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Casio F-B100W-1A

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Re: Casio F-B100W-1A

#271

Post by SwellJoe »

TylerE wrote: post #261
SwellJoe wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The prices are pretty similar to Yamaha DX series synths on eBay right now (starting at about $300 and going on up to $700 for working specimens, depending on model and condition).

Not really. XZ1000 $300-600. DX7 $700-1000.

According to what I can dig up, the original MSRP of the DX7 was $1995. The original MSRP of the Casio CZ 101 was $395. So, by my reckoning, the CZ has a higher collector value than the DX7 based on relative price change over the years.

Edit: But also, the CZ was generally more comparable to lower-end DX synths, like the DX27 or DX9. It was a budget synth in its day, while the DX7 was the pinnacle of digital synthesis for at least a year or two after release, everyone had to have one.

Re: Casio F-B100W-1A

#272

Post by panuskadev »

gregsadetsky wrote: post #258
MicrosoftShill wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it really as easy as you say? I have one of these Casio watches and plenty of spare Claude credits. Wouldn’t mind doing this but no idea where to begin.

Responding to you and @thewhitetulip If you ask Claude how to do it, it might already give you some strategy that's reasonable (at least, it's good to see what it thinks) Make sure to use Fable, and preferably have the Max plan (or plenty of credits) LLMs can do very good work when they're unattended and optimize towards a goal that's unambiguous / for which you have a reference. Generally speaking, in hardware, this…

Hi Greg, I am Claude Code junior specialist from Czech Republic and also huge Casio fan. I've been ignoring all bluetooth enabled models in the past, since I had a lot of negative experience with proprietary apps (Sony Music Center, Ultrahuman etc). This is not me first time thinking about reverse engineering products app, I love open hardware and I wanted to contribute to the community, but while doing my research (which Claude agrees with), I've figured out that it might not be as easy as I thought. For example, Googles Fitbit Air is according to some encrypting its traffic in a way, that it reaches Googles Cloud first, unencrypts and then reaches the app itself. How would you approach this issue? By the way, the dongle offer still stands? ;)

Re: Casio F-B100W-1A

#273

Post by nout »

wpm wrote: post #199

BIG Warning to anyone thinking about purchasing one of these You cannot connect the watch to Bluetooth without a proprietary app, and that proprietary app will not let you use the Bluetooth feature without some bullshit called a "CASIO Account". Their privacy policy is a bit of an eyebrow-raiser too. The absolute state of things.

If the watch gets any popular, it will take at most weeks for someone to vibecode open source app for this.

Re: Casio F-B100W-1A

#274

Post by boomlinde »

speak_plainly wrote: post #58
jorvi wrote: post #17

One thing I've never understood (and hopefully some Casio geek can shine a light on): why do almost all old Casio models have a 24/12h time switch taking the premium spot as one of the main 4 buttons, instead of having it buried deep in the (awkward) menus. Seems to me that something like alarm or stopwatch setting or a second menu action button would have been far more useful.

Those buttons are the menu. The idea of menus on watches is a modern ux extravagance. I don’t have the satisfying answer as to why they dedicated a button to 12/24 hour time but my guess is that it’s simply a cool digital feature and stands out against the limitations of analog watches.

There are menus on these watches, though. On the F91w the menu button flips through different setting modes which affect the function of the other buttons.

Re: Casio F-B100W-1A

#275

Post by b8 »

I wish they would've added features like LED lighting and other improvements while keeping Solar and Atomic clock syncing. Instead of modern smart watch stuff.

Re: Casio F-B100W-1A

#276

Post by retired »

b8 wrote: post #275

I wish they would've added features like LED lighting and other improvements while keeping Solar and Atomic clock syncing. Instead of modern smart watch stuff.

These watches have cheap batteries that you can swap in two minutes. Not a big deal. Solar batteries cost a lot more money and will render this watch as e-waste in the future.

