I’ve always loved watches; not only are they aesthetic and beautiful, but they are functional, precise and useful. An elegant fusion between engineering and art; two normally opposed perspectives, now joined in harmonic unison. However, all technologies like the dial-up internet, the CVT monitor and the abacus, inevitably will become relics of our past with the advent of advancing technology, and have since become less pragmatic for the typical person to own. Unlike these archaic technologies, the wrist watch still thrives on the wrists of many, standing forever as a testament to one of mankind’s greatest inventions: the measurement of time.
I suppose it was inevitable that I would design my very own wrist watch. The name for this wrist watch is the ChronosMEGA, a combination the greek word: chronos for time, and MEGA for the ATmega328P processor used.
The below video is a montage that saturates 4 months of development in 4 minutes.
This short video demonstrates the features of the watch and briefly explains how it functions:
Goals:
Robust and practical for daily use; long battery life
“Production ready” and professional; to look, feel and behave like a finished product
Compact, small form factor
Assembly SW to drive the system
To be as aesthetic as possible
Specs:
Atmel ATmega328P QFP processor
Binary time encoding using 10 Blue 1206 LEDs
Buttons to control time, sleep mode and display
32.768kHz external crystal and 8MHz internal clock source
Micro-USB and Charge Management Controller to recharge 400mAh Li-ion battery
Draws 4uA in its Deep Sleep mode to last up to 11 years on a single charge (see section 5.3.)
Battery Indicator 0603 LED
Boost TI Switching Regulator for power regulation
Low Loss PowerPath Controller IC for power source selection
Total form factor of 10mm x 40mm x 53mm
Custom 3D designed case cast in pure polished silver
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Python for Microcontrollers – Adafruit Daily — Select Python on Microcontrollers Newsletter: PyCon AU 2024 Talks, New Raspberry Pi Gear Available and More! #CircuitPython #Python #micropython @ThePSF @Raspberry_Pi
EYE on NPI – Adafruit Daily — EYE on NPI Maxim’s Himalaya uSLIC Step-Down Power Module #EyeOnNPI @maximintegrated @digikey
Every Wednesday is Wearable Wednesday here at Adafruit! We’re bringing you the blinkiest, most fashionable, innovative, and useful wearables from around the web and in our own original projects featuring our wearable Arduino-compatible platform, FLORA. Be sure to post up your wearables projects in the forums or send us a link and you might be featured here on Wearable Wednesday!