When someone is interested in a new smartwatch, the next steps usually involve researching what is available commercially and reading some product reviews. However, Redditor CoreMemory_156 took a completely different approach and built a DIY smartwatch from the ground up. This approach may not be as easy \u2014 and it definitely won\u2019t look as good as an off-the-shelf product \u2014 but it does allow for total customization. Better yet, when you build everything yourself, you know your device isn\u2019t spying on you.<\/p>\n
The homemade PCB (\ud83d\udcf7: CoreMemory_156)<\/p>\n
CoreMemory_156\u2019s oversized wristwatch is built around an ESP32-WROOM-32D microcontroller on a homemade PCB. This chip is wired to a 240\u00d7280 LCD display, accelerometer, heart rate sensor, real-time clock module, vibration motor, speaker, and a 200 mAh rechargeable battery. While not specified, the case appears to be 3D printed and is attached to a wrist strap.<\/p>\n
At present, there are several clock styles available, and the watch can display custom wallpaper. As far as apps are concerned, there is a heart rate monitor, a Tetris clone, a timer, a flashlight, and an ultrasonic blaster for playing with dogs.<\/p>\n
Playing Tetris (\ud83d\udcf7: CoreMemory_156)<\/p>\n
Looking ahead, CoreMemory_156 plans to develop a Pong game, and also add a temperature sensor. A light sensor will be added to dim the screen according to the ambient lighting level. Bluetooth music control is also in the works, as are some gyroscope-based games.<\/p>\n
There is no build guide available yet, but using the bill of materials and pictures<\/a>, you can get some good ideas for your own smartwatch creation. If you do make something, be sure to let us know<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When someone is interested in a new smartwatch, the next steps usually involve researching what is available commercially…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":530030,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[49,48,195,61],"class_list":{"0":"post-530029","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-gadgets","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-gadgets","11":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=530029"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530029\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/530030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=530029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=530029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=530029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}