OpenSource Standalone Smartwatch


Pebble OS is based on FreeRTOS with closed-source components. So...free but not libre.

As a Pebble Time Round owner, I stand by my purchase. I knew what I wanted (simple and small peripheral for doing simple smartphone tasks much quicker, notification center, good display, good support), and I got everything I wanted...except good battery life. Since I don't think I'll even get a smart-strap, even if a decent one comes out, I might've appreciated a Pebble Steel a bit more. As it stands though, can't complain.

Onto the more relevant topic, I have absolutely no idea why Pebble was even brought up in the 1st place. It is the direct opposite of what Klumpen asked for lol.

Klumpen said:
Well, is there anything like it?
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In short, no. The Tizen smartwatches...well...technically tick 2 of your boxes (phone stuff, open-source...ish), but yeah. The closest thing to what you're asking for that's available now...and still missed the mark by a mile and a half.

...and maybe even Rockbox would be quite useful for me.
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As an app?

Just Googled that. Had no idea it was implemented as an app, much less available for Android. Rockbox is the boom-dizzle!!!

For a smartish-watch to have it though...idk. Assuming a slim OS is preferable to basic firmware for the hypothetical smartish-watch, I think the best solution if you want a 3.5mm jack is to have Rockbox implemented as firmware for a standalone audio chip rather than a whole app. You could then have the Rockboxed audio chip talk to a front-end being run on the main CPU in a client-server setup. This way, you'd have your headphone-jack and Rockbox is treated like an app from a user perspective. Not the simplest music solution, but it's clean and worth it just for Rockbox.

Speaking of power, what are we at right now? 2G/3G modem for phone stuff (would be nice to have OsmocomBB on it, if possible), audio chip, CPU (likely a Cortex M-0 or even the PULPino when it drops), and display (e-ink's ideal). No WiFi/BT helps, but the modem and audio chip do hurt. A CPU core with lower power consumption than both of Pebble's M3- and M4-based processors helps quite a bit.

All in all, this thing would definitely need more than the Pebble's 130mAh or whatever just to get a week out of it, much less to "run for months between charging."

Klumpen said:
I honestly don't see the point of those pairing watches. If you have to own and take a clunky smartphone with you anyway,...
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You mean like the Pyra? I've carried slim candybars for years, and having a companion device like a Pebble is a compromise I'm more than willing to take for making such a radical change in mobile device size. A hands-free setup (smartwatch+wireless earphones) would work so well with the Pyra on-the-move.
 
tigerroast said:
As a Pebble Time Round owner, I stand by my purchase. I knew what I wanted (simple and small peripheral for doing simple smartphone tasks much quicker, notification center, good display, good support), and I got everything I wanted...except good battery life
Click to expand...
heh, I was going to ask you about battery life. What sort of length do you get between charges? I remember the original Pebbles saying about a week.
I bought a Garmin Vivoactive, for my running/triathlons, but it looked like a day-to-day watch too (and I could write software for it), and I easily get several weeks out of it (obviously less when you kick in the GPS)
 
tigerroast said:
Onto the more relevant topic, I have absolutely no idea why Pebble was even brought up in the 1st place. It is the direct opposite of what Klumpen asked for lol.
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He was looking for a fantasy device: open source (free) stand alone wristwatch that you can phone with, has rockbox on it, an sd slot, headphone jack and great battery life?
Of course that doesn't exist. The Pebble is - imo - one of the few interesting smartwatches around that you can actually buy and can be useful without a phone. Even though the bootloader appears to be proprietary they do actively support open source development.
 
b_o_b said:
He was looking for a fantasy device: open source (free) stand alone wristwatch that you can phone with, has rockbox on it, an sd slot, headphone jack and great battery life? Of course that doesn't exist.
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It may be a fantasy device, but it's far more realistic than the PGS. ;)
 
pmprog said:
heh, I was going to ask you about battery life. What sort of length do you get between charges?
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It's advertised as getting a notch over 2 days, but it feels like a notch under a day and a half for me. I will say, however, that it does indeed charge very quickly. From 0%, leaving it to charge on a Chromebook for the duration of a quick piss in the morning allows it to last into the night.

I bought a Garmin Vivoactive, for my running/triathlons, but it looked like a day-to-day watch too (and I could write software for it), and I easily get several weeks out of it (obviously less when you kick in the GPS)
Click to expand...

Not a bad GPS watch at all.

b_o_b said:
He was looking for a fantasy device: open source (free) stand alone wristwatch that you can phone with, has rockbox on it, an sd slot, headphone jack and great battery life? Of course that doesn't exist.
Click to expand...

Look, I already knew that. It's just an interesting conversation to have, is all. Think about it; if it was a real device available somewhere, wouldn't you buy it or at least support its development?

I'd buy the shit out of that watch.

The Pebble is - imo - one of the few interesting smartwatches around that you can actually buy and can be useful without a phone. Even though the bootloader appears to be proprietary they do actively support open source development.
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Agreed.

