Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Introducing the GoodWatch

goodwatch.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

1–10 of 74 posts

Re: Introducing the GoodWatch

#3

Post by passwordqq2 »

codinghorror wrote: post #2

Oh my gosh this is amazing, such a labor of love. Everyone clearly needs a reverse engineered disassembler on their wrist.

I was going to leave a snarky comment about "reverse engineered disassembler" but then accidentally saw the username. What do you mean by that?

Re: Introducing the GoodWatch

#4

Post by limmeau »

At first I thought this was a firmware mod for those calculator watches, but it's a new circuit board. Comparable in power to those TI msp430 developer watches, but with better UI possibilities.

Re: Introducing the GoodWatch

#7

Post by bastijn »

omn1 wrote: post #5

I miss posts like this on HN.

Came here to reply: “this is why I read HN.”. Glad to see more people feel like that.

@author (if here). Thanks, fantastic read and an even better gadget. You made me feel “O my, I need this!”.

Re: Introducing the GoodWatch

#9

Post by exikyut »

j7ake wrote: post #6

So it will be possible to buy one ? It looks cool

It would be pretty cool for someone to step up and make a few of these, but they would need to be prepared to be mildly inundated with orders.

Someone should tell Casio about this, and forward them http://www.hpmuseum.org/cgi-sys/cgiwrap/hpmuseum/archv018.cg... as an example of what can happen when insiders successfully pull strings.

In this particular case the poster in the linked thread worked deep inside HP and lobbied hard to get an SDK released and manufacture the calculator with a nondescript set of pins inside the battery compartment that permitted reflashing.

The result was the "WP 34s" firmware: https://commerce.hpcalc.org/34s.php is a basic overview (unknown if clicking Order works, email first) and https://sourceforge.net/projects/wp34s/ has full source code, details - and emulators for Linux/Windows/macOS that Just Work™, I might add.

This firmware was written from scratch - the SDK provided a functioning compiler and basic architectural info about the calculator, but no sample code. The above firmware was thus written entirely from scratch. It implements all standard functionality (re-implements, heh) as well as a number of advanced fan-built features (more info at the SF link above).

IIUC, the HP-20b is sadly no longer in active production, so getting one's hands on this interesting bit of kit is tricky. But despite the fact that this never really made headline news the whole venture worked perfectly. Thought I'd mention it.

As for what I think Casio should do: the TL;DR is that it's really, really hard to do things that are offensive or damaging from a business standpoint with a 8-char 7-segment LCD and a tiny keypad. This isn't a smartwatch with a full-color LCD. So there's that.

The real problem is that, well, what little market demand is left for wrist calculator watches is now split between the option of purchasing a smartwatch instead. So demand would be probably within the But if there happen to have any active production lines still producing these calculator watches, I can totally see Casio being able to very cheaply swap in a PCB with something like what OP has created.

NB. Since I have no idea how far this comment could reach - by all means copypasta.

Post reply on HN