E Ink faces growing competition in the "paper-like" display space
    • 𝕽𝖚𝖆𝖎𝖉𝖍𝖗𝖎𝖌𝖍English
      1•2 months ago

      let me know if you have questions.

      I have all the questions. I’m peripherally aware of ESP32; my experience with it, and its capabilities, is severely limited, and IME interface changes require recompiling and re-flashing things. Many of my questions stem from that ignorance.

      1. Integration support. I assume GadgetBridge on Android is how you’d do it? Or is there another app?
      2. How is the battery life IRL?
      3. What does the watch face & app space look like? The FAQ mentions a “gallery”, and instructions for contributions describe the github PR process. Is the gallery just the list of watch faces on the sqfmi website?
      4. What’s the process for changing faces, and installing additional functionality? From the docs, it looks as if this must be done over a serial cable, despite the device having WiFi capability. I assume that’s because adding faces is basically re-flashing the firmware, which is not supported over wireless? So, to get a new face, you clone the repo, compile a new firmware, and flash the device over a serial cable?
      5. The FAQ verbiage is confusing regarding the display technology, but I think it’s saying the display isn’t reflective LCD like the Pebble.
      6. Can you have multiple faces on the device, or do you have to re-flash it to change the face? The FAQ says the face is the entire firmware, implying only one face on the device at a time.
      7. If you’re part of the community: have there been any discussions about future development to add, e.g. health monitor hardware?
      8. Is there any integration with a phone, such as notifications? This is sort of the GadgetBridge question, but more about what integrations - if any - are supported. Vibrate on phone ringing? Quick responses to texts? Phone calls over the watch - yeah, I know it’s not that advanced, but for example.
      9. What’s your opinion of the device? Do you use it as a daily driver?

      At under $70, I’m not expecting much, but it’d be nice to know what you expect. The sqfmi site is pretty sparse on details. If there’s an additional, deeper FAQ or Wiki, a link to that would be great.

      Thanks!

      • @[email protected]English
        2•2 months ago
        1. I’m not using that
        2. about a week
        3. it’s indeed like the gallery
        4. yes, you need to compile the firmware and flash it over USB. The first time is a tricky but then it takes just few minutes
        5. strangers have said it looked like actual paper. It’s extremely readible
        6. indeed it’s one face per firmware… but assuming there is enough space, you could imagine modifying it in order to have more faces
        7. for now I just briefly chat on Discord to get the basics going as I was one of the very first to have the new ESP S3, cf https://github.com/sqfmi/Watchy/issues/252
        8. cf 1 but I bet there is, I was thinking of changing the WiFi HTTP server to possibly send data to HomeAssistant but I didn’t explore that yet
        9. it’s my daily driver, it’s a HUGE thing but it works and often sparks interesting conversations, I like it

        Happy to clarify a bit more if need be.