!
       | 
       | EDIT: oh wow, googling this a bit there's a _different_ project
       | for a replacement motherboard that already has a compass! I guess
       | I might as well just build one myself. [0]
       | 
       | [0] https://github.com/carrotIndustries/pluto
        
       | quijoteuniv wrote:
       | This is my dream! ( when I was 10 years old ) Hope more sensors
       | become available
        
       | ornornor wrote:
       | Pretty cool!
        
       | p1mrx wrote:
       | How would you automatically timesync this watch? Ideally
       | something easier than clamping actuators to the buttons.
        
       | bherms wrote:
       | I love stuff like this... I'd also like to get away from using
       | the term "pimp" to mean to make something cooler. Pimps take
       | advantage of and often force people into sexual slavery. Nothing
       | about that should be glorified and turned into a colloquial term
       | to mean something positive.
        
         | dragonmost wrote:
         | Sometime words can mean multiple things. Pimp to mean cool as
         | been established for atleast a few decades at this point.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | blamazon wrote:
         | Doesn't colloqializing it defang the term? Why should the word
         | be gatekept within the harsh domain it came from rather than
         | allowed to transcend alongside culture? Earnest questions, I
         | don't think about this stuff much.
        
           | Apocryphon wrote:
           | It's also quite dated slang. Pimp My Ride is decades old now.
        
             | tomcam wrote:
             | It was dated back then. "Pimping" used like that goes back
             | to the 70s. I was there.
        
           | singingfish wrote:
           | I agree. I use the word "retard" (as in 'Tony Abbott was the
           | retard we had to have') from time to time for similar
           | reasons.
        
             | tomcam wrote:
             | As the parent of a "severely retarded" (quoted from the
             | first IEP report in 2009) child, I say who the hell cares
             | if you use that word. I have to admit I find it kind of
             | funny and use it all the time.
             | 
             | Commence downvoting, retards.
        
       | dtx1 wrote:
       | I like Casio watches but i feel there's lots oft Innovation they
       | leave in the table. Especially the higher end square watches are
       | sometimes needlessly incomplete
        
         | hiyer wrote:
         | True - I wish they had a higher end watch with a vibrating
         | alarm, but no luck so far.
        
           | bayindirh wrote:
           | G-Shock series had a model with vibration IIRC.
           | 
           | Update: Yes. It's GD350.
        
       | wzdd wrote:
       | What would be the most power-efficient way to get data or code
       | into something like this without having to take the back off or
       | add a port? Maybe a light sensor, like the old Timex watches?
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timex_Datalink
       | 
       | I guess you could do it with a peltier element and the
       | temperature sensor, if you had a lot of time. :)
        
         | Rebelgecko wrote:
         | The watch has buttons, right? You could have a "data upload"
         | screen that interprets them as 1s and 0s. I also wonder if you
         | could add Bluetooth to the watch. That might hurt battery life,
         | but maybe not too badly if it's toggleable?
        
           | Anunayj wrote:
           | Honestly I feel like this is the most practical way,
           | Bluetooth modules are readily available in that form factor,
           | just turn it on only after a certain key press on the watch
           | (call it upload mode).
        
         | ComputerGuru wrote:
         | Thanks for sharing the Timex link! I have a soft spot for
         | hybrid analog-digital tech like that but I think a Bluetooth
         | module (if you can figure out the antenna situation) only
         | turned on at a certain watch face (plus a sequence of key
         | presses) is probably the best compromise and shouldn't be too
         | draining if it's fully powered down otherwise.
         | 
         | Other radio tech might be an even better option would need a
         | transceiver on the PC side as well, so might not be worth it
         | depending on how often you would be using this feature.
        
         | ranger207 wrote:
         | In a similar vein, the developer of the Anduril open source
         | flashlight firmware[0][1] once investigated loading settings
         | via light flashed from the phone using the flashlight's LEDs as
         | photodiodes
         | 
         | [0] https://code.launchpad.net/~toykeeper/flashlight-
         | firmware/an... [1] UI diagram:
         | https://budgetlightforum.com/node/76941
        
         | awiesenhofer wrote:
         | What about the back BEING the port? With something like the
         | 1-wire protocol it should be possible, only activate it with
         | say a special button combination to save on battery.
         | 
         | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1-Wire
        
         | matja wrote:
         | A microphone and https://github.com/kamalmostafa/minimodem ?
        
         | adamweld wrote:
         | pogo pins?
        
       | [deleted]
        
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       (page generated 2022-10-15 23:00 UTC)