[HN Gopher] Pimping My Casio: Part Deux
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Pimping My Casio: Part Deux
Author : r4um
Score : 160 points
Date : 2025-07-19 07:58 UTC (15 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (blog.jgc.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (blog.jgc.org)
| ajsnigrutin wrote:
| TSA: "Sir, are you wearing the terrorist watch?"
|
| You: "no no, it's a modified terrorist watch, it now has more
| features!"
|
| https://www.spiegel.de/international/world/al-qaida-s-watch-...
|
| https://www.watchesofespionage.com/blogs/woe-dispatch/casio-...
| jgrahamc wrote:
| Typically I wear this watch instead:
| https://blog.jgc.org/2025/06/the-discreet-charm-of-infrastru...
| dustypotato wrote:
| brb gotta buy a casio lineage watch now
| rwmj wrote:
| IMO the Casio Oceanus S100 is a better watch in that
| category - solar powered, radio-controlled, waterproof, no
| apps or connectivity, but more dressy. However it's JDM
| only so you have to order it off eBay (or buy it on a trip
| to Japan I suppose).
| Findecanor wrote:
| The Sensor Watch wiki lists several other compatible Casio
| watches [1] that all came with a Casio Module 593. Several have
| a metal finish, or even a round case. The module number is
| etched on the steel back.
|
| All modern compatible watches from Casio are made of plastic:
| black or chromed plastic. Only some vintage models are in real
| metal. Vintage watches that came with modules 451, 587, 590 or
| 595 (maybe more) will also fit a module 593, but you'd still
| have to source a module 593 for its plastic chassis and other
| parts. Also, just the other week there popped up a steel
| replacement case for sale on AliExpress, which as been
| confirmed to work fine.
|
| I bought a vintage Casio W-34 (Module 590) just for my Sensor
| Watch because I wanted one of steel and because it resembled my
| broken A158W that I had used for years.
|
| 1. https://www.sensorwatch.net/docs/#need-to-buy-a-watch
| _false wrote:
| What's the process of adding sensors to the custom motherboard?
| Based on your watchface config it looks like you added
| accelerometer. I wonder what other sensors are easy to add. I'd
| love to have an hrm in mine
| jgrahamc wrote:
| There are details on the sensor part here:
| https://www.sensorwatch.net/docs/sensorboards/ and reference
| designs here: https://github.com/joeycastillo/Sensor-
| Watch/tree/main/PCB/S...
| ethan_smith wrote:
| The SensorWatch platform supports I2C sensors that fit within
| the watch's tight power and space constraints - beyond
| accelerometers, temperature/humidity, pressure, and ambient
| light sensors work well, but HRM would likely draw too much
| power for the CR2016 battery.
| TMSai wrote:
| This is a brill project
| justmarc wrote:
| Very cool! What's the expected battery run time?
| jgrahamc wrote:
| See: https://www.crowdsupply.com/oddly-specific-objects/sensor-
| wa... Answer: 1 to 2 years. My previous watch from the original
| blog post is still running on the original battery.
| justmarc wrote:
| Thank you, John.
|
| Coincidentally, your web site https://jgc.org/ is truly a
| lovely example of
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44613625 which was just
| discussed today as well.
|
| Love your behind the screens stuff!
| jgrahamc wrote:
| Thanks! Glad you enjoy https://behind-the-screens.tv. Those
| videos were an enormous amount of work because of all the
| original research behind them. I do have one more I'd like
| to do about this film:
| https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/defense_play_1987 One day
| perhaps!
| justmarc wrote:
| Oh I don't doubt it! I was thinking how does such a busy
| man have time for this... but we always have time for
| passions and side projects :)
|
| The airwolf one was funny, since it was a childhood
| favorite, and what a funny little typo they had there.
|
| When watching the video I was thinking to myself, could
| this series have influenced my future interests in ways I
| didn't even know? Fun.
| jgrahamc wrote:
| The key to doing things when you're very busy is to do
| them slowly and not drive yourself crazy with a deadline.
| When I did the ThinkPad 701c restoration it took me a
| year!
| justmarc wrote:
| Old Thinkpads were truly glorious machines. Top notch
| engineering and materials.
| eabeezxjc wrote:
| is any Linux version? I'm not using brew
| teruakohatu wrote:
| Brew run on Linux just as well as on MacOS.
