PIC32 Smart Watch For Less Than A Benjamin

[Matthew Filipek] likes smart watches, but wanted to build one for under $100, so he did. The watch has a 1.7 inch LCD touchscreen, a rechargeable LiPo battery, an SD card, and Bluetooth. The watch is a little large since [Matthew] had only a month to complete the project that drove him to use some pre-made modules image004and meant one shot at getting his custom PCB right.

The watch sports three applications: a settings app, a simple game, and a sketch program (you can see a demo in the video below). Power management is a primary goal, of course, although the clock rate is held high enough to make the game playable. To simplify the software, [Matthew] uses protothreads–a lightweight thread abstraction for embedded systems.

We’ve seen several DIY smartwatches in the past including one entry for the Hackaday Prize. It is hard to roll your own watch that has the same small size and style as a commercial offering. However, there is something to be said for having a homebrew watch for boosting your hacker cred.

Thanks to [Bruce Land] for the tip.

20 thoughts on “PIC32 Smart Watch For Less Than A Benjamin

    1. 60+mA idle current with screen off which is insanely high (even if the vendor lies about the LiPo capacity.) At full speed of 40MHz, the PIC32 in run mode is only supposed to take 20mA (typ) and 30mA(max).

      Really should look at power management to shut down the external circuits and switch to a much lower clock speed and idle or power down the processor.

  1. Quote…”I don’t think I want a watch like that”

    That is NOT the point!! This is/was a LEARNING exercise! NOT an attempt to create a sale-able product. But wait… it really is an attempt to create a sale-able product… the student will have a nice addition to his resume which will likely get him a JOB someday soon.
    Wise up!! Daniel

      1. That statement is less true every day!

        Lets tell our government we are not scared hamsters who need the saftey of being locked in a glass box and monitored 24/7!

        I would rather be killed by terrorist than spied on by my government.

        -Azagthoth

      2. First off, great job on watch!

        “freedom unit”
        That statement is less true every day!

        Lets tell our government we are not scared hamsters who need the saftey of being locked in a glass box and monitored 24/7!

        I would rather be killed by terrorist than spied on by my government.

        -Azagthoth

Leave a Reply to thenetCancel reply

Please be kind and respectful to help make the comments section excellent. (Comment Policy)

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.