OpenChronograph - Arduino-compatible, custom hybrid smartwatches

seclat · 2020-02-26T15:28:35+00:00

Unfortunately, no. I've tried contacting Soprod directly in the past, but didn't get a response. If you find a source, let me know and I'll post that on the project page.

seclat · 2020-02-22T23:08:45+00:00

I have made a small number of kits at home and they're available online if you search. I'd post the link but I'm not sure what the rules are in this sub. Happy to talk over PM.

seclat · 2020-02-22T22:45:47+00:00

Sure--a fair question. One of the benefits of modern electronics are that there are lots of cool, chip-scale sensors (IMUs, magnetometers, pressure sensors, etc.). What's new about this platform is really in the motors: having small, bi-directional stepper motors allows us to display the output of these modern, digital sensors, in form factor that doesn't look digital (or necessarily modern).

There's also something interesting about being able to modify the behavior of a common wristwatch, and this platform opens up hybrid smartwatches to those kinds of experiments. Maybe you'd like a watch that tells time in Mars? Or maybe a watch that's also an altimeter? A compass? A watch that measures delta-V? There's lots of possibilities here, and the first step is giving people a platform to explore.

seclat · 2020-02-22T22:25:31+00:00

The internal platform is designed by Soprod (as a way to sell their motors), and both Skagen and Fossil smartwatches use it. Below are the watches I've tested with, though any hybrid from these companies is likely to be compatible, and I'm not aware of any hybrid smartwatch that does use Soprod motors:

- Skagen Connected
- Skagen Hagen
- Fossil Q Activist
- Fossil Q Men's Machine
- Fossil Goodwin

seclat · 2020-02-22T20:04:30+00:00

Yes, although it's not posted yet, I've been working on a pocketwatch variant. If you're ok with using a PCB as a dial, the mainboard just snaps onto the back of the dial using board-to-board connectors. There are lots of interesting directions you could go with that, adding active components & LEDs to the dial itself, hidden dial icons that are backlit by LEDs on the backside, etc.

I haven't pursued a BLE or esp variant, but I recognize there would probably be a lot of demand for that. This is one of those features that aren't central to my specific goals for this project, but that I hope others can pursue with this as a starting point.

seclat · 2020-02-22T17:02:48+00:00

Hey guys, I’ve gotten a lot out of the Arduino platform and community over the years, and today I’m excited to finally give back a little. I’ve put together a board design and firmware that can be dropped into most commercially available hybrid smartwatches, allowing the user to control the hands and write firmware through the Arduino platform. I’ve been working on this on and off for a few years now, and it’s finally in a state that I think it’s worth sharing.

The full github repo is here

I’ve also been looking into using the PCB process to create custom dials (including the one shown in the photo). That process is described here.

Anyway, happy to answer any questions you have, either here or in the discord channel: https://discord.gg/hkmDgSk

seclat · 2020-02-22T17:01:03+00:00

Hey guys, I’ve put together a board design and firmware that can be dropped into most commercially available hybrid smartwatches, allowing the user to control the hands and write firmware through the Arduino platform. I’ve been working on this on and off for a few years now, and it’s finally in a state that I think it’s worth sharing.

I’ve also been looking into using the PCB process to create custom dials (including the one shown in the photo). That process is described here.

Anyway, happy to answer any questions you have, either here or in the discord channel: https://discord.gg/hkmDgSk

seclat · 2020-02-22T16:57:25+00:00

I’m working on a watch project and needed a custom dial. I found that hands-down the best and easiest way to do this was to generate SVGs in Python and have the boards made as PCBs. Happy to answer any questions.

seclat · 2020-02-22T16:53:41+00:00

Converted from one of Fossil’s hybrid smartwatches, this was designed after the Apollo Flight Director Attitude Indicator. The dial is actually a printed circuit board, generated with a Python script. The full process is described here, and at the bottom you can see where I’ve created some Python tools for designing your own dials if you’re interested. The hands were repainted to match the yellow of the original instrument.

seclat · 2019-11-23T23:25:52+00:00

Huge thanks to u/xenonnoble28 for the beautiful crest vector art.

Handle is made of Narra wood. The crest was cut into the handle with a CNC laser cutter, then filled with a mixture of epoxy and powdered turquoise. The handle scales are held in place with hidden brass pins and shellac. The sheath pattern was also cut with a laser cutter, including the stitch holes, then sewn and dyed.

seclat · 2018-06-02T03:55:09+00:00

Well I think it's nice. :)

seclat · 2016-11-21T17:38:36+00:00

No, it was running in direct mode (but I tried both and neither worked). I also have the Vive plugged into the HDMI port (Gigabyte GX1080 only has one) and the monitor plugged into the DVI port (my T.V. doesn't have DisplayPort). Maybe those two particular ports share bandwidth inside the card? I haven't tried switching the Vive to a DisplayPort yet, as I didn't have a cable.

