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IP00-minus

A sensor-packed "smartwatch" afflicted with poor wiring design choices, zero water/dust resistance, and massive feature creep.

robRob
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Originally built this watch to measure air quality (particle counts/PM2.5), as a way to debug my home air-filtration system, and to notify me what locations it might be wise to mask up (even while alone).

I had a few old parts from a previous attempt to build a sensor watch (had to add them because why not), and then I heard about the Hackaday cyberdeck competition, so the watch ballooned into the overbuilt rats-nest of components and wires it is today. The hardware is (probably) done, but I'm continually fixing and adding functionality through software.

  • Design Philosophy
    • Has to be *actually* wearable enough to wear every day.
      • Comfortable
      • doesn't interfere with my mobility 
      • Not just a nerd conversation piece that sits on my workbench.
    • Provides useful information that I reference often (at minimum hourly).
    • Enough battery life to maintain all sensor/logging functions continuously for ~12 hours before recharging.
    • Exposed wires and boards for that "cyberpunk" aesthetic. (Kinda conflicts with the "wearable" requirement, because as soon as it starts raining I got problems.)
  • (Kinda) Unique Features:
    • Three screens driven from a single ESP32-S3 microcontroller.
      • Circuitpython natively supports only a single display bus, but you can change a parameter that allows more than one, and custom build from source. Note: this is kinda buggy, and the buses aren't properly released upon reset (Hard Crashes), so I'm SOL if the watch crashes and I'm not near a computer to manually reset and reload the code.
    • It's a watch that reads out atmospheric particle counts (I haven't seen any other watch do this, at least in my limited search)
    • Can store and display all my QR/barcode IDs (memberships/bonus cards/ bed/bath/beyond coupons?) on a laser-scannable SHARP display.
    • Plug-and-Play I2C expandability- hot swap I2C devices (some add-on boards get mad when you do this, but it still generally works when I've got coroutines coded for the add-on in question)
    • Twin Clicky Rotary encoders for control!
  • Compact, light, and useful enough to wear daily. Not just nerd-candy, I actually rely on the data it gives me.
  • Currently Implemented (Functional) Capabilities:
    • Tells the time (it's a *watch*)
    • Reports PM2.5 particle concentrations (air quality)
    • Reports temperature (sensor is raised a couple centimeters above the wrist to avoid body heat/other electronics heat)
    • Reports relative humidity
    • Reports barometric pressure
    • Reports battery level (built-in voltage monitor on the ESP32-S3 doesn't play well with Circuitpython- known issue that is still unresolved on the adafruit github, but I just coded around intermittent failure with try/except.)
    • Scans and Reports list of nearby 2.4GHz Wifi APs
    • Displays Barcodes/QR Codes on SHARP display for laser barcode scanner compatibility
    • Plays a NyanCat animation on the TFT display 0_0
    • RTC time setting through GPS (currently manually actuated due to I2C buffer weirdness in PA1010D GPS unit)
    • RGBW Programmable Neopixel Flashlight 
  • Successfully Tested, but not currently implemented Capabilities:
    • Cycle through multiple different sprite animations on all 3 screens
    • connect to Wifi access points, parse web data
    • Datalogging onto an SD card from sensors
  • Planned Software Features that haven't been implemented/tested yet
    • Bluetooth stuff
    • remote control of IOT devices (probably MQTT)
    • Access Point emulation for file serving from SD
    • General Wifi shenanigans (Packet capture/logging, Deauth, etc.)
    • uploading log data through wifi
    • GPS waypoint setting/finding
    • IoT control through GPS localization + manual control
  • Features that I might try to add if I'm feeling crazy enough (unlikely)
    • LoRa messaging (kinda expensive to make peripheral devices though)
    • ToF distance measurement (not hard to implement, but I don't really have a daily use-case for a distance sensor.)
    • Reprogrammable NFC tags (also trivial to implement, but I have a Flipper Zero that fulfills this niche for me much more effectively).

View all 19 components

  • Additions, Solutions, and more Problems

    Rob10/08/2022 at 18:39 0 comments

    Slowly continuing to update code and add some functionality (updates on Github). Most recent additions are:

    • a 4W RGBW LED from Adafruit (I really needed a flashlight)
    • replaced the TP4056 lipo charger with another charger: ( https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09GHT9MC2?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details ). Higher charging current (2A max as opposed to TP4056's 1A), and USB-A power output (if I ever need to charge a USB-A device, which is probably inadvisable due to my watch's power-hungriness). This new IC also properly negotiates voltage with USB-PD chargers, so I no longer have to use USB-A to USB-C cables.

    I also solved a reset problem I was having- before, if my watch crashed (which it does fairly often), I had to reconnect it to my computer and reload the code to get it out of its crash state. I think this has something to do with Circuitpython not being explicitly designed to support multiple display buses; on hard reset it fails to clear the SPI bus (SCK in use error). After a bit of digging, I tried coding in a try/except where if the bus isn't clear on startup, the microcontroller initiates a soft reset. This worked!

    Unfortunately, it seems that my RTC unit (in an Adalogger featherwing) has become quite unreliable, and stops working randomly. Whenever it stops working, I have to completely cut power to reset it- which means I also had to remove the coin cell backup timekeeping battery. I'm also seeing terminal outputs that suggest my rotary encoders connections are flaky, and I had to add some try/excepts to make them fail gracefully upon disconnect, and start back up on reconnect. I think it might be time to rip the hardware up and wire everything back together cleanly, just to eliminate as many potential sources of instability as possible.

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Discussions

Tillo wrote 10/11/2022 at 20:24 point

This, for sure, is the most cyberpunk thing I saw in a while. Well done.  Even I'm not totally convinced you achieved that comfortable for wearing every day design goal.

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hampus.seton wrote 10/09/2022 at 20:04 point

are there any build instructions available? I would love to build one

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Timo wrote 10/05/2022 at 15:26 point

Rrrrrr... Me, like!

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peter jansen wrote 09/29/2022 at 05:31 point

This is absolutely hilarious

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gmathews wrote 09/28/2022 at 18:08 point

lol, this is awesome Rob! 

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n0n4m3 wrote 09/26/2022 at 07:27 point

When can I buy one? This sexy watch belongs on my wrist. Free workout included, my left arm is gonna be so buffed!

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