11 ms·

AsteroidOS – An open-source operating system for smartwatches

208 points by skbohra123 8y ago

sberder 8y ago
I'm very interested in all hackable watch format platforms, I've been fiddling with sport specific ideas but can't seem to find a good open platform for this purpose.
- 384028345 8y ago
  Yesterday I came across this post, which might be interesting to you: https://hackaday.com/2017/02/15/chronio-diy-watch-slick-and-low-power/ https://hackaday.com/2017/02/15/chronio-diy-watch-slick-and-... Actually, if you search for "watch" on that website, you'll find plenty of stuff. Maybe you can find some inspiration there.
verginer 8y ago
There is a typo in the title you might want to fix it from asteriod to asteroid, which I assume is the correct name given the domain.
- sctb 8y ago
  Thanks! Updated.
fairpx 8y ago
I’ve been interested in watch OSystems for some time. Would LOVE to collaborate with someone who wants to work on a sideproject. I run a UI/UX firm and want to contribute with design. Feel free to reach out if interested. Details in my profile.
saagarjha 8y ago
Do Android Wear watches have the same "bootloader isn't unlocked" that Android phones do, or are they generally open by default?
- konraditurbe 8y ago
  All WearOS watches have firmware shipped from Google, which means that Google controls updates, UI, etc... All WearOS Watches with exposed USB pins (LG G Watch, Urbane, ZenWatch...) can be unlocked via fastboot oem unlock
b123400 8y ago
There is an opensource OS for Pebble as well! https://github.com/ginge/FreeRTOS-Pebble https://github.com/ginge/FreeRTOS-Pebble
- snu 8y ago
  Thank you for this! I was disappointed to not even find mention of pebble on the website. Looks like this is still in the early stages, but I'll be keeping an eye on it.
konraditurbe 8y ago
I love how this project matured, I used it last year for my old G Watch and it ran pretty well, definitively worth checking out if you have a compatible smartwatch as it can be booted once leaving WearOS intact. It uses Libhybris to communicate with some Android libraries but the front end is Linux components like Wayland and QT. You can make Apps in QT which is nice. Notifications work with Asteroid app and the OS feels responsive. You cannot reply to notifications yet. I flashed v1.0 to my G Watch permanently since it fills my needs. The choice of watchfaces is neat too. Shame that most Wear OS watches don't come with pins for USB access. Unfortunately this does not solve Wear OS watches short battery life.
- oelmekki 8y ago
  > Shame that most Wear OS watches don't come with pins for USB access. I thought I was out of luck with my moto360 1st gen, but I found this : https://www.rootjunky.com/moto-360-adapter-usb-cable/ https://www.rootjunky.com/moto-360-adapter-usb-cable/ Basically, there is usb connection on that watch, it's just hidden and made difficult to use. Which makes me think : maybe it's the same for other apparently usb lacking watches? I can imagine manufacturers' developers would want a mean to debug devices out of factory.
  - konraditurbe 8y ago
    You loose waterproofing, and Moto 360 has a TI chip which makes it difficult to port Asteroid OS to it.
    - oelmekki 8y ago
      Thanks for mentioning it, I don't care about waterproofing but I intended to attempt a port (I get a librem5 as soon as they're out so my android wear will be basically useless by then), so the chip thing may be a problem. Do you know if anyone documented a previous attempt somewhere? Or do you have any other knowledge that makes you say this will be a problem?
      - 8y ago
sschueller 8y ago
It appears to not support always on display and according to the issues in github it is a complex problem that won't be solved soon. This is a killer feature, I'm not giving up having the time visible on my poled watch at all time even if android wear sucks.
- ijafri 8y ago
  hmm why one would want 'always-on' i guess raising the wrist to look at the time ... is both ideal and battery saving too? please enlighten me.
  - Avamander 8y ago
    Because then you don't have to raise your wrist to look at the time?
  - saagarjha 8y ago
    I have an Apple Watch that doesn’t have an always-on display, and this lack is mildly annoying. Most of the time “it just works”, but there are times where I would have like a smarter raise detection. Always on display isn’t necessarily the best solution to this problem, but it certainly is one.
buro9 8y ago
Are there stats on Android Wear watches sold vs currently activated/in-use? I've found them to be such poor experiences and falling so far short of expectations/hopes/marketing that I went back to using G-Shock. I would be surprised to learn people find their smart watches useful and are still actively using them for anything more than just telling the time (for which they are a chore to constantly charge).
- LeonM 8y ago
  I wear a Huawei watch, although not daily, I tend to switch between my 'real' mechanic watch and the smart watch. I use it mainly to tell the time, but I do use it to control my music, or quickly look at an incoming message. I think the best 'feature' of a smart watch is being able to tell the time in low light environments. I do see a lot of them around here (Netherlands), but I do agree that the novelty has worn off.
- _pctq 8y ago
  Well, it's sad that it didn't worked out for you, but please don't presume the whole world share the same experience :) I've bought mine 3 years ago, mainly for managing notifications (I was doing business oriented things back then and had a lot of social notifications), and it was immediately worth it : no need to get my hand out of that keyboard to unlock my phone and see a notification I don't care about every 5 minutes (especially frustrating when you're a vim user trying to optimize your hand movement around the keyboard). Since then, there's three other use cases that make me use the watch every single day for those three years: * controlling spotify without needing access to my phone when outdoor * having my up to date grocery list at the wrist any time I feel like shopping (thanks to google keep) * setting timers through voice control while cooking That's certainly not as game changing as having a computer vs not having one, but that's still far from completely useless.
  - Avamander 8y ago
    For me the features I love are: * TOTP generator * Music control * Notifications * Emergency light (it isn't that bright, but has saved me a few times when I just needed a bit of light) What is a pity about all this is how s* bluetooth chipsets and drivers are. At least once a week my phone's BT just glitches off >:|
obituary_latte 8y ago
FYI website doesn't scroll correctly on safari mobile. Scroll indicator stays stuck to the top of the screen. Navigating to other pages like "installation" leads to a blank page. "Request desktop site" does not work either.
- saagarjha 8y ago
  This website breaks on desktop Safari as well.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
mmjaa 8y ago
Interesting, I think the presentation is superb and the overlying purpose is great, but I really would've used Lua for this.
pazimzadeh 8y ago
"Hack your wrist" may not be the best slogan..
- atrilumen 8y ago
  Yeah, some of us can't help but picture that.
- reificator 8y ago
  > It got into my hand and it went bad. > So I lopped it off at the wrist. > But that didn't stop it. It came back. > Big time.
vanattab 8y ago
Anyone know if they are planning to add support for LG Sport?
theweb1 8y ago
Nice project, is this project in anyway related to the IOS Platform ?