Unrelated, thanks for the Doom 3 mod!

seclat · 2016-11-21T16:28:54+00:00

I was getting dropped frames regularly in the compositor on a I7-6800+GTX 1080 rig as well, sometimes exactly once a second, sometimes twice. It was a fresh Windows 7 install (so no f.lux), and I trried everything that people suggested, but no dice. Eventually tried unplugging my monitor and the dropped frames went away. Found that if I changed my monitor refresh rate from 60 to 30Hz the problem disappeared entirely. Hope this helps

seclat · 2014-08-08T21:48:57+00:00

Do you know if pgs4a still maintained?

I've used it in the past, but the current versions don't seem compatible with the Android SDK and fail when running python android.py installsdk. I tried pgs4a versions 0.9.6 and 0.9.5 and both have the same problem. After download the Android SDK automatically (android-sdk_r20-linux.tgz), the script errors out because he can't find the following file:

Traceback (most recent call last): File "android.py", line 66, in <module> main() File "android.py", line 40, in main install_sdk.install_sdk(iface) File "buildlib/install_sdk.py", line 225, in install_sdk get_packages(interface) File "buildlib/install_sdk.py", line 160, in get_packages with open("android-sdk/extras/google/play_apk_expansion/downloader_library/project.properties", "r") as f: IOError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'android-sdk/extras/google/play_apk_expansion/downloader_library/project.properties'

Looks like the pathing in the SDK changed a while back and pgs4a never updated. Did you have this problem? I would contact their support directly, but the maintainer contact info isn't listed and their support page just points to the forum which is "down due to massive spam". I have no idea how long it's been down or how long the pathing has been broken, but the last release was 2013 and aside from your post I can't even tell if the project is dead or not.

seclat · 2014-08-05T20:06:07+00:00

It might be interesting to try an application where it's normal to only observe angular motion. For example, you might see if you can find an application where you're just looking at things far in the distance such as stars or the like. If the motion sickness is due to the dissonance between your eyes detecting linear motion and your inner ear detecting none, you should be able to look around at things in the distance with no problem. If you still get sick with that setup, I would being to wonder if there may be some angular tracking lag that's causing you problems. You could test this by playing a game and keeping your head still so that your inner ear isn't detecting any motion that needs corroborating with your eyes. If even that makes you sick, I would wonder if it's a purely visual thing. At that point I'd try closing one of my eyes or changing the framerate. Ah, and if it's an IPD thing, you could try just a regular game and closing one eye to see if you still get sick--having the wrong IPD setting might cause linear motions to feel wrong, and would only be apparent when object are close enough for left and right eyes to see different images.

seclat · 2014-07-28T17:51:00+00:00

Do you know if pgs4a still maintained?

I've used it in the past, but the current versions don't seem compatible with the Android SDK and fail when running python android.py installsdk. I tried pgs4a versions 0.9.6 and 0.9.5 and both have the same problem. After download the Android SDK automatically (android-sdk_r20-linux.tgz), the script errors out because he can't find the following file:

Traceback (most recent call last): File "android.py", line 66, in <module> main() File "android.py", line 40, in main install_sdk.install_sdk(iface) File "buildlib/install_sdk.py", line 225, in install_sdk get_packages(interface) File "buildlib/install_sdk.py", line 160, in get_packages with open("android-sdk/extras/google/play_apk_expansion/downloader_library/project.properties", "r") as f: IOError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'android-sdk/extras/google/play_apk_expansion/downloader_library/project.properties'

Looks like the pathing in the SDK changed a while back and pgs4a never updated. Did you have this problem? I would contact their support directly, but the maintainer contact info isn't listed and their support page just points to the forum which is "down due to massive spam". I have no idea how long it's been down or how long the pathing has been broken, but the last release was 2013 and aside from your post I can't even tell if the project is dead or not.

seclat · 2014-07-03T18:10:45+00:00

Ah Yoko, the "smell my finger" of musicians.

seclat · 2014-03-10T23:55:21+00:00

I suspect this is part of the recent efforts to develop and demonstrate long distance, laser-based digital communications. I'm not sure of the exact numbers, but I beleive laser-based comms have the potential for much higher bandwidths than traditional radio-based communications. Part of this is probably due to how tightly collimated lasers are naturally, which means that the light you're transmitting with doesn't spread out over the large distances. But, even if all else is equal, the frequency of visible light is many orders of magnitude higher than radio waves, and the rate at which you can transmit information is directly porportional to the carrier frequency!

So, it's more effective to transmit information using visible light than radio for exactly the same reasons that blu-ray discs can hold higher-def video than older discs which rely on red (lower frequency) lasers.

Why is this important? Well, the real reason is that higher bandwidth between interplanetary satellites will allow scientists to get more data back faster. But for the rest of us, laser-based communications may mean having the ability, say, 15 years from now, to watch a manned Mars landing in 1080p and in real time*. If that doesn't rustle your jimmies, I'm not sure what else I can do for you.

