Open Source Smartwatch • Hacker News Board

Re: Open Source Smartwatch

#151

Post by deadw3ight » Sat, Jan 02, 2021, 6:49 PM UTC

listic wrote: post #73

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.

Color displays are great, but they should have had an option for a (color or black and white) e-paper display. More efficient for these purposes imo.

Re: Open Source Smartwatch

#152

Post by pjmlp » Sat, Jan 02, 2021, 6:53 PM UTC

snvzz wrote: post #133

pjmlp wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because without a standard OS stack it is going to be the "Year of FOSS Watch"™.

You don't seem to get it. This isn't an end user device. This is for developers, i.e. hackers and makers. It doesn't work by installing "apps", but rather, the whole system image is built from _your_ code. Which makes sense on a device that has 64KB RAM. Any code samples they provide are just that: Samples. If what you're looking for is a general public oriented device, this is not it. There's plenty in the market to…

I surely get it, yet another device that will be gone in a couple of years.

Re: Open Source Smartwatch

#153

Post by noman-land » Sat, Jan 02, 2021, 6:53 PM UTC

Speaking of which, I recently discovered a javascript based open source smart watch.

https://banglejs.com

It's a little bulky but seems like it could be a fun device to hack around on. I got one recently from Adafruit.

Re: Open Source Smartwatch

#154

Post by pjmlp » Sat, Jan 02, 2021, 6:54 PM UTC

wongarsu wrote: post #138

pjmlp wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because without a standard OS stack it is going to be the "Year of FOSS Watch"™.

Per the wiki it has a default OS (InfiniTime). However currently the MicroPython based Wasp-OS seems to have more features. [1] https://wiki.pine64.org/wiki/InfiniTime [2] https://github.com/daniel-thompson/wasp-os

Thanks for the links.

Re: Open Source Smartwatch

#155

Post by tomjen3 » Sat, Jan 02, 2021, 7:03 PM UTC

Does it actually have a decent battery? The Apple Watch can't even go 24 hours of use without having to be charged.

Re: Open Source Smartwatch

#156

Post by ficklepickle » Sat, Jan 02, 2021, 7:08 PM UTC

detaro wrote: post #136

ekianjo wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazfit Bip (S) has a GPS and still lasts for about 2 weeks in the same form factor.

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.

Re: Open Source Smartwatch

#157

Post by IvanSologub » Sat, Jan 02, 2021, 7:26 PM UTC

Why should products be either beautiful (like an apple) or functional (like Linux)?

Re: Open Source Smartwatch

#158

Post by snvzz » Sat, Jan 02, 2021, 7:26 PM UTC

pjmlp wrote: post #152

snvzz wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't seem to get it. This isn't an end user device. This is for developers, i.e. hackers and makers. It doesn't work by installing "apps", but rather, the whole system image is built from _your_ code. Which makes sense on a device that has 64KB RAM. Any code samples they provide are just that: Samples. If what you're looking for is a general public oriented device, this is not it. There's plenty in the market to…

I surely get it, yet another device that will be gone in a couple of years.

The target customer does not care.

Re: Open Source Smartwatch

#159

Post by kungito » Sat, Jan 02, 2021, 7:45 PM UTC

I so want to move to a standalone smartwatch and not have to carry a phone. I need nfc payment with a bank supporting the whatever (Google Pay or something), GPS with a maps app, LTE with support for whatsapp and calls + sms and bluetooth for wireless buds for calls. Don't even need music. Maybe I could even skip NFC payment by having a slot to insert a cut contactless credit card although I like the extra security of having to unlock the device to use Google Pay. I only wish Android smartwatches supported whatsapp voice message sending and weren't so slow to the point of being unusable

Re: Open Source Smartwatch

#160

Post by pjmlp » Sat, Jan 02, 2021, 7:47 PM UTC

snvzz wrote: post #158

pjmlp wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I surely get it, yet another device that will be gone in a couple of years.

The target customer does not care.

Ask N900 owners how they don't care about having a replacement.