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Open Source Smartwatch

pine64.org

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231–240 of 251 posts

Re: Open Source Smartwatch

#231

Post by jepper »

blacklight wrote: post #188

I'd be the perfect target for the products of a company like Pine. A long-time geek who uses open-source software on nearly all of his devices, a tinkerer who doesn't mind recompiling a kernel or picking a solderer to make things work, and someone who seeks for absolute flexibility from his devices with zero corporate compromises. Unfortunately, the mediocre hardware used in their devices keeps holding me back. First…

Yes the compromise is worth it. These are the best SoCs available on the open market. If we aspire to more open and repairable devices then we need to start somewhere, and we have to put our money where our mouth is. If volume goes up we get better open products. Luckily Pine64 is doing really well so much so that non geeks are buying their products (with all the software support problems that come with them)

I bought a pinebook pro and i have some SBCs. The PBP is perfect travel laptop with long battery life that can run on my phone charger. Firefox runs buttery smooth on Manjaro i3.

Re: Open Source Smartwatch

#232

Post by loxias »

looperhacks wrote: post #76
wongarsu wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 :(

Another +1 for you to post your thesis once you can!

Re: Open Source Smartwatch

#234

Post by oliwary »

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

I have it! Pretty fun to play with, although I am not experienced in C++ so have not been able to make it do super useful things yet. It is also quite fiddly - I think it would take quite a lot of work for it to be useful as a daily driver.

Here are some useful starting points if you want to play with it:

Instructions for setting up a platform that easily allows you to build your own simple apps for it: https://www.instructables.com/Lilygo-T-Watch-2020-Arduino-Fr...

Extended version of the platform with many included apps and features: https://github.com/wfdudley/T-watch-2020

MicroPython port for the watch (have not been able to try it yet and not sure if it is maintained): https://github.com/OPHoperHPO/lilygo-ttgo-twatch-2020-microp...

Re: Open Source Smartwatch

#235

Post by fsflover »

blacklight wrote: post #188

I'd be the perfect target for the products of a company like Pine. A long-time geek who uses open-source software on nearly all of his devices, a tinkerer who doesn't mind recompiling a kernel or picking a solderer to make things work, and someone who seeks for absolute flexibility from his devices with zero corporate compromises. Unfortunately, the mediocre hardware used in their devices keeps holding me back. First…

> First came a phone with a 9-year-old A53 Cortex chipset.

You might be interested in Librem 5 phone: https://puri.sm/products/librem-5.

Re: Open Source Smartwatch

#236

Post by detaro »

ekianjo wrote: post #143
detaro wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How often do you use the GPS in those two weeks? It obviously only needs power if used, and tests I've read suggest it wouldn't last 2 days with lots of active GPS usage (which is to be expected, and not really a fault of the device!).

Twice a day for about an hour

Thanks for the clarification, that's surprisingly good, and indeed seems useful for many.

Re: Open Source Smartwatch

#237

Post by solarkraft »

siraben wrote: post #31
solarkraft wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same here. Not only does it save battery life; it ensures the display is always on and looks way better. The Pebble Time had a Sharp Memory LCD, I'm not sure what the Amazfit Bip uses. It's baffling that there are so few electronics in general that use E-Paper/translective displays. Does anyone know?

The reMarkable tablet, Supernote A5/A6 are some pretty hackable e-ink tablets.

E-Ink is great, but the main point about it is reflectivity/transflectivity (optional backlight), right? You can do that with LCDs, right (see mentioned smartwatched)?

Sure, the image quality isn't super amazing, but it displays color, uses super little energy and still updates quickly. That's pretty much my point.

The HiSense Q5 is a tablet with a transflective display, but for some reason that is black and white.

Re: Open Source Smartwatch

#238

Post by Donckele »

bartvk wrote: post #223
Donckele wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you mean sending a message from an external device to the watch and running some python code with it then yes.

That is cool. I don't see iPhone there, does it mean notifications aren't supported there?

I dont know what the notification features are with the stock firmware and TBH it is a hit and miss affair with all devices and you have to do plenty of research before buying. The device I quoted is ripe for hacking and currently the waspos firmware is a blank slate for anyone to create custom watch software.

Re: Open Source Smartwatch

#239

Post by angry_octet »

ficklepickle wrote: post #156
detaro wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How often do you use the GPS in those two weeks? It obviously only needs power if used, and tests I've read suggest it wouldn't last 2 days with lots of active GPS usage (which is to be expected, and not really a fault of the device!).

Some GPS receivers claim to get a reading in 2ms, then power down. Even doing that once a second would only have it powered 0.2% of the time. Still quite impressive though. It defies belief getting 2 weeks out of a GPS watch charge.

It is possible to do the GPS processing after the fact. You turn on the rx and listen for a few hundred milliseconds, then turn off. This is very low power. Later you push these to a server (a smartphone or the cloud) which computes the position. This is called snapshot processing.

So if you don't need the position in real time for navigation it is quite possible to track location over a week with a tiny battery. This could be time triggered and/or based on MEMs counters (which are also power friendly). Or you could calculate locally if the user explicitly asks.

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/5708033 http://publica.fraunhofer.de/documents/N-464241.html

Re: Open Source Smartwatch

#240

Post by glenstein »

dariosalvi78 wrote: post #167
glenstein wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>junk reprogrammable “smartwatch kit” that reuse Huami/Xiaomi-brand smartwatch enclosures This strikes me a really over the top expression of contempt which just isn't necessary or constructive at all. I generally understand Pine64 products to be developed to the point that they are capable of being used by end-users from day one without hacking or fiddling, are basically ready-to-order in the same way as any commerc…

There are not so many reprogrammable cheap watches on the market, I only know of 3 actually. Can you share a list?

I'm not sure how many reprogrammable cheap watches there are, and am not off the top of my head familiar with any besides the one listed here.

Was this intended to be a reply to my comment?

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