Klumpen said:
It may be a fantasy device, but it's far more realistic than the PGS. ;)
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A smartwatch with Rockbox. I'd never take it off.
 
Klumpen said:
I got a Sansa Clip+ with Rockbox on it and it's unstable as hell (and lacks phone capabilities).
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Strange - I think they are awesome, even without phone capabilities ;)
I've got a couple of them and are used almost daily and never have a problem with it. The Sansa Clip+ rockbox port is considered stable by the Rockbox team. So should work fine, unless you have a hardware problem or installed a messed up bootloader/rockbox version.
A corrupt SD card might cause troubles as well.
 
b_o_b said:
Strange - I think they are awesome, even without phone capabilities ;)
I've got a couple of them and are used almost daily and never have a problem with it. The Sansa Clip+ rockbox port is considered stable by the Rockbox team. So should work fine, unless you have a hardware problem or installed a messed up bootloader/rockbox version.
A corrupt SD card might cause troubles as well.
Click to expand...
I reflashed it two times, tried three different sd cards and asked around, others had this problem too.
When playing from sd-card, it often crashes. It doesn't do that when using internal storage but data transfer to the internal storage sometimes leads to totally corrupted files.
My guess is, that a lack of quality control is involved since some people have those problems (with Rockbox and the native software) while others don't.

Which kind, sizes and partitions of micro-sd cards do you use in it?
 
Klumpen said:
When playing from sd-card, it often crashes. It doesn't do that when using internal storage but data transfer to the internal storage sometimes leads to totally corrupted files.
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Sounds similar to the issues I have with my C200. Random crashes and also corrupted files - still doesn' t crash enough to get rid of it. The default firmware doesn't seem to have those issues.

The clips are working great though at least from a software pov. They do seem to have a bad headphone jack connection. I needed to resolder the connection to the mainboard for two of them after using them for a while.

The sd card I am currently using is a Sandisk 32 GB - one partition fat32. Have used other cards, cardsizes and maybe other filesystems as well, but I am not sure. Can only confirm the one I currently use.
 
pmprog said:
Hmm, not just buy a Sansa Clip+, install Rockbox and Sellotape it to your arm? ;-)
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Lol not bad. I actually have one too.

Klumpen said:
I got a Sansa Clip+ with Rockbox on it and it's unstable as hell (and lacks phone capabilities).
Click to expand...

I only got it to crash when I attempted to play Doom. Other than that, I've had no issues.

Klumpen said:
My guess is, that a lack of quality control is involved since some people have those problems (with Rockbox and the native software) while others don't.
Click to expand...

Less-technical people would be able to test the Clip+ since it's available to install from the Rockbox Installer (hence, a stable port). Combine that with the Clip+'s cheap price and Head-Fi's adoration for it, I'd say it's quite well-tested.

Not to say issues like these don't occasionally pop up with some people.

Which kind, sizes and partitions of micro-sd cards do you use in it?
Click to expand...

The same Transcend 32GB micro-SD card w/ 1 fat32 partition that came with my Fiio X5. No issues. Most of my music is FLAC, some stragglers are .ogv.
 
It's a pretty sad day, in my opinion.

I'm trying to find an alternative to use with the Pyra and am not much having much luck finding something that meets my criteria.

I may grab myself a Pebble Time. Or I may construct my own using a CHIP Pro or Arduino. The silver lining to all this is it will hopefully drive people to open source replacements for the official Pebble software. The communications protocol for the Pebble Time was documented well enough for it to be supported by multiple open source phone/computer companion apps: libpebble (maintained by a now-ex Pebble employee: Katharine), Rockwork (Ubuntu), pebbled (Sailfish), Gadgetbridge (Android).

I was getting really worried, because Katharine was saying that she didn't think the current state of Bluetooth LE support on desktops was good enough to merit updating libpebble to support the P2 and PT2 (since they are LE only), and this would make connecting to the Pyra much more difficult. She also said she also wasn't "allowed" to work on making the new Bluetooth LE protocols public, but couldn't explain why. Now it seems like that was due to this acquisition. So further silver lining is that I may have dodged a BT LE bullet and will get a refund. I preordered the PT2 thinking that it would be able to communicate easily with the Pyra, but I probably would have been wrong.
 
Hey, what's going on he---
tumblr_ny90i45yC91uy0s1qo1_400.gif
 
I'm absolutely crushed about Pebble. It was the only smartwatch that ever excited me. My wife and I both love them.

It's like the chumby all over again.
 
Pebble had something good going for them. It's a sad thing they discontinued the product.
 
Really is sad news but thanks for sharing. I was seriously considering buying one. Can't help but suspect their numerous product variants contributed to operational inefficiency, and there's the additional point that the only model I was interested in was not available in stores while a couple others were on display everywhere. I bet their logistics were a nightmare.

I still dream of pure C mobile development environments. :$
 
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