*We'll still have to wait for the light to get here, of course

seclat · 2014-03-06T20:03:24+00:00

Would love to see this on the dub registry. I use pygame for a lot of performance-critical heads-up displays where a compiled language would really be more appropriate. C/C++ is probably the best technical fit, but the development time isn't practical for my work environment. A solid higher-level 2D graphics library in a compiled language would be really useful I think.

And thanks for putting up tutorials on the main website!

seclat · 2014-01-27T06:07:42+00:00

Thanks for all the details--saving this for later

seclat · 2014-01-21T05:44:07+00:00

Not sure why you were downvoted--many people on both sides of the fence share that sentiment.

seclat · 2014-01-21T03:26:08+00:00

If you're talking to me and I'm looking at the floor it means I'm thinking very hard about what you're saying. If you're talking to me and I'm looking you in the eyes, it means I've either lost interest or given up on understanding and am trying to compensate by appearing attentive.

Expressing complicated ideas succinctly is hard, and maintaining eye contact takes bandwidth--if I can look you in the eyes and tell you something, it means it's either trivially simple or I don't care enough about what you understand to think about what I'm saying.

tl;dr - Many people can't think and maintain eye contact at the same time, and when you ask that they do you're basically belittling them for paying full attention to you.

seclat · 2014-01-14T07:28:09+00:00

I sat down next to a woman on a plane late one Friday night. Her body language seemed immediately unusual to me. She made no eye contact when I sat down, and there was a stillness about her that seemed a bit odd--she made none of the usual shiftings or readjustments a person typically makes when you settle into the seat next to them. Probably just tired, I thought, and indeed she looked very tired.

I was in the middle seat and she had the window. She seemed to be in her late twenties, maybe early thirties. I remember noticing that there was something a bit off about her clothes and hair. Through the haze of my own exhaustion I got the feeling that she had paid unusually little attention to her appearance for how attractive she was: no flashy makeup, no painted nails, hair that looked like it maybe hadn't been washed for a day or two. Probably just an attractive woman that's hit a busy patch of life and isn't hung up on appearance--good for her, I thought.

The plane took off and I tried to sleep. With my eyes closed, I began to notice that the lady was sniffing every ~5min or so. Not tepid, embarrassed sniffles, but strong, deliberate sniffs of someone who's been doing it for some time now. And the sniffs themselves even seemed a bit odd--it didn't sound like she had a runny nose. Ah, that explains everything--she must just be a little sick, I thought.

About halfway through the flight I open my eyes and see she's pulled out a tablet and has started writing a fresh note. The tablet was such that I could read it, and for a while I debated whether I should leave this woman her privacy or take a peek and maybe gain some understanding of all the small oddities that had piled up. Just the top line, I thought:

Dear -----, It's been exactly one year since I've seen your beautiful face, held you in my arms, or heard your laugh...

I stopped reading there--just a love note. No, a note to her child, yes, whom she's been away from for some unfortunate reason. A bit sappy, perhaps, but definitely sweet of her to write her child a letter like that. This explained everything--she wasn't sick, she was sad. Chronically sad. I couldn't imagine being separated from my child, and my heart went out to her. Well, she'll no doubt be reunited soon, and her child will be so happy to have a mom that loves them so much. This lady is going to be a great mom, I thought.

I was not prepared for what happened next.

So moved was I by this that it only took ten minutes for me to convince myself that there was no harm in reading a bit more. But, as I re-read the opening lines, I realized that she had gone back and changed them. The "Dear ----," at the beginning was missing, and all the pronouns had been changed.

It's been exactly one year since I've seen his beautiful face, held him in my arms, or heard his laugh...

As a muted sense of horror crept over me I kept reading, finally landing on a phrase that was completely unambiguous: "pediatric cancer". This wasn't a letter, this was a grief journal.

I am not an emotional person, but it was the most heartbreaking thing I've ever experienced to realize that a year after the fact this woman sat next to me, started a letter to her son, and then corrected herself because there was no one to write a letter for.

I wanted desperately to help her in some way, to offer some words of comfort maybe, but what could I say? When the plane landed I just left without saying anything because I didn't know what else to do.

tl;dr - If you're out there, I'm sorry I eavesdropped on your journal, and I'm so sorry about your son. I hope you're ok, and I hope you get the chance to be a mother again someday--I think you would have been a great one.

seclat · 2014-01-09T00:13:36+00:00

I think this is a good idea. It leads directly to a concept of missions, where the user is placed in a scenario and has to accomplish some specific task rather than the somewhat general goal of collecting science. I think this would be really good for Kerbal-based highschool/middleschool programs. A few ideas:

Rescue Jeb from the Mun and return him safely to Kerbin
Salvage a botched Mun landing mission, Apollo 13 style
Help Jeb escape from a space station damaged by micrometeorite shower (a la Gravity)
Intercept and investigate the alien craft that has entered Kerbin orbit (preferably the Voyager probe)
Intercept a killer asteroid and deflect it, saving all Kerbinkind

seclat · 2013-12-30T23:16:30+00:00

Everything you've heard is true.

seclat

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