This DIY Smartwatch Won an Arduino Challenge #WearableWednesday
This smartwatch just smacks of DIY with its exposed screws. What better way to replace a battery, too. This beauty, by Jonathan Cook, recently won MAKE’s Arduino Challenge, as posted on Bits and Pieces from the Embedded Design World. With its Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), OLED display and hacked Arduino, it’s a little tricky to build, but well worth the open-source bragging rights. Mike Senese on MAKE writes:
The watch is the latest iteration of an ongoing BLE watch endeavor Cook has been exploring for the past nine months. In addition to time and date functionality, he’s building interfacing that any smartwatch wearer would want — email, Facebook notification, Twitter updates, etc., and hopes to have the community further the platform as well.
Check out all the little blue wires! Cook describes them as “fun” on the project’s site, but also mentions that “patience and solid soldering experience are required”. If you read his directions, you will find that these are actually micro wire and can break easily, so after soldering, they are super glued in place. These wires are all leading to some pretty fancy stuff — a Microduino Core +, a Bluegiga BLE112 chip, and a voltage regulator. Cook has definitely made some well thought out decisions, and what’s not to love about a 3D printed case. It really gives the watch its rugged look.
You are probably drooling thinking about doing a project like this. If you feel like you are ready to tackle this one, go for it. If not, we’ve got something a little more scaled down for you — our Times Square Watch Kit. Make your wrist glow from afar.
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!
Adafruit publishes a wide range of writing and video content, including interviews and reporting on the maker market and the wider technology world. Our standards page is intended as a guide to best practices that Adafruit uses, as well as an outline of the ethical standards Adafruit aspires to. While Adafruit is not an independent journalistic institution, Adafruit strives to be a fair, informative, and positive voice within the community – check it out here: adafruit.com/editorialstandards
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.
This smartwatch just smacks of DIY with its exposed screws. What better way to replace a battery, too. This beauty, by Jonathan Cook, recently won MAKE’s Arduino Challenge, as posted on Bits and Pieces from the Embedded Design World. With its Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), OLED display and hacked Arduino, it’s a little tricky to build, but well worth the open-source bragging rights. Mike Senese on MAKE writes:
Check out all the little blue wires! Cook describes them as “fun” on the project’s site, but also mentions that “patience and solid soldering experience are required”. If you read his directions, you will find that these are actually micro wire and can break easily, so after soldering, they are super glued in place. These wires are all leading to some pretty fancy stuff — a Microduino Core +, a Bluegiga BLE112 chip, and a voltage regulator. Cook has definitely made some well thought out decisions, and what’s not to love about a 3D printed case. It really gives the watch its rugged look.
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!