PineTime — julian

Tweaking my PineTime Open Source Smart Watch

Thu, 29 Aug 2024 14:09:41 +0000

I've been tweaking my PineTime Open Source Smart Watch.

My Trax.im fork of InfiniTime (the PineTime operating system) includes some tweaks such as:

Analogue	Digital	Terminal

original 1.14.0:	original 1.14.0:	original 1.14.0:

Add Calculator	Tweak Settings	Pulse: never say '0'

(caution: buggy with fractions)	(meant to be simpler)	(zero seems dead wrong)

#PineTime #openHardware

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PineTime: Fitting a Cheap Silicone Watch Strap

Tue, 30 Apr 2024 08:32:11 +0000

The PineTime (open-source hardware and software) smart watch strap fits with a 20 mm pin connector, which is a common standard fitting. However, not all 20 mm straps fit, because of the shape of the housing around it.

I bought a cheap silicone 20mm watch strap. Its ends were 20mm wide but too fat to fit in the PineTime. I sliced off some silicone with a sharp craft knife. Now it fits. Not perfectly beautiful but unobtrusive and neat enough.

#PineTime #openHardware

Fun with PineTime Smart Watch

Fri, 16 Feb 2024 15:38:48 +0000

As I wrote before, My smart watch is open source. Awesome!

Let's make this fun — for children in particular — and show how we can bend the device to our will because FOSS means it's truly ours, fully under our control.

This article started from my musing about this topic in the PineTime matrix discussion room.

I'm interested in teaching children about “free software” and having full control of one's own devices. Seems like programming your own digital watch would be an excellent way to make this topic “touchable”. This is an encouragement to any makers and experimenters to do more fun stuff, and get this into the hands of children and technology teachers.

As a programmer I can imagine all sports of technical ways to do so, and I've read about the current state of development (how things like downloadable modules would help) — that side I understand quite well. Where I'm lacking is the social kinds of ideas — what's been tried, who's set up a “watch makers kids club”, etc. Anyone heard of anyone using PineTime or similar projects with children?

What's on my mind is, I am wearing this watch because I want to show people how great is free software and owning control of one's devices. But when they (kids or adults) look, all they see is another watch, they can't see it's programmable and Open. So how can I show them? I half seriously want it to be a bright colour and to flash out the words “MY OWNER PROGRAMMED ME” when I wave my arm around. Or something :–)

I want my PineTime to boldly proclaim “I'm Freedom Software in Freedom Hardware”.

Same for my phone: I want people to see it's different from mainstream and ask me why. I've actually had a go at designing a sticker for my phone. Haven't got it sticky-back printed but have put its image on my lock screen. Hmm, I should print that as a T-shirt :–)

The older I get, the more it bothers me that no-one's aware of the existence of tech where users are in control (~FOSS). The more I feel the need to shout it out... in a shy person's way. Glad to see PineTime got to FOSDEM this year. I wasn't there. I'll watch the recording some time soon. (on FOSDEM.org | on my Trax PeerTube)

What Could Children Do With It?

For the youngest, say 4yo, it could be drawing your own watch background picture (on any sketching app on a laptop) and get it installed on the watch. Then, if there's any way to cross-compile from a beginner language like Scratch then program or reprogram a simple app like alarm/timer, with plenty of flashing the screen and buzzing.

Then for 8 yo and up, program in some accessible textual language (e.g. Hedy/Python if cross-compilation is possible; I haven't enquired how feasible that is).

'neroburner' says: “There is a micro python based firmware for the PineTime. That could be a great starting point for teaching and trying out stuff.” Thank you for that hint. That's Wasp-OS and has more apps than Infinitime and is easier to customise: https://wasp-os.readthedocs.io/en/latest/apps.html

In fact, for any age, getting a bold visual customisation like watch face would probably be the best starting point. (I have read the existing issues about how people would like to make that easier to do technically. That's good stuff but not a precondition: we can work around that by scripting the whole build process.)

But like I said, we can have all these cool ideas software-wise of how we could enable kids to participate, but it's not really going to happen unless we link up with some group of people who do stuff like this. Coding-for-kids clubs, or maker-spaces (hack spaces), or something. (“We” = whoever's interested. I'm not saying any of the existing pine time community should necessarily be interested in this direction, though some might. I'm just asking around to discover what might be out there.)

Customisation

First kinds of customisation, for someone new to it:

graphical — add a “splash screen”, as a personal image and/or a slogan to remind us and our friends this is FOSS; add a background image under the watch face; tweak UI colours, layout, style
watch faces — start with choosing from existing watch faces; then make one for learning to tell the time, perhaps having all the hours clearly numbered; make one as a bitmap image, another by programming vector graphics; make a quick switch button on the watch screen that cycles between the owner's favourite watch faces
apps — customise the list of apps (easy but unexciting); edit an existing app to make a new app (much harder until we make an easy framework for it)

In principle it's possible to customise at a deeper level, such as making different Bluetooth connections (to use an external keyboard, talk directly to another PineTime, ...) but that needs an expert.

App Ideas

Remote control / Ping

button to ping the host phone — Wasp-OS Phone Finder app
button to ping a predefined other phone (via host phone and SMS/KDEConnect/FMD?) — 'page big sister'
button to turn on the light/kettle/etc. (via Android device controls, Home Assistant, etc.)