| mikae1 wrote:
| It's actually the default package manager for uBlue distros.
|
| I've used it as my only package manager on Linux for a few
| years and I love it.
| jgrahamc wrote:
| Windows, macOS and Linux instructions here:
| https://www.sensorwatch.net/docs/movement/building/
| teruakohatu wrote:
| I have been reluctantly holding off hoping they will come out
| with a dot matrix or epaper screen. Neither will probably ever
| happen but I can dream.
| beefsack wrote:
| I absolutely loved my Pebble. It was so amazing in its own
| niche.
| mbirth wrote:
| You do know that Pebble is back from the dead?
|
| https://repebble.com
| simgt wrote:
| There is this one: https://gitlab.com/_Pegor/kepler_fw
| andoando wrote:
| Oh this looks awesome
| teruakohatu wrote:
| That is exactly what I want! Thank you for sharing the link.
| thebruce87m wrote:
| > Since I bought the optional accelerometer add on it's necessary
| to put in place a little piece of caption tape
|
| This should be _Kapton Tape_ https://croylek.com/pages/kapton-
| tape?srsltid=AfmBOoqVfkbfaW...
| jgrahamc wrote:
| Argh. Motherducking autocorrect!
| rtaylorgarlock wrote:
| In context, anyone who needs to understand almost certainly
| got it. Right? I haven't heard of 'caption tape', but I
| definitely have seen lots of misspellings of 'kapton' in
| context. :D
| throwanem wrote:
| Admittedly my watch only gets 1/50 the battery life and doesn't
| pick up WWV. On the other hand, being able to redesign its face
| in Emacs and Illustrator and update it OTA makes up for a lot. So
| does not having to wear a molded polymer bracelet - those things
| are awful!
| BenjiWiebe wrote:
| What's wrong with molded polymer bracelets? I assume you're
| referring to the wristband? I've really only worn one watch and
| it has a molded polymer wristband, and it doesn't bother me,
| but maybe I'm missing out on something nicer.
| neom wrote:
| This, is how to enjoy your retirement. Hope we see lots of other
| fun projects like this from you John, a very enjoyable read. :)
| jgrahamc wrote:
| This is a really simple "project" because someone else did all
| the work! I just had to install the thing and make some tiny
| code modifications for my taste.
| Disposal8433 wrote:
| > git clone --recurse-submodules [...]
|
| Small improvement but it should get the clone and the submodules
| at the same time.
| zippyman55 wrote:
| Respect.
| Sophia95 wrote:
| Clicked on this thinking it was about a calculator, so impressed
| that it was about swapping out the guts of an casio watch and
| building and uploading the firmware.
| jgrahamc wrote:
| I do also like calculators: https://blog.jgc.org/2025/04/just-
| one-more-calculator-bro-ju...
| snozolli wrote:
| Reminds me of the Texas Instrument Chronos, which was a watch
| that existed solely to promote the MSP430. I think it was
| released around 2013. Looks like it's no longer in production,
| but you can find them used around $40.
| maxglute wrote:
| very cool. casio would make killing building fitness band with
| 3-4 week battery life in the form factor of f91w. cheap fitness
| bands are basically already the mass smart watches of our era.
| orkj wrote:
| Did you see this one?
| https://www.casio.com/europe/watches/casio/vintage/product.A...
| wronex wrote:
| I really like that USB port. It can probably be made to work in
| both directions (like USB-C). Does it require a special PCB
| thickness that is hard to come by?
| guestbest wrote:
| Was there ever a version of this that would run a full blown DOS?
| RubenSandwich wrote:
| Love to see the simulator screenshot. I was the one who added
| simulator support for the custom LCD:
| https://github.com/joeycastillo/second-movement/pull/26.
|
| There is a very active discord community around the sensor watch.
| Come join us; https://discord.gg/Rdd9ewREaJ. I'm currently
| working on adding step counting support to the sensor watch pro.
| (Also I'd appreciate the help in getting a low power and low
| computation cost step counter working, which is a bit hard when
| your battery budget is a CR2016.)
| nan60 wrote:
| I have wanted this for _forever_. My dream watch is the F91-W,
| but with weather as well. I cannot wait to try this out.
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