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I'm so sad that Pebble went under. They made the best smartwatch in my opinion.

by m-p-3 10y ago

rtpg 10y ago
I'm sad too. I'm actually really worried about my pebble breaking, so have been looking into making a homebrew smartwatch. My biggest issue right now is finding a screen with similar specs to the Pebble Time in terms of resolution and power usage. If anyone has any advice on how I could get wearable screens like JDI[0] has (without having to buy 100 of them) I'd love to hear it! I'm not super well versed in electronics procurement [0]:http://www.j-display.com/english/product/wearable.html http://www.j-display.com/english/product/wearable.html
- ClassyJacket 10y ago
  ...Buy everyone's old Pebbles? :p
- memmcgee 10y ago
  I don't have this, but this book is supposed to be good for procurement: https://www.crowdsupply.com/sutajio-kosagi/the-essential-guide-to-electronics-in-shenzhen https://www.crowdsupply.com/sutajio-kosagi/the-essential-gui...
  - janekm 10y ago
    It won't help for the screen... Those are made by Sharp and would be exceedingly hard to get hold of in Shenzhen.
- Robelius 10y ago
  Making a homebrew smartwatch sounds like a fun side-project. Any chance you would be willing to share your progress so far? I'm a student with an interest in electronics manufacturing so making one would be more of a learning experience. Also, for a one-off screen have you looked at contacting a manufacturer on something like Alibaba? They are usually more than willing to send a discounted/free one-off sample of a product.
  - rtpg 10y ago
    I wish I had much progress! I looked at a pebble teardown, and saw that it didn't seem to involve very complex production strategies. From that I decided to try building a list of components! I know how to do some microcontroller programming so wasn't too worried about that part, but felt like getting an efficient screen was important. I've had a hard time finding power efficient screens that I can purchase in very small quantites so I've been stuck there. I've been trawling around parts websites but I almost always end up on things like screens for RasPis. EDIT: Got some luck on Alibaba searching for "sunlight readable". Going to contact some suppliers to see if I can get something
- throwanem 10y ago
  Massdrop or a similar platform might make a good option for organizing a group buy. You need to find enough other people with the same desire for a given part or item, but everything else seems pretty well handled; I know plenty of folks who've participated in Massdrop buys for keyboards, Cherry-stem keycaps, and the like, and haven't heard any complaints about the service. (Haven't used it myself, though - I'm just going to get two sets of PBT caps off eBay when this year's keyboard-cleaning cycle comes around - so can't speak to it personally.)
s_kilk 10y ago
You can still get Pebble 2's on Amazon, and they work perfectly (including the online services, app-store, etc). Maybe the new Fitbit/Pebble Chimera will release something as good as the Pebble some day.

I'm so sad that Pebble went under. They made the best smartwatch in my opinion.

by m-p-3 10y ago

I'm so sad that Pebble went under. They made the best smartwatch in my opinion.

rtpg 10y ago

I'm sad too. I'm actually really worried about my pebble breaking, so have been looking into making a homebrew smartwatch. My biggest issue right now is finding a screen with similar specs to the Pebble Time in terms of resolution and power usage. If anyone has any advice on how I could get wearable screens like JDI[0] has (without having to buy 100 of them) I'd love to hear it! I'm not super well versed in electronics procurement [0]:http://www.j-display.com/english/product/wearable.html http://www.j-display.com/english/product/wearable.html

ClassyJacket 10y ago
...Buy everyone's old Pebbles? :p
memmcgee 10y ago
I don't have this, but this book is supposed to be good for procurement: https://www.crowdsupply.com/sutajio-kosagi/the-essential-guide-to-electronics-in-shenzhen https://www.crowdsupply.com/sutajio-kosagi/the-essential-gui...
- janekm 10y ago
  It won't help for the screen... Those are made by Sharp and would be exceedingly hard to get hold of in Shenzhen.
Robelius 10y ago
Making a homebrew smartwatch sounds like a fun side-project. Any chance you would be willing to share your progress so far? I'm a student with an interest in electronics manufacturing so making one would be more of a learning experience. Also, for a one-off screen have you looked at contacting a manufacturer on something like Alibaba? They are usually more than willing to send a discounted/free one-off sample of a product.
- rtpg 10y ago
  I wish I had much progress! I looked at a pebble teardown, and saw that it didn't seem to involve very complex production strategies. From that I decided to try building a list of components! I know how to do some microcontroller programming so wasn't too worried about that part, but felt like getting an efficient screen was important. I've had a hard time finding power efficient screens that I can purchase in very small quantites so I've been stuck there. I've been trawling around parts websites but I almost always end up on things like screens for RasPis. EDIT: Got some luck on Alibaba searching for "sunlight readable". Going to contact some suppliers to see if I can get something
throwanem 10y ago
Massdrop or a similar platform might make a good option for organizing a group buy. You need to find enough other people with the same desire for a given part or item, but everything else seems pretty well handled; I know plenty of folks who've participated in Massdrop buys for keyboards, Cherry-stem keycaps, and the like, and haven't heard any complaints about the service. (Haven't used it myself, though - I'm just going to get two sets of PBT caps off eBay when this year's keyboard-cleaning cycle comes around - so can't speak to it personally.)

s_kilk 10y ago

You can still get Pebble 2's on Amazon, and they work perfectly (including the online services, app-store, etc). Maybe the new Fitbit/Pebble Chimera will release something as good as the Pebble some day.