4 ms·

I agree .. I've been hacking away on the PineWatch as a platform for the last few months, mostly to teach myself baremetal Rust, and it is an extraordinarily sa

I agree .. I've been hacking away on the PineWatch as a platform for the last few months, mostly to teach myself baremetal Rust, and it is an extraordinarily satisfying circumstance to be able to tell time on a watch running my own code. The hardware is decent for the price (very cheap), and it is so very, very refreshingly open. I will pick up a PinePhone as soon as possible, based on this experience, and I'm probably going to be a Pine stalwart for the next few years, at least, as a general platform. These guys are finally delivering devices that we developers can be happy to get involved in. I say that as a dev with years of iOS experience, where I am currently fatigued with having to keep up with yet more proprietary bollocks from Apple: the future of these devices is open.

FeepingCreature 6y ago
The dev kit buy page has a scary warning that the cover doesn't pop on. How much of a problem is that in practice? I really want to get one to play with.
- drewzero1 6y ago
  There was a recent post about that on r/pine64official (or maybe on Mastodon? I've been watching both) that said that the cover is held on with silicone glue. So it sounds to me like there's no mechanical detent, but you can use glue to hold on the cover. The main issues I could see with that would be waterproofness and possible glue mess if it isn't applied just so. This isn't the post, but it is mentioned. [1] [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/PINE64official/comments/jaow6f/pinetime_is_it_normal_for_the_watch_back_to_not/ https://www.reddit.com/r/PINE64official/comments/jaow6f/pine...
  - somesortofsystm 6y ago
    Its easy to seal the watch in a way that produces water-tightness .. but I still wouldn't want bother wearing it in the shower. Maybe okay in rain, though.
    - hutzlibu 6y ago
      Also sweat from your arm. A watch needs to be at least somewhat waterproof.
- somesortofsystm 6y ago
  I have two kits - one which I hack on with Rust, and has wires hanging out, and the other which has the pinewatch python project on it, and I have sealed it shut. When I get my personal little watch application built and ready, I'll get another, install it, and seal it in. No worries.
  - FeepingCreature 6y ago
    Do you need to have the watch open to reprogram it? I don't know why it wouldn't be able to do that wirelessly.
    - somesortofsystm 6y ago
      In the early days, yes. Now, not so much: https://github.com/JF002/Pinetime/blob/develop/bootloader/README.md https://github.com/JF002/Pinetime/blob/develop/bootloader/RE... .. there are so many interesting projects to run on the PineWatch, I just bought a couple extra so that I could evaluate them all at once. Its not an expensive investment - I've certainly spent more on the rPi lab-bench over the years: https://github.com/daniel-thompson/wasp-os https://github.com/daniel-thompson/wasp-os (MicroPython based environment) https://github.com/seclorum/pinetime-rust-mynewt https://github.com/seclorum/pinetime-rust-mynewt (Rust-based environment) https://github.com/JF002/Pinetime https://github.com/JF002/Pinetime (C/C++ based environment)

FeepingCreature 6y ago

The dev kit buy page has a scary warning that the cover doesn't pop on. How much of a problem is that in practice? I really want to get one to play with.

drewzero1 6y ago
There was a recent post about that on r/pine64official (or maybe on Mastodon? I've been watching both) that said that the cover is held on with silicone glue. So it sounds to me like there's no mechanical detent, but you can use glue to hold on the cover. The main issues I could see with that would be waterproofness and possible glue mess if it isn't applied just so. This isn't the post, but it is mentioned. [1] [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/PINE64official/comments/jaow6f/pinetime_is_it_normal_for_the_watch_back_to_not/ https://www.reddit.com/r/PINE64official/comments/jaow6f/pine...
- somesortofsystm 6y ago
  Its easy to seal the watch in a way that produces water-tightness .. but I still wouldn't want bother wearing it in the shower. Maybe okay in rain, though.
  - hutzlibu 6y ago
    Also sweat from your arm. A watch needs to be at least somewhat waterproof.
somesortofsystm 6y ago
I have two kits - one which I hack on with Rust, and has wires hanging out, and the other which has the pinewatch python project on it, and I have sealed it shut. When I get my personal little watch application built and ready, I'll get another, install it, and seal it in. No worries.
- FeepingCreature 6y ago
  Do you need to have the watch open to reprogram it? I don't know why it wouldn't be able to do that wirelessly.
  - somesortofsystm 6y ago
    In the early days, yes. Now, not so much: https://github.com/JF002/Pinetime/blob/develop/bootloader/README.md https://github.com/JF002/Pinetime/blob/develop/bootloader/RE... .. there are so many interesting projects to run on the PineWatch, I just bought a couple extra so that I could evaluate them all at once. Its not an expensive investment - I've certainly spent more on the rPi lab-bench over the years: https://github.com/daniel-thompson/wasp-os https://github.com/daniel-thompson/wasp-os (MicroPython based environment) https://github.com/seclorum/pinetime-rust-mynewt https://github.com/seclorum/pinetime-rust-mynewt (Rust-based environment) https://github.com/JF002/Pinetime https://github.com/JF002/Pinetime (C/C++ based environment)