Description

This project aims to build a thin, flexible smartwatch. It's wrap-around display and touchscreen will allow it to display more data at a glance than current devices. Besides telling time and displaying notifications, the watch will feature pulse rate, blood oxygen, and step sensors for health monitoring.

Details

Planned Features

180mm x 32mm x 2.5mm flexible silicone bracelet
4.9", 720x120 EPD (e-ink) screen (always on)
Capacitive touchscreen
Bluetooth 4.0
Pulse and blood oximetry sensor
Accelerometer/magetometer (pedometer and compass)
Notification vibration motor

Impact

The watch's sensors will allow its users to monitor their health and set fitness goals. Its thin, flexible design should make it less obtrusive and more comfortable than existing devices, increasing the amount of data gathered. Furthermore, its open-source nature increases the user's privacy, since there won't be a manufacturer that can benefit from selling user data.

Additionally, I hope the development process will advance the hobbyist state of the art, especially with the custom touchscreen.

Development Strategy and Status

To ease development, sub-components will be developed individually, then integrated together into the final design.

I've already acquired the flexible display (and its development kit), as well as a flexible battery. The power supply circuitry has been developed and tested. Currently, other sub-components are being developed.

Subcomponents

Power supplies (complete)
Microcontroller & BT
Touchscreen
Enclosure
Sensors
Firmware

Open Source Licensing

All design files and source code will be released. The electrical design will included Eagle, Gerber, and schematic PDF files, as well as a complete bill of materials.

Software will be licensed under the GNU GPL version 3, with a linking exception for manufacturer-provided microcontroller support libraries. (The libraries provided by manufacturers are usually incompatible with the GPL.) All other files will be licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike version 4.

Files

Power Supplies Test Data.xls

Results of power supply circuits test.

ms-excel - 12.50 kB - 05/02/2017 at 06:01

Download

Power Test Board r1 Design Files.zip

Power supplies development PCB.

Zip Archive - 1.04 MB - 04/29/2017 at 16:57

Download

Project Logs

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Power Supplies & Test PCB

Nick Ames • 04/29/2017 at 16:14 • 4 comments

An electrophoretic (e-ink) display requires a bunch of different power supply voltages. There are a few off-the-shelf chips (such as the TI TPS65185) which can provide all of them, but they're physically too large. (To maintain flexibility, I'd like for each component to be less than 3mm wide.) As a result, the supplies must be generated by separate regulators. Selecting these regulators is a challenge, since they must be physically small while consuming very little power.

Overall, the system requires seven voltage rails:

Voltage	IC	Purpose
1.8V	TI TPS62746	Microcontroller/Bluetooth/Misc
3.3V	AD ADP160ACBZ	Display/Pulse Sensor
15V	LT LT8410	Display
25V	LT LT8410	Display
-15V	LT LT3483	Display
-32V	LT LT3483	Display
VCOM (adjustable)	LT LT6003	Display

System power is provided by a 0.5mm thick 40mAhr li-ion battery (single cell; 3.5-4.2V). (The TI BQ29700DSER is used for battery under-voltage protection.) The 1.8V regulator runs continuously. All the other supplies are controlled by the microcontroller, to be enabled only when needed.

I made a PCB to characterize and test each regulator:

Discussions

peihonghu wrote 03/18/2022 at 14:19

Nice project! How can I get the source code?

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0xbadday wrote 06/12/2020 at 07:58

The concept seems very interesting to me. Congratulations on the work done so far. Are there any updates?

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James Darpinian wrote 02/11/2021 at 23:41

Yeah, I guess the lack of updates means no progress was made. I'd love to see a finished prototype of this.

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JVS wrote 04/13/2019 at 00:50

I can't find where to buy the display in the link to PL you posted, is it still available?

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Nick Ames wrote 04/15/2019 at 13:26

See https://www.plasticlogic.com/product/4-9-display/
Looks like they have a store now... much easier than when I purchased mine haha.

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James Hall wrote 04/15/2019 at 16:53

$150, ouch!

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jeffmaniglia wrote 04/16/2019 at 16:34

They also seem to have a 3.1" version with fewer pixels in the width for only $89. Could probably downsize the screen a bit and save some money?

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JVS wrote 02/25/2021 at 22:10

$150! maybe we could organize a group sale? hows development going?

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Hannah wrote 08/06/2018 at 20:44

This is so cool, I love eink! Is your design inspired by the Sony FES watch?