208 points by skbohra123 8y ago

I'm very interested in all hackable watch format platforms, I've been fiddling with sport specific ideas but can't seem to find a good open platform for this purpose.

384028345 8y ago
Yesterday I came across this post, which might be interesting to you: https://hackaday.com/2017/02/15/chronio-diy-watch-slick-and-low-power/ https://hackaday.com/2017/02/15/chronio-diy-watch-slick-and-... Actually, if you search for "watch" on that website, you'll find plenty of stuff. Maybe you can find some inspiration there.

verginer 8y ago

There is a typo in the title you might want to fix it from asteriod to asteroid, which I assume is the correct name given the domain.

sctb 8y ago
Thanks! Updated.

fairpx 8y ago

I’ve been interested in watch OSystems for some time. Would LOVE to collaborate with someone who wants to work on a sideproject. I run a UI/UX firm and want to contribute with design. Feel free to reach out if interested. Details in my profile.

saagarjha 8y ago

Do Android Wear watches have the same "bootloader isn't unlocked" that Android phones do, or are they generally open by default?

konraditurbe 8y ago
All WearOS watches have firmware shipped from Google, which means that Google controls updates, UI, etc... All WearOS Watches with exposed USB pins (LG G Watch, Urbane, ZenWatch...) can be unlocked via fastboot oem unlock

b123400 8y ago

There is an opensource OS for Pebble as well! https://github.com/ginge/FreeRTOS-Pebble https://github.com/ginge/FreeRTOS-Pebble

snu 8y ago
Thank you for this! I was disappointed to not even find mention of pebble on the website. Looks like this is still in the early stages, but I'll be keeping an eye on it.

konraditurbe 8y ago

I love how this project matured, I used it last year for my old G Watch and it ran pretty well, definitively worth checking out if you have a compatible smartwatch as it can be booted once leaving WearOS intact. It uses Libhybris to communicate with some Android libraries but the front end is Linux components like Wayland and QT. You can make Apps in QT which is nice. Notifications work with Asteroid app and the OS feels responsive. You cannot reply to notifications yet. I flashed v1.0 to my G Watch permanently since it fills my needs. The choice of watchfaces is neat too. Shame that most Wear OS watches don't come with pins for USB access. Unfortunately this does not solve Wear OS watches short battery life.

