January 12, 2012 at 21:35Digital Metawatch WDS112 original debug kit from Texas Instruments
About a year and a half ago, I saw such an interesting thing as a bluetooth watch that can work with a phone. I liked the concept itself, but frankly the implementation was lame. The clock either knew how to work only with a specific phone model or had rather poor functionality and not too large displays. I continued to keep track of which models appear and what they can do. I liked the Citizen iVirt watch , but its focus on the Japanese market and cost did not suit me very much. But 2011 turned out to be fruitful for such devices, but almost all of them either had closed software such as Live View on Sony Ericsson (yes, my phone is not on android) or they had rather strange functionality like InPulse(no guys one button to control it is not cool), and short life. But InPulse had such useful functionality as open firmware and the ability to write its own software for this watch. About the rest of the watch with full-fledged Android, I probably will not say anything and mail while they get up. And then at the end of the year, Metawatch appears . What is this metawatch?
This is the debugging kit msp430 with bluetooth in the watch case. There are two types. Digital with LCD screen and Analog with two OLED screens. From my point of view, Digital is much more interesting. To sell to everyone (except for some reason the Japanese) they began in November. And I suppressed my toad and bought myself a Digital version. Texas Instruments already released watch debug kits called eZ430-Chronos, but the wireless interface there was not standard and it was not possible to connect it, for example, with a telephone. Metawatch can be used out of the box. The functionality is still really poor and the operating time is not stable yet, but tests show that an average time between charges of 3-5 days is achievable. It is possible that as a result of optimization more impressive results will be achieved. However, back to the clock. I ordered a watch in TI eStore and sends it to FedEx, shipping costs are already included in the price, they are taken quickly and by courier (do not forget to correctly indicate the mobile phone when buying). I ordered myself a watch on December 31 and they brought it to me on January 9, and this is taking into account the holidays. If anyone read about the fact that FedEx is not lucky in sending regions more expensive than 75 bucks, I can reassure. This is not true :)
As a result of the meeting with the courier, a standard FedEx box (Medium Box) was received. After unpacking, a clock box appears. View on Yandex.Fotoki The watch itself is packed quite well View on Yandex.Fotok Top so that, God forbid, the display is glued foam rubber View on Yandex.Fotok And now the first surprise, the screen. It is reflective and the black that is visible on all photos is actually transparent. Why it is so cool black in the pictures will be demonstrated later. View on Yandex.Photo. The delivery includes a piece of paper with a guarantee, a watch, a clip for charging and connecting to JTAG, a MicroUSB-USB cable. View on Yandex.Photo. Linear dimensions compared to
Diesel DZ7082 , by the way, they have a classic LCD. View on Yandex.Photos And now back to the screen. First, turn on the “white on black” mode. And now the trick. View on Yandex.Photo Shooting with flash View on Yandex.Photo See the screen turned deep black? The secret is very simple, there is no black in this watch. There is white and transparent. In the case when the point transmits light, you can see the mirror of the substrate. If the watch is photographed in this mode with a flash, a deep black is obtained. So it’s better to use the watch in the “black on white” mode. But this feature has a big plus, the screen does not fade in the sun. In the meantime, turn the clock. View on Yandex.Photos
The back cover is made of steel, the semicircular contacts are used for debugging and charging. The case, by the way, is also made of steel, the screen is covered with mineral glass, and the leather strap.
Debug clip with cable connected. View on Yandex.Photos Contacts for charge in the clip. View on Yandex.Fotok. And here is the process of charging or debugging, updating. View on Yandex.Fotki Actually, the light is green, but the camera does not catch it. Now that we’ve figured out the exterior, let's talk about what's inside. In the watch there are:
The analog model from Digital is distinguished by the presence of two OLED displays with a resolution of 16x80 pixels instead of an LCD screen.
The watch is running FreeRTOS version 6.0.5, which makes it easy to modify the firmware to fit your needs. But at the moment there is one problem with the modification of this very firmware. Although the firmware itself is open, it does include a closed library called bluetooth stack. Development is not the property of Texas Instruments, so it will not be open. Because of this, only IAR Workbench can be assembled firmware. He has of course a trial version, but the forum immediately asked a logical question, but what to do in 30 days? In response, the developers said that everyone who purchased the watch will be provided with a free version of the development environment from Texas Instruments, and the firmware will be modified to work with it. But while the modification is still in progress. But this will solve only part of the problem. To fully open, there is not enough specification for the bluetooth controller itself, but the truth is there is a solution in the form of BtStack. Its developers recently announced that they managed to get their stack to work with the same bluetooth controller. True, this requires some header files from the Texas Instruments SDK. But this SDK can be downloaded quite legally and for free. So, in general, open firmware has a future.
