Hack your own electronic paper smartwatch with this $ 50 open source kit

If you’ve always wanted to be like Steve Wozniak and have your own custom-made geeky watch, the Squarofumi (stylized SQFMI) may have the product for you: an open source smartwatch powered by Arduino with a 1.54-inch electronic watch screen. paper (via Gizmodo) It’s called Watchy, and both hardware and software are fully customizable. You can, however, use it as soon as it comes out of the box, as the PCB acts as the body and has points for attaching a watch strap. On top of that, it’s only $ 50, on sale for $ 45 at the time of writing.

The SQFMI website has sections for dials and watch cases, but at the moment both just say “Coming soon”, so if you are thinking about this watch, you will definitely want to make sure you are ready for a DIY project. Oh, and there’s also the fact that the watch doesn’t come assembled – you have to assemble it yourself, connecting the 200×200 display, PCB and 200mAh battery. There is Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, a 3-axis accelerometer and four buttons that can be used for navigation or any other functions you can imagine.

Chart: SQFMI

If having to assemble the hardware yourself does not intimidate you, there is one last thing to note: although the watch comes with pre-loaded software, if you want to make any changes to the watch face, you will have to download the Arduino IDE and program- them yourself.

While some people may be discouraged by all the work required to make the clock work, for some people the self-build approach means that they will be able to get exactly what they want. If you want a watch with a case that looks like an iPod or Game Boy, with a compatible interface, you can print a case in 3D and code the watch face yourself. It’s the kind of freedom you probably won’t get with most commercial smartwatches, although Tizen and Wear OS watches offer downloadable dials.

SQFMI battery life estimates depend on your use case – it says that if you’re just timing, you should get five to seven days, but if you’re getting data frequently, you’ll only see two to three. Its open source nature, however, means that you can always put a bigger battery in it or try to make some software optimizations if there are features you want to cut.

Image: SQFMI

If you are looking for this type of coding / DIY project, Watchy is being sold at Tindie. I just recommend that you take a look at the SQFMI website to make sure that the amount of documentation available is sufficient to get you started.