oelmekki 8y ago
> Shame that most Wear OS watches don't come with pins for USB access. I thought I was out of luck with my moto360 1st gen, but I found this : https://www.rootjunky.com/moto-360-adapter-usb-cable/ https://www.rootjunky.com/moto-360-adapter-usb-cable/ Basically, there is usb connection on that watch, it's just hidden and made difficult to use. Which makes me think : maybe it's the same for other apparently usb lacking watches? I can imagine manufacturers' developers would want a mean to debug devices out of factory.
- konraditurbe 8y ago
  You loose waterproofing, and Moto 360 has a TI chip which makes it difficult to port Asteroid OS to it.
  - oelmekki 8y ago
    Thanks for mentioning it, I don't care about waterproofing but I intended to attempt a port (I get a librem5 as soon as they're out so my android wear will be basically useless by then), so the chip thing may be a problem. Do you know if anyone documented a previous attempt somewhere? Or do you have any other knowledge that makes you say this will be a problem?
    - 8y ago

sschueller 8y ago

It appears to not support always on display and according to the issues in github it is a complex problem that won't be solved soon. This is a killer feature, I'm not giving up having the time visible on my poled watch at all time even if android wear sucks.

ijafri 8y ago
hmm why one would want 'always-on' i guess raising the wrist to look at the time ... is both ideal and battery saving too? please enlighten me.
- Avamander 8y ago
  Because then you don't have to raise your wrist to look at the time?
- saagarjha 8y ago
  I have an Apple Watch that doesn’t have an always-on display, and this lack is mildly annoying. Most of the time “it just works”, but there are times where I would have like a smarter raise detection. Always on display isn’t necessarily the best solution to this problem, but it certainly is one.

buro9 8y ago

Are there stats on Android Wear watches sold vs currently activated/in-use? I've found them to be such poor experiences and falling so far short of expectations/hopes/marketing that I went back to using G-Shock. I would be surprised to learn people find their smart watches useful and are still actively using them for anything more than just telling the time (for which they are a chore to constantly charge).

LeonM 8y ago
I wear a Huawei watch, although not daily, I tend to switch between my 'real' mechanic watch and the smart watch. I use it mainly to tell the time, but I do use it to control my music, or quickly look at an incoming message. I think the best 'feature' of a smart watch is being able to tell the time in low light environments. I do see a lot of them around here (Netherlands), but I do agree that the novelty has worn off.
_pctq 8y ago
Well, it's sad that it didn't worked out for you, but please don't presume the whole world share the same experience :) I've bought mine 3 years ago, mainly for managing notifications (I was doing business oriented things back then and had a lot of social notifications), and it was immediately worth it : no need to get my hand out of that keyboard to unlock my phone and see a notification I don't care about every 5 minutes (especially frustrating when you're a vim user trying to optimize your hand movement around the keyboard). Since then, there's three other use cases that make me use the watch every single day for those three years: * controlling spotify without needing access to my phone when outdoor * having my up to date grocery list at the wrist any time I feel like shopping (thanks to google keep) * setting timers through voice control while cooking That's certainly not as game changing as having a computer vs not having one, but that's still far from completely useless.
- Avamander 8y ago
  For me the features I love are: * TOTP generator * Music control * Notifications * Emergency light (it isn't that bright, but has saved me a few times when I just needed a bit of light) What is a pity about all this is how s* bluetooth chipsets and drivers are. At least once a week my phone's BT just glitches off >:|

obituary_latte 8y ago

FYI website doesn't scroll correctly on safari mobile. Scroll indicator stays stuck to the top of the screen. Navigating to other pages like "installation" leads to a blank page. "Request desktop site" does not work either.

saagarjha 8y ago
This website breaks on desktop Safari as well.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

mmjaa 8y ago

Interesting, I think the presentation is superb and the overlying purpose is great, but I really would've used Lua for this.

pazimzadeh 8y ago

"Hack your wrist" may not be the best slogan..

atrilumen 8y ago
Yeah, some of us can't help but picture that.
reificator 8y ago
> It got into my hand and it went bad. > So I lopped it off at the wrist. > But that didn't stop it. It came back. > Big time.

vanattab 8y ago

Anyone know if they are planning to add support for LG Sport?

theweb1 8y ago

Nice project, is this project in anyway related to the IOS Platform ?