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Dennis Rutjes wrote 08/04/2018 at 17:33

this would be a nice add-on for patients in a hospital

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bArt wrote 07/21/2018 at 19:29

Great! Is there a planned release of the watch?

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prosto wrote 07/15/2018 at 17:22

please create a gitlab repository and emulator or other way.

I need writing my small aplication to this

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Makerfabs wrote 01/18/2018 at 02:23

i like the e-ink display, any updaes for this project recently?

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Patrik wrote 10/11/2017 at 18:46

Love the project. Really dont understand why people dont just use e-ink displays more often. Curios about GNU licensing for that one, technically wouldnt you be able to do a open-source prototype and then take it further in another version, patent and try to make money of it?

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Nick Ames wrote 10/12/2017 at 01:48

I suppose? The GPLv3 contains patent grant language, but that probably just applies to existing patents. However, I know there's already prior art of a flexible smartwatch.

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Nick Ames wrote 10/12/2017 at 01:48

Actually, publishing a prototype would constitute prior art in and of itself, making it impossible to obtain a patent on it.

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Vasilis Georgitzikis wrote 10/10/2017 at 16:29

This is really interesting. Could you share some info on the battery you're using? You mention a flexible battery but nothing other than that

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Nick Ames wrote 10/10/2017 at 20:46

I'm using the PGEB0052081 from Powerstream.

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Vasilis Georgitzikis wrote 10/10/2017 at 21:25

great find! this is really interesting, can't wait to see more updates

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Bartosz wrote 09/26/2017 at 12:35

I need wifi or bt.

I need loot of memory (1 Mb or more)

and 2 months working on one charge.

Is possible programming it in assembler?

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EngineerAllen wrote 08/13/2017 at 18:43

This is better than my idea until i saw it's 10 times more expensive

Too expensive

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Joshua Elsdon wrote 08/16/2017 at 11:19

I think the price is fair. Obviously there is cost of the development kit to the developer. I don't see why the final version would have to cost more than $300. This is in the range of most smart (and nice non-smart) watches. If it is designed in a 'timeless' way then I can see that it is worth that.

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EngineerAllen wrote 08/16/2017 at 16:19

EPD is the future for wearable computers

If the function is just time and what $10 watches can do then it's not worth it

even a speaker / mic combo with ai voice assistant would win over EPD for that

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Markus wrote 08/17/2017 at 09:12

What? You want an AI in your watch? Besides the connectivity/ computing issue, have fun talking to your watch in the public!

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Trevor Johansen Aase wrote 07/16/2017 at 01:33

What cost did the display and dev kit run you? I have a few ideas for a 720x120 Display.

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Nick Ames wrote 07/16/2017 at 05:07

Total was about $1k, mostly in the dev kit. The display itself is $150 each in sample quantities. There's a price list at the bottom on this page: http://www.plasticlogic.com/products/displays-with-epson/

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oshpark wrote 06/22/2017 at 18:17

Wow, very exciting!

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[deleted]

[this comment has been deleted]

Markus wrote 06/20/2017 at 06:17

Another display of the same manufacturer is used for this bracelet: http://www.liber8tech.com/news/

The backplane is a plastic substrate and won't break that easy. Of course there's always the possibility of scratches on the surface so a protective layer isn't a bad idea.

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Henry Wait wrote 05/19/2017 at 05:56

Hey, the Atmel SAM L21 would be perfect for something like this because of its ultra low power consumption, it could even be powered by a peltier thermo electric generator with plenty of power to spare for sensors and the display.

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Joshua Elsdon wrote 08/03/2017 at 15:53

I would also consider the STM32L432, the nucleo dev board is nice, and has similar power characteristics as the above, and has FPU and M4 processor. With RTC 200nA, without 8nA. The choice probably depends on which eco-system you prefer. Thermo electric is a neat idea as well!

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Flexible Smartwatch

Description

Details

Planned Features

Impact

Development Strategy and Status

Subcomponents

Open Source Licensing

Files

Power Supplies Test Data.xls

Power Test Board r1 Design Files.zip

Project Logs

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Power Supplies & Test PCB

Discussions

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Description

Details

Planned Features

Impact

Development Strategy and Status

Subcomponents

Open Source Licensing

Files

Power Supplies Test Data.xls

Power Test Board r1 Design Files.zip

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