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.
Homeless, poverty, cancer, or war are all people problems, and people are complicated. We do have flying cars but they're not very good at flying or driving.
I made a smart watch from scratch
141–150 of 228 posts
Re: I made a smart watch from scratch
#142Earlier quoted context omitted.
>But for about $90 in parts Oh and I don't know, about $250K worth of professional experience and skills but yeah.. we have.
And if you had zero of the tools and equipment beforehand used in the process, what would the additional cost be to just get started?
The 3D printer OP uses is a Monoprice; it looks like the delta mini (https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=21666). It costs $160.
The circuit boards and the solder paste mask are made by another company and delivered by mail. It's been a while since I looked up costs, but it's quite cheap these days, and the watch's circuit board is small, so I can comfortably say it cost under $100 to get the mask and a few copies of the board.
The soldering could be done with a $200 chinese reflow oven, like the T962 (https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=t962), or with a $20 toaster oven, an oven thermometer, and some careful timing. (Some people do their surface-mount soldering with just a frying pan and their kitchen stove!)
The rest is just basic hand tools -- screwdriver, file, sandpaper, tweezers, maybe a magnifier. Maybe a $5 Arduino clone to help with debugging and programming, and a $35 T12 soldering tip+controller for doing soldering test stuff and "I messed up" wires.
If the first try doesn't work, and it's not obvious why, you'll to spend more money.
If fixing the problem requires changing the board board then you need to order new ones, and the mask to solder them.
DC voltage levels, current consumption, and electrical continuity can be checked with a $20 multimeter. The presence, frequency, and integrity of signals can be checked with a good used analog oscilloscope costing $100-$200. Some things are easier to check with a new, basic digital oscilloscope costing $300-$400.
If the electronics are good but there's something wrong with the software, you'll need something to read the signals the chips are exchanging with each other. Basic, low-speed (less than 1 MHz or so) signals can be read and generated with the Arduino board, or a $30 Bus Pirate. If your project uses higher-speed signals, you'll need a logic analyzer. A good USB model is the Saleae Logic 8, which costs $400.
(There is overlap in the capabilities of digital multimeters and logic analyzers, so you can sometimes just buy one and use it for both purposes.)
Re: I made a smart watch from scratch
#143I've been thinking about making a custom keyboard for a while now but, while I have no problems with the electronic and software side of things, I'm a bit overwhelmed with the 3D modelling required.
I tried learning Blender but it really feels ill-suited for designing physical objects. The author mentions considering openSCAD but I've heard pretty bad things about it so I haven't really given it a chance yet.
The person making the dactyl keyboard had a very interesting talk where he explain how he basically ended up writing his own DSL in clojure on top of openSCAD, maybe I should try that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uk3A41U0iO4 (if you enjoyed TFA you'll probably like this video as well, it's a step-by-step explanation of how he designed his dream keyboard).
Otherwise I suppose I'll have to betray rms and try this freeware Fusion 360 thing.
Re: I made a smart watch from scratch
#144Earlier quoted context omitted.
Although unfortunately not solved, we've made great strides in regards to child mortality, extreme poverty, war, violence, health, freedom, literacy... If you could choose any point in human history to be born, you'd be best off choosing today. https://www.gatesnotes.com/Development/Max-Roser-three-facts... https://ourworldindata.org/a-history-of-global-living-condit...
I think William Gibson say something like, "The future is here it's just unevenly distributed." We have made great strides, but in the U.S. social mobility is lower now, life expectancy is down, so if you have to be born to a poor family, being born earlier might be better.
Re: I made a smart watch from scratch
#145Very impressive and inspiring. I've been thinking about making a custom keyboard for a while now but, while I have no problems with the electronic and software side of things, I'm a bit overwhelmed with the 3D modelling required. I tried learning Blender but it really feels ill-suited for designing physical objects. The author mentions considering openSCAD but I've heard pretty bad things about it so I haven't really…
Re: I made a smart watch from scratch
#146Re: I made a smart watch from scratch
#147Re: I made a smart watch from scratch
#148Re: I made a smart watch from scratch
#149If you have scratch and junk lying around, why not make a watch from it?
it's a nice project, but in my vocabulary 'from scratch' doesn't mean "after an initial engineering and design phase i'll order a host of parts from a company', it means 'i'd better start wrapping memory cores, let me get the copper wire out.'
Re: I made a smart watch from scratch
#150...only part that had me confused was using like 25% of screen real estate for showing time and putting flowers on the other 75%. Artistic I guess.