Re: Casio F-B100W-1A

#277

Post by onehair »

b8 wrote: post #275

I wish they would've added features like LED lighting and other improvements while keeping Solar and Atomic clock syncing. Instead of modern smart watch stuff.

I have the ABL-100WE-1A version, it has LED backlight. all of the ABL-100WE have it. I press 3 seconds on the mode button, the watch syncs to the phone, syncs the clock and doesn't drift for a long time, and it also syncs the steps from pedometer.

Re: Casio F-B100W-1A

#278

Post by retired »

parl_match wrote: post #55

i love the product design aspect of a product that only needs to have one thing set (in this case, the time zone), to be eternally a functional device which is why i love gshocks, both for design but also specifically the ones with tough solar/multiband 6 (and bluetooth (optional)) they have battery lives in the range of decades (due to solar charging), set themselves (multiband 6 is using atomic clock radio signals)…

Solar batteries typically last between 10 and 20 years depending on usage. They are very expensive unfortunately. Regular batteries are a better deal.

Re: Casio F-B100W-1A

#279

Post by SwellJoe »

ajxs wrote: post #254
SwellJoe wrote: post #161

Casio has been leaving a lot of money on the table in terms of nostalgia products. There's been a low rumble of demand for the Casio CZ series of synthesizers for a decade or more, and a bunch of non-Casio companies have cashed in on it (Behringer makes CZ-1 Mini, Arturia has CZ V, several other phase distortion synths exist). It's incredibly cheap to replicate, a simple early digital synthesis algorithm that'll run…

It's a really good question why Casio didn't continue making synths after the 80s. It's possible that the entire CZ-line was intended to be a one-off response to Yamaha's breakaway success with the DX7. After the CZ-line, it looks like Casio tried to keep up with Yamaha for a few years, but exited the market after Yamaha launched the SY-line. From what I understand, the CZ-series were great sellers then, but even wit…

Awesome. When I was researching the CZ 101 (still am, actually), I spent some time reading the MAME implementation, including the NEC upd933 chip emulation. I was going to say I'm surprised I didn't find your docs, but it looks like they were all published late last year which is precisely when I was doing my research (I used the holiday to work on some projects I'd been stewing on in the back of my mind, and a phase distortion plugin was one of them).

I don't know why I find that era of synth so enjoyable and interesting, but I do. I love every FM synth, but that side of things feels pretty well covered by existing tools. Korg makes the OpSix (and I have two), Yamaha has the reface DX and I think their workstations still ship an AFM engine, and there are at least a half dozen plugins that are mostly quite accurate, and a handful of other hardware options.

Phase distortion just feels more neglected, so that's the one I've been spending time on. I have an excellent engine running, which is more accurate than the Arturia CZ V engine (at least compared to my actual CZ 101, maybe they were comparing against another model, but the MAME engine is also like the real CZ and not like Arturia, so I am inclined to say Arturia got sloppy), but I'm going pretty slow on the UI. Making a nice plugin UI for a synth that didn't have a nice UI is a challenge. You can't just copy the original UI if you want it to be fun to use.

Re: Casio F-B100W-1A

#280

Post by SwellJoe »

steve-atx-7600 wrote: post #239
SwellJoe wrote: post #161

Casio has been leaving a lot of money on the table in terms of nostalgia products. There's been a low rumble of demand for the Casio CZ series of synthesizers for a decade or more, and a bunch of non-Casio companies have cashed in on it (Behringer makes CZ-1 Mini, Arturia has CZ V, several other phase distortion synths exist). It's incredibly cheap to replicate, a simple early digital synthesis algorithm that'll run…

Hopefully because they’re focusing on having relevance in the future. It’s sad as a gen Xer to see Japanese electronics companies fading away.

They ate American manufacturing's lunch and now China is eating theirs. The circle of life, or something. But, yeah, I have fond feelings for a lot of Japanese brands, not just electronics (my favorite car since childhood is a Nissan Z, speaking of Japanese companies on the ropes).
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