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Open Source Smartwatch

pine64.org

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Re: Open Source Smartwatch

#71

Post by hedora »

codecamper wrote: post #42
Waterluvian wrote: post #25

This is really cool. $25 is quite impressive too. A GPS would be killer though. But doesn't quite scratch the itch that I've got for a higher level open source wearable or tablet (think IP67 Raspberry Pi tablet or watch) The key is that like this watch, the hardware is done and "consumer" ready.

My fitbit charge 4 has gps, but what's it good for? I look at my runs and it shows a circle. I guess if I were out hiking it could be pretty nice to see where I've hiked. But that seems like such an edge case for 97% of people.

GPS enables distance tracking of runs that aren’t on tracks. It could also allow turn by turn navigation if this thing had an sd card slot (4mb of storage isn’t going to carry many maps).

You could also use it as a bike speedometer or a running pace monitor.

(Though, the battery may be too small for all these use cases.)

Re: Open Source Smartwatch

#72

Post by wongarsu »

Waterluvian wrote: post #59
bluGill wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The pine tab is a table available from the same site. I'm looking at it, but it isn't ready for someone with my limited hacking time - yet (I expect this to change in a few months)

I've got my eye on that one if it returns to stock. Thanks! A slightly alarming statement on the page: "Small numbers (1-3) of stuck or dead pixels are a characteristic of LCD screens. These are normal and should not be considered a defect." I've bought dozens of screens in my life (phones tablets monitors TV's) and have never had a stuck pixel. Is it actually normal?

That depends on where you buy. If you buy a Dell UltraSharp you can expect that there will be no dead pixels. But that's not because Dell has technology that completely prevents them, it's because Dell has good QC. If you buy a cheap screen from a manufacturer that does less QC you might seldomly have stuck pixels. And of course there are the bottom-of-the-barrel suppliers that buy whatever other suppliers discard because of QC defects. There's always someone who will buy a screen with a couple dead pixels if it's half the price.

I don't know where pine falls, I would guess they buy straight from the factory without extensive QC and might seldomly have stuck pixels.

Re: Open Source Smartwatch

#73

Post by listic »

donpdonp wrote: post #65

I have a pinetime and the form factor is great (until I lost the back plate, next one will be sealed). All the opensource activity around the watch is also great. The biggest drawback to me is only 64k of ram. Thats a Commodore64's worth of ram. The 240x240 screen is 57kbytes, it must have its own display ram. Also NordicSemi never seemed to be particularly opensource friendly. I'm hoping for a future RISCV edition o…

Do you state that it has its own display RAM or doesn't it?

240x240 is ~56.25 kB at 8 bpp. the screen is RGB 65K colors, that is, 16 bpp; so the framebuffer size should be twice larger. I assume that the display controller has its own memory. True, you would need another 112,5 kB for double-buffering, but maybe you can do without it.

Re: Open Source Smartwatch

#74

Post by wongarsu »

hedora wrote: post #71
codecamper wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My fitbit charge 4 has gps, but what's it good for? I look at my runs and it shows a circle. I guess if I were out hiking it could be pretty nice to see where I've hiked. But that seems like such an edge case for 97% of people.

GPS enables distance tracking of runs that aren’t on tracks. It could also allow turn by turn navigation if this thing had an sd card slot (4mb of storage isn’t going to carry many maps). You could also use it as a bike speedometer or a running pace monitor. (Though, the battery may be too small for all these use cases.)

A couple KB should be enough for turn-by-turn navigation if you plan the route on a smartphone and then upload the map of the route and immediate area to the watch. You really only need a graph of GPS waypoints that you can navigate between

Re: Open Source Smartwatch

#75

Post by listic »

Yaggo wrote: post #3

Promising specs! I'd rather have multi-day battery life than fancy graphics, maybe even an e-ink display.

My Xiaomi Mi Band 4 lasts me 4 weeks with a full-color AMOLED display (without NFC). That's the base to compare to.

Re: Open Source Smartwatch

#76

Post by looperhacks »

wongarsu wrote: post #60
looperhacks wrote: post #51

Funny, I actually have an open Pinetime in front of me right now. I use it for my masters thesis and it's a really nice project. If you want to try out some embedded development (that you can actually show to friends who don't aren't developers), I think this is the perfect project.

You might have just convinced me to buy the devkit. What do you use it for in your masters thesis?

Sadly I'm not sure what I'm allowed to make public just yet because I write the thesis for my company :(

Re: Open Source Smartwatch

#77

Post by detaro »

Waterluvian wrote: post #59
bluGill wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The pine tab is a table available from the same site. I'm looking at it, but it isn't ready for someone with my limited hacking time - yet (I expect this to change in a few months)

I've got my eye on that one if it returns to stock. Thanks! A slightly alarming statement on the page: "Small numbers (1-3) of stuck or dead pixels are a characteristic of LCD screens. These are normal and should not be considered a defect." I've bought dozens of screens in my life (phones tablets monitors TV's) and have never had a stuck pixel. Is it actually normal?

Yes. It's luckily rare-ish to actually happen nowadays, and expectations have become stricter, but many vendors do have policies that state that some amount of pixel defects are tolerable, this is not out of the ordinary. Although they do typically distinguish between pixels that stay lit and pixels that are dead, the former being more annoying and thus less acceptable. E.g. a policy might say that a screen of size X can have max 4 dark pixels and only 1 permanently lit that's somewhere at the edge of the screen, and no lit ones in the center.

Re: Open Source Smartwatch

#78

Post by pjmlp »

wongarsu wrote: post #58
pjmlp wrote: post #55

> Any open-source operating systems built on top of numerous RTOSes What does this even mean. Already fragmented apps before it even starts, what else to expect.

Are you complaining about the lack of a walled garden on a post titled "open source smart watch"? Yes, open source leads to experimentation and individualization which leads to fragmentation. It's a trade-off, but and there are already plenty of other smart watches going for a less fragmented but less open ecosystem

I am complaining that they don't provide one single OS experience.

I didn't mention anything about walled gardens.

Re: Open Source Smartwatch

#79

Post by alisonkisk »

numpad0 wrote: post #54

I’m not so sure if this is significant other than for the fact that it’s being distributed by PINE64. There are plenty other junk reprogrammable “smartwatch kit” that reuse Huami/Xiaomi-brand smartwatch enclosures while genuine Huami goes on to collect data more strategically at a larger scale. Recently I got a Mi Band 5 and learned they transfer BLE pairing over platforms - they make devices generate new MAC when un…

Are the Huami ones open source or hackable?

Re: Open Source Smartwatch

#80

Post by goda90 »

tannerbrockwell wrote: post #68

See also the TTGO T-Watch-2020 which is based on an ESP32 processor. [1]: https://www.tindie.com/products/ttgo/lilygor-ttgo-t-watch-20... [2]: https://github.com/Xinyuan-LilyGO/TTGO_TWatch_Library

This might be more up my alley because of WiFi. The only reason I'd want a wearable is to be able to put down my phone but still get notifications(and maybe reply to messages) and Bluetooth's range limits that. But honestly, I hate wearing watches.
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