[HN Gopher] Watchy: Open-source E-Paper Watch with ESP32
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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
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(page generated 2021-06-20 23:00 UTC)