We’ve seen plenty of open supply good watches over time, and whereas they’ve definitely been spectacular from a technical standpoint, they usually go away one thing to be desired by way of match and end. Uncovered PCBs and monochromatic OLED shows is perhaps positive for a visit to the hackerspace, nevertheless it wouldn’t be our first selection for date night time apparel.
Enter the Open-SmartWatch from [pauls_3d_things]. This ESP32 powered watch packs a beautiful round 240×240 TFT show, a DS323M RTC, BMA400 three-axis accelerometer, and a 450 mAh battery within a 3D printed enclosure that may be produced in your common desktop machine. WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity are a given with the ESP32, however there’s additionally an enhanced version of the PCB that provides one other 4 MB of RAM, a micro SD slot, and a Quectel L96 GPS receiver.
Because it’s an open supply challenge you’re free to obtain the PCB design information and get the board produced, however [pauls_3d_things] has really partnered with LILYGO to do a run of the Open-SmartWatch electronics which you’ll pick up on AliExpress right now for just $24 USD. You’ll nonetheless have to order the battery individually and 3D print your personal case, nevertheless it nonetheless looks as if a reasonably candy deal to us.
On the software program entrance, issues are fairly primary proper now. The watch can replace the time from NTP utilizing a pre-configured WiFi community, and there’s a Bluetooth media controller and stopwatch included. After all, these are nonetheless early days. As extra folks get the {hardware} of their palms (or on their wrists, because the case could also be), we’ll doubtless begin seeing extra capabilities added to the core OS.
Whereas getting our own code running on commercially produced smartwatches holds numerous promise, the Open-SmartWatch is arguably the most effective of each worlds. The partnership with LILYGO brings skilled fabrication to the open {hardware} challenge, and the GPLv3 licensed firmware is ripe for hacking. We’re very excited to see the place the neighborhood takes this challenge, and absolutely count on to start out seeing these watches out within the wild as soon as we will have correct cons once more.
