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I made a smart watch from scratch

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Re: I made a smart watch from scratch

#61

Post by slacka »

kingosticks wrote: post #52
ForHackernews wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So they somehow took over a free software project and removed the GPL? That doesn't seem like a positive development!

And assuming they didn't merge their fork back in, the original FreeRTOS codebase doesn't get any of their fixes/improvements either.

And there is nothing stopping you from taking the original GPL'd FreeRTOS codebase and merging in all of the MIT licensed improvements. If you make a better FreeRTOS, that's what people will use.

I've seen this happen many times in open source. For example, to this day LGPL's LibreOffice, which started as a fork of OpenOffice, reviews all OpenOffice patches and cherry picks the good ones.[1] On the other hand, Apache OpenOffice can't benefit from any of LibreOffice's patches.

Viral licenses like GPL have an edge and will win out if there is a community that actually cares.

[1] https://cgit.freedesktop.org/libreoffice/core/log/?h=aoo%2Ft...

Re: I made a smart watch from scratch

#62

Post by moftz »

kingosticks wrote: post #52
ForHackernews wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So they somehow took over a free software project and removed the GPL? That doesn't seem like a positive development!

And assuming they didn't merge their fork back in, the original FreeRTOS codebase doesn't get any of their fixes/improvements either.

Their "fork" is additional libraries for FreeRTOS specifically for IoT kind of stuff packaged into the kernel. Not everyone needs an Amazon version of the FreeRTOS and most users wouldn't want extra junk in the kernel considering the kind of hardware that an RTOS is meant to be run on.

Re: I made a smart watch from scratch

#63

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

ForHackernews wrote: post #48
moftz wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FreeRTOS was previously GPLv2 with a couple of added clauses (anything linked with FreeRTOS is now GPL too and you can't publish performance metrics without approval). I'd imagine there were a lot of companies not wanting to GPL everything they made with FreeRTOS (i.e. Amazon) so with a new MIT license, anyone can do whatever they want.

So they somehow took over a free software project and removed the GPL? That doesn't seem like a positive development!

The GPL licensed version wasn't GPL compliant anyway because of the lame restriction on publishing benchmarks. MIT fixes that problem.

Re: I made a smart watch from scratch

#64

Post by js2 »

We haven’t solved homelessness, poverty, cancer, or war. We don’t have self-piloted flying cars. But for about $90 in parts, one person can design, manufacture, and build their own bespoke smart watch. Humans have made truly remarkable progress in some very specific ways.

Re: I made a smart watch from scratch

#65

Post by FigBug »

moftz wrote: post #37
naraic0o wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm pretty sure FreeRTOS has been open source since its inception in 2003, see posts going back to 2004 at [0]. Amazon forked it, merged their fork with the original project and took over it in 2017. You can read about it here [1]. [0] https://sourceforge.net/p/freertos/news/ [1] https://freertos.org/FAQ_Amazon.html EDIT: actually, I don't think they fully merged their fork as there's a variant called a:freeRTOS

FreeRTOS was previously GPLv2 with a couple of added clauses (anything linked with FreeRTOS is now GPL too and you can't publish performance metrics without approval). I'd imagine there were a lot of companies not wanting to GPL everything they made with FreeRTOS (i.e. Amazon) so with a new MIT license, anyone can do whatever they want.

I think you have that backwards.

> As a special exception, the copyright holder of FreeRTOS gives you permission to link FreeRTOS with independent modules that communicate with FreeRTOS solely through the FreeRTOS API interface, regardless of the license terms of these independent modules, and to copy and distribute the resulting combined work under terms of your choice

It was GPL with an exception that allowed you link your app code to the OS, with your app becoming GPL.

The performance metrics part was weird though.

https://www.openhub.net/licenses/GPL-2-0-with-freertos-excep...

Re: I made a smart watch from scratch

#66

Post by blihp »

logicallee wrote: post #56
diimdeep wrote: post #16

Tony Stark level DIY

yeah very impressive. Is this how products are really prototyped? I feel he could have mentioned either 20 years of experience in all parts of this field (if that's how come he could do it so cleanly) or if he did actual prototyping steps he could have mentioned them or showed some pictures. From the pictures, it comes off as something anyone can do in a week or two. like building a table. Maybe I'm wrong and the pic…

It's pretty clear the author knows what they're doing and pretty much anytime I see a post like this I assume they are (smartly) doing some self-marketing rather than a 'see how easy/cool this project is?' So it's part 'look at this nice watch I made' and part 'look at what I could be doing for your product'. Far better than just saying 'designed and built a smart watch' on the resume.

Re: I made a smart watch from scratch

#67

Post by blattimwind »

bluehatbrit wrote: post #40
zius wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am wearing one right now and it’s amazing - Especially it’s battery life (easily 1 month+). I get loads of compliments about this watch. The feature set is just enough for my needs, even though I considered getting an Apple Watch. The app is also more than decent.

I had one of the original Withings watches (before Nokia bought them out) and it lasted about a year until it stopped reliably keeping time. It got to the point where I was doing hard resets and changing the battery every few weeks and I gave up in the end. I was really disappointed, it looks beautiful and worked so well for a year and then became totally useless. I spent a good £200 on it as well if I recall correct…

> Especially it’s battery life (easily 1 month+)

> I had one of the original Withings watches (before Nokia bought them out) and it lasted about a year until it stopped reliably keeping time. It got to the point where I was doing hard resets and changing the battery every few weeks and I gave up in the end.

Worse is better. Changing batteries? Failure to keep time? Over 200 Euros for a watch that doesn't last a year? Largely unheard of in the realm of automatic watches.

Re: I made a smart watch from scratch

#68

Post by sbradford26 »

wlesieutre wrote: post #50
TeMPOraL wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That thing unfortunately seems to have died with Pebble.

Amazfit is the closest player to Pebble's old space. I don't think they have any 3rd party app ecosystem at all, but the baseline experience covers time, notifications, workout tracking, and a couple other things. Bip and Stratos are the watchier lines, they also have more minimal Fitbit strap-style product that I forget the name of. EDIT: Here's another new entry https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/04/garmin-revamp…

Currently wearing an Amazfit Bip and I really like it. I got one for my Dad to replace his Pebble Time Steel and he loved it so much I got one. I usually get around 20+ days of battery life and it does everything I need, aka sleep tracking, notifications, and activity tracking.

Re: I made a smart watch from scratch

#70

Post by parthdesai »

xur17 wrote: post #54
parthdesai wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup, same. I love that i have to charge it once every 3 weeks, tracks my bike rides while i commute to work, runs and workouts. People usually don't believe that it's a smart watch and more surprised when i say that it's Nokia. I usually get the reaction "They are still relevant"

I currently use a Fossil Explorist, but I'm pretty frustrated by the battery life, and honestly it's just... slow. I'm curious to hear your thoughts on run tracking - I don't want to carry my phone with me, and it's really nice to have my watch track distance via gps.

So i have got HR, but i always carry my phone with me (music) while running or biking. So i'm not really sure how it will do without a phone. I can try it out in without phone in couple of days if you want to know about that.
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