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If you're unable to ship PineTime to your country and if you're looking for a watch to tinker with checkout wasp-os[1] project which runs micropython on some ea

If you're unable to ship PineTime to your country and if you're looking for a watch to tinker with checkout wasp-os[1] project which runs micropython on some easily available NRF52832 devices. Also Aaron's ATCWatch[2] which runs Arduino compatbile firmware on the aforementioned devices and more; His Daflasher app has made it possible to flash firmware to to NRF52832 devices without any HW tinkering. [1] https://github.com/daniel-thompson/wasp-os https://github.com/daniel-thompson/wasp-os [2] https://github.com/atc1441/ATCwatch https://github.com/atc1441/ATCwatch

ruph123 6y ago
Is there any such device with an OLED or e-ink display? All of the above mentioned have IPS panels and things like watchy with an eink display are not really for fitness tracking and don’t have a HR monitor. I wish there was a Pebble in 2021.
- m-p-3 6y ago
  As the owner of several "smartwatch" with a transflective display (Pebble, Pebble Steel, Pebble Time Steel and Amazfit Bip), it does make a huge difference in battery life and I wouldn't downgrade to a smartwatch with a battery life of under a week.
  - ruph123 6y ago
    As far as I can tell the Amazfit Blip is the latest with a transflective display. If there was an option to install a different OS on it, I would love to use one.
- Abishek_Muthian 6y ago
  The NRF52832 watches are pretty much just limited to satisfy some modding curiosities, Many don't even come with a proper HW step counter. I would love an E-Ink watch to tinker with at this price point too, But there's a thread every other week on HN discussing why rolling out devices with E-Ink by small companies is extraordinarily difficult.
  - robinsoh 6y ago
    > But there's a thread every other week on HN discussing why rolling out devices with E-Ink by small companies is extraordinarily difficult. where?
    - fsflover 6y ago
      https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26143407 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26143407
      - robinsoh 6y ago
        and if you look underneath it, you'll see my comment asking for evidence which OP never responded to. I'm very suspicious of such unsubstantiated claims. I work in the display industry, not at E Ink, but have some experience with using their products commercially as well. As far as I can tell, they're a typical display manufacturer and orient themselves towards their high volume customers. Same as everybody else. If you are a company buying anything less than a hundred thousand displays a year, you shouldn't have any expectation of Samsung or LG or any other display company being willing to listen to or enable your development plans. You buy from lower tier distributors just like everyone else. If there's a market shortage, yes, you'll be the first to feel the pinch because top tier vendors will always have their quantities satisfied first. That's what everybody in the industry does because that's the rational thing to do.
        fsflover 6y ago
        Honestly, I know nothing about the e-ink industry. What I see though is that every new device on the market has plenty of comments like "I wish it had e-ink display" and yet there are no affordable devices like this. I am sure there is a huge market for it, so where are they? I can only think of one reason: patents. By the way, EFF confirm that the patent system is broken: https://www.eff.org/fa/issues/patents https://www.eff.org/fa/issues/patents.
        6y ago

ruph123 6y ago

Is there any such device with an OLED or e-ink display? All of the above mentioned have IPS panels and things like watchy with an eink display are not really for fitness tracking and don’t have a HR monitor. I wish there was a Pebble in 2021.

m-p-3 6y ago
As the owner of several "smartwatch" with a transflective display (Pebble, Pebble Steel, Pebble Time Steel and Amazfit Bip), it does make a huge difference in battery life and I wouldn't downgrade to a smartwatch with a battery life of under a week.
- ruph123 6y ago
  As far as I can tell the Amazfit Blip is the latest with a transflective display. If there was an option to install a different OS on it, I would love to use one.
Abishek_Muthian 6y ago
The NRF52832 watches are pretty much just limited to satisfy some modding curiosities, Many don't even come with a proper HW step counter. I would love an E-Ink watch to tinker with at this price point too, But there's a thread every other week on HN discussing why rolling out devices with E-Ink by small companies is extraordinarily difficult.
- robinsoh 6y ago
  > But there's a thread every other week on HN discussing why rolling out devices with E-Ink by small companies is extraordinarily difficult. where?
  - fsflover 6y ago
    https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26143407 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26143407
    - robinsoh 6y ago
      and if you look underneath it, you'll see my comment asking for evidence which OP never responded to. I'm very suspicious of such unsubstantiated claims. I work in the display industry, not at E Ink, but have some experience with using their products commercially as well. As far as I can tell, they're a typical display manufacturer and orient themselves towards their high volume customers. Same as everybody else. If you are a company buying anything less than a hundred thousand displays a year, you shouldn't have any expectation of Samsung or LG or any other display company being willing to listen to or enable your development plans. You buy from lower tier distributors just like everyone else. If there's a market shortage, yes, you'll be the first to feel the pinch because top tier vendors will always have their quantities satisfied first. That's what everybody in the industry does because that's the rational thing to do.
      - fsflover 6y ago
        Honestly, I know nothing about the e-ink industry. What I see though is that every new device on the market has plenty of comments like "I wish it had e-ink display" and yet there are no affordable devices like this. I am sure there is a huge market for it, so where are they? I can only think of one reason: patents. By the way, EFF confirm that the patent system is broken: https://www.eff.org/fa/issues/patents https://www.eff.org/fa/issues/patents.
        6y ago