Wyze $20 Smart Watch • Hacker News Board

Re: Wyze $20 Smart Watch

#141

Post by gnicholas » Tue, Dec 01, 2020, 10:45 PM UTC

yftsui wrote: post #62

devsatish wrote: post #61

Been a Wyze customer for couple of years now. Bought many of their cameras from their store and Home Depot. The cameras are real good and much much cheaper than other big brands (Ring/Nest etc). It seems they are basically building a Xiaomi kinda of brand in the US (Xiaomi is extremely popular in countries like India where they have huge market base with well styled products similar to Apple line).

I have multiple Wyze cams and recently got hit with a big surprise, if Wyze cam lost power suddenly, the past 4 mins event footage is NOT stored on the local SD card, and the actual event is not stored on the cloud as well. Wyze still has a long way to go for resiliency comparing with Ring or Nest.

I tried to test this and discovered that my Wyze Cam thinks there isn't even an SD card installed (there is). In the cloud, it showed there was an event just before it was unplugged, but it won't let me download the footage. I would be pretty upset if I discovered these issues when I was trying to get footage from a break-in or other important event.

EDIT: After a firmware update, it's now recognizing the SD card, but just as parent said, there is no video of me walking up, standing in front of the camera, and unplugging it. It's not missing 4 minutes, but definitely at least 20 seconds.

This means a thief could just walk up to any Wyze cam, yank the power cord, and be certain that he wouldn't be caught on camera. Maybe there's a way for Wyze to grab the data from their cloud if the police asked for it, but it seems impossible for an end-user. Really disappointing.

Re: Wyze $20 Smart Watch

#142

Post by ce4 » Tue, Dec 01, 2020, 10:45 PM UTC

vanous wrote: post #113

modeless wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I assure you, I have evaluated everything on the market. Amazfit devices are >1cm thick (even the ones that claim 9.2mm, it's a lie). They are also larger diameter than the Pebble Time Round, so overall more than twice as big and much less comfortable. The phone software is nowhere near as good, the watch UI is poorly designed, and the watch face/app selection is poor in comparison to Pebble. I haven't tried gadgetbr…

It is fragile. But, the key can be fetched from their server. No root, no funky hacked app, judt one time effort. Bip is not perfect, but the translucent display and GPS, plus many weeks of life are great. You can even push it for BipOs and write your own apps. Disclosure: I help with Gadgetbridge :)

I can confirm that vanous is helping users :)

Hi vanous!

Re: Wyze $20 Smart Watch

#143

Post by Baeocystin » Tue, Dec 01, 2020, 10:45 PM UTC

kissgyorgy wrote: post #95

If you want a "smart enough" watch and you are mainly care for your health, I highly recommend any of the watches from Withings: https://www.withings.com/hu/en/ They are a really awesome company, not trying to sell you some shit and making money, but honestly wanting to develop good products to improve your life! Very useful features for health monitoring and they don't cost as much. Plus the watches looks super cool…

I looked at all the high-end smart watches, decided they pretty much all sucked, and went with Withing's Steel HR Sport.

I love it- Like you said, it's a smart-enough watch. I get text notifications on the small screen, which is surprisingly useful, and it does things like step tracking, heart rate, sleep tracking, etc. But it also has a multi-week battery life, and looks like, and is sized like, a normal watch. Highly recommended.

Re: Wyze $20 Smart Watch

#144

Post by Baeocystin » Tue, Dec 01, 2020, 10:47 PM UTC

eecks wrote: post #109

kissgyorgy wrote: post #95

If you want a "smart enough" watch and you are mainly care for your health, I highly recommend any of the watches from Withings: https://www.withings.com/hu/en/ They are a really awesome company, not trying to sell you some shit and making money, but honestly wanting to develop good products to improve your life! Very useful features for health monitoring and they don't cost as much. Plus the watches looks super cool…

Those watches are nearly 300 euro..

Is the price difference that great? I paid ~$150 for mine a few months ago, and checking Amazon here in the US, they're still going for about that.

Re: Wyze $20 Smart Watch

#145

Post by ce4 » Tue, Dec 01, 2020, 10:48 PM UTC

VectorLock wrote: post #124

ce4 wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look for devices supported by the gadgetbridge 3rd party app (found in android's f-droid store). I have an Amazfit Bip S lite. 45days battery, always on lcd. Custom notification filters by gadgetbridge. Great https://codeberg.org/Freeyourgadget/Gadgetbridge

Man never heard of this Gadgetbridge thing. Thanks for bringing it up. The awful apps are the worst part about these kind of Chinesium devices.

The first setup to get started can be a bit rough, especially with server based key fetch + pairing. Gadgetbridge's issue tracker will help if you get stuck.

Re: Wyze $20 Smart Watch

#146

Post by HeyLaughingBoy » Tue, Dec 01, 2020, 10:49 PM UTC

smattiso wrote: post #131

I am trying to build something similar but I don't know how to get a non-functioning physical prototype built initially. What's the simplest way to get these type of aluminum cases, bands, etc?

Short of paying many thousands of dollars in prototype engineering fees, you either buy an existing device and strip out the guts, or one of these for $20 https://serpac.com/bw-series.aspx

Re: Wyze $20 Smart Watch

#147

Post by nfriedly » Tue, Dec 01, 2020, 10:51 PM UTC

neolog wrote: post #90

Are there any developer-friendly hackable smartwatches?

Lillygo makes a couple of interesting options built around the ESP32:

T-Watch-2020 - $26 - http://www.lilygo.cn/prod_view.aspx?TypeId=50053&Id=1290&FId...

T-Wristband - $18 - http://www.lilygo.cn/claprod_view.aspx?TypeId=21&Id=1282&FId...

Re: Wyze $20 Smart Watch

#148

Post by copperx » Tue, Dec 01, 2020, 10:52 PM UTC

borgel wrote: post #104

krazykringle wrote: post #56

Does it run a Linux? Will I be able to ssh to it?

With 512KB RAM and 16MB flash[1] I assume it's a microcontroller and doesn't run Linux. [1] https://wyze.com/wyze-watch.html#pageDetails

Slightly off topic, but are there microcontrollers that run Linux?

Re: Wyze $20 Smart Watch

#149

Post by thorwasdfasdf » Tue, Dec 01, 2020, 10:53 PM UTC

personally, i find the 9 day battery life to be pretty darn impressive in this day and age.

i also like the heart rate monitor, great for runners.

Re: Wyze $20 Smart Watch

#150

Post by free2OSS » Tue, Dec 01, 2020, 10:56 PM UTC

smattiso wrote: post #131

I am trying to build something similar but I don't know how to get a non-functioning physical prototype built initially. What's the simplest way to get these type of aluminum cases, bands, etc?

Aluminum fabrication?