The opposite part, namely the software for working with watches, is pretty good due to the open protocol. For linux and macosx, ready-made applications already exist as libraries. The main platform for which there is an application from the developers themselves is Android. So Android users are fine with the watch almost immediately (unlike my N900).
This is the debugging kit msp430 with bluetooth in the watch case. There are two types. Digital with LCD screen and Analog with two OLED screens. From my point of view, Digital is much more interesting. To sell to everyone (except for some reason the Japanese) they began in November. And I suppressed my toad and bought myself a Digital version. Texas Instruments already released watch debug kits called eZ430-Chronos, but the wireless interface there was not standard and it was not possible to connect it, for example, with a telephone. Metawatch can be used out of the box. The functionality is still really poor and the operating time is not stable yet, but tests show that an average time between charges of 3-5 days is achievable. It is possible that as a result of optimization more impressive results will be achieved. However, back to the clock. I ordered a watch in TI eStore and sends it to FedEx, shipping costs are already included in the price, they are taken quickly and by courier (do not forget to correctly indicate the mobile phone when buying). I ordered myself a watch on December 31 and they brought it to me on January 9, and this is taking into account the holidays. If anyone read about the fact that FedEx is not lucky in sending regions more expensive than 75 bucks, I can reassure. This is not true :)
As a result of the meeting with the courier, a standard FedEx box (Medium Box) was received. After unpacking, a clock box appears. View on Yandex.Fotoki The watch itself is packed quite well View on Yandex.Fotok Top so that, God forbid, the display is glued foam rubber View on Yandex.Fotok And now the first surprise, the screen. It is reflective and the black that is visible on all photos is actually transparent. Why it is so cool black in the pictures will be demonstrated later. View on Yandex.Photo. The delivery includes a piece of paper with a guarantee, a watch, a clip for charging and connecting to JTAG, a MicroUSB-USB cable. View on Yandex.Photo. Linear dimensions compared to
Diesel DZ7082 , by the way, they have a classic LCD. View on Yandex.Photos And now back to the screen. First, turn on the “white on black” mode. And now the trick. View on Yandex.Photo Shooting with flash View on Yandex.Photo See the screen turned deep black? The secret is very simple, there is no black in this watch. There is white and transparent. In the case when the point transmits light, you can see the mirror of the substrate. If the watch is photographed in this mode with a flash, a deep black is obtained. So it’s better to use the watch in the “black on white” mode. But this feature has a big plus, the screen does not fade in the sun. In the meantime, turn the clock. View on Yandex.Photos
The back cover is made of steel, the semicircular contacts are used for debugging and charging. The case, by the way, is also made of steel, the screen is covered with mineral glass, and the leather strap.
Debug clip with cable connected. View on Yandex.Photos Contacts for charge in the clip. View on Yandex.Fotok. And here is the process of charging or debugging, updating. View on Yandex.Fotki Actually, the light is green, but the camera does not catch it. Now that we’ve figured out the exterior, let's talk about what's inside. In the watch there are:
- MSP430 processor with 16kb of memory and 256kb of flash
- accelerometer
- light sensor
- LCD screen 98x98 pixels (judging by the search for people, this is a bi-stable LCD from sharp)
- bluetooth controller
- vibration motor
The analog model from Digital is distinguished by the presence of two OLED displays with a resolution of 16x80 pixels instead of an LCD screen.
The watch is running FreeRTOS version 6.0.5, which makes it easy to modify the firmware to fit your needs. But at the moment there is one problem with the modification of this very firmware. Although the firmware itself is open, it does include a closed library called bluetooth stack. Development is not the property of Texas Instruments, so it will not be open. Because of this, only IAR Workbench can be assembled firmware. He has of course a trial version, but the forum immediately asked a logical question, but what to do in 30 days? In response, the developers said that everyone who purchased the watch will be provided with a free version of the development environment from Texas Instruments, and the firmware will be modified to work with it. But while the modification is still in progress. But this will solve only part of the problem. To fully open, there is not enough specification for the bluetooth controller itself, but the truth is there is a solution in the form of BtStack. Its developers recently announced that they managed to get their stack to work with the same bluetooth controller. True, this requires some header files from the Texas Instruments SDK. But this SDK can be downloaded quite legally and for free. So, in general, open firmware has a future.
The opposite part, namely the software for working with watches, is pretty good due to the open protocol. For linux and macosx, ready-made applications already exist as libraries. The main platform for which there is an application from the developers themselves is Android. So Android users are fine with the watch almost immediately (unlike my N900).