Messages

Sending messages to one another is great fun! Local first: never mind global tech companies, let's message directly.

phone-to-watch messages (Gadgetbridge has this as a 'debug' function)
on-screen keyboard (9-key multi-tap?) — there is add note taking app with t9 keyboard #1466 — wow! I hadn't guessed predictive text might be possible. This is interesting as a base for any text typing/sending app.
bluetooth keyboard (note: someone said the hardware can make 2 connections (e.g. to host phone and keyboard) but firmware for that hasn't been written)
watch-to-phone message
2-way bluetooth texting between 2 PineTimes

Watch/Clock

Fun with the watch/clock function.

I watched a child play with the alarm setting screen, adjusting the hours and minutes to match the real clock on the wall. The child described it as a digital watch that doesn't tell the time automatically but has to be set manually, like a baby's toy clock. They thought it was fun. So let's make it more fun...

a manually adjustable clock (like setting the alarm)
display analogue & digital together
speed control: fast, slow, stop, backwards
MineTest sync: 20x speed, sync with MineTest game time, animated day/night graphics

For inspiration look at J. Barrett's Clock Demonstrator

These modes are all meant to be temporary: you can always switch back to the real time.

Colour Images

We have a fairly hi-res colour screen, yet I haven't seen any demo of showing a photo or colour graphic background or anything. (Even the “paint” program seems to only paint white on black. Am I missing something? EDIT: A long-press changes colour.)

Photo notifications from a messaging app.
Photo snap from phone camera, straight to watch screen, “save” it there, just the most recent one. Companion app could help crop to a small square and maybe enhance contrast and colour etc for a more “fun” display. On the watch, display just a static fixed resolution image, no zoom etc.
Mini gallery. There is obviously not enough memory for much of a photo gallery, but a few could fit in the 4MB storage. There is Wasp-OS Gallery app and Infinitime Gallery app #1384.
Phone gallery viewer. As we swipe left and right, a module in Gadgetbridge transcodes our phone gallery's images to PT optimised format and sends them down the BT link, on demand. Radio bandwidth might limit phone-connected gallery browsing, but I don't know, it might be enough.

Calculator

I remember spending hours just tapping away on my calculator-watch with its sixteen tiny mechanical buttons when I was young... and it wasn't even programmable, it just had calculator and timer and a tiny game and that's about it. Oh, but if it had been programmable...!

There are two calculator apps proposed for Infinitime: Calculator App #375, and Simple calculator #1483, and Wasp-OS includes a simple calculator app.

PineTime discussion room on Matrix: #pinetime:matrix.org

This article is part of my Open Source Gadgets series.

#fossGadgets #cloudFree #degoogled #awesomeFOSS #openHardware

PineTime Smart Watch -- Awesome Open Source

Sun, 04 Dec 2022 16:50:42 +0000

My smart watch is open source. Awesome!

PineTime from Pine64 (product | shop | wiki)

The PineTime is made of open-source hardware and open-source software.

Read a detailed review by It's MOSS.

Being created in order to inspire open development, Pine64 sell it directly for a very low price. It comes as a working product ready to use. For developers, the similarly priced development kit is recommended.

I haven't worn a watch for decades, but I am so happy this exists, I have ordered one.

Actually, to be candid, I ordered one because I want to be more intentional about promoting open source products. We can tell our friends we don't need Apple or Google owning us. But telling is weak. Showing is strong.

A few weeks later... here it is! Woohoo!

I installed GadgetBridge from F-Droid on my degoogled Android phone, and connected it. Upgrading the Infinitime firmware from version 1.6.0 as supplied, to the then current version 1.11.0, went smoothly.

What Does it Do?

It tells the time. It notifies me, with vibration and on-screen display, of notifications shown on my phone. It can control a music player on my phone, start/stop, track skip, and volume control. Those are the functions I find useful, at least initially.

There's an intriguing “navigation” screen, as in map directions. I have not been able to make it do anything, and on searching online found a note that it “only works with PureMaps/Sailfish OS”. That's a pity. I wonder if it can and will be made to work with the awesome open source Organic Maps.

Maybe you are more interested in the step counting and heart rate monitoring. There are also some little gadgets like timers, scribbling, metronome, and mini-games.

Where Next?

This is a hacker's watch, a hackable watch. Infinitime OS is not the only OS it can run. There is also Wasp-OS, and instructions on how to switch between Infinitime and Wasp-OS.

On either operating system, it's possible to add new functions. I would like to learn how to do so. For instance, I would like to monitor and control my smart home gadgets.

Some starting points: customising the PineTime watch faces:

InfiniSim
PineTime Custom Watchface Tutorial — pine64.org
Create Your Own PineTime Watch Face in Rust... And Publish on crates.io — Lup Yuen
Customizing My Pinetime — by JP/moddedBear

Alternatives

Other smart watches exist with open-source hardware and software designs. Some are hacker-only projects, which you can build yourself, such as Bellafaire's and more that we can find in round-ups such as this and this.

Here are the ones I know that are available to buy.

Bangle.js reviewed in MagPi magazine, Feb. 2022
Watchy by SQFMI

DecentNet has written an article with an overview of several Programmable watches .

And finally, I came across an interesting project by “dcz” who has begun making a bike “computer” based on Bangle.js watch hardware with custom software: Jazda.

PineTime discussion room on Matrix: #pinetime:matrix.org

This article is part of my Open Source Gadgets series.

#fossGadgets #cloudFree #degoogled #awesomeFOSS #openHardware

Comments

@julian:foad.me.uk on 2023-01-31:

Its battery does indeed last for a week, with light usage.

@julian:foad.me.uk on 2023-01-31:

When the android clock app rings an alarm, gadgetbridge seems to send a blank notification to the watch. It would be good if we could make the alarm show up with “Snooze” and “Dismiss” feedback buttons.