Build Your Own Pip-Boy Styled Watch

September 2, 2025 by Donald Papp 6 Comments

[Arnov Sharma]’s latest PIP-WATCH version is an homage to Pip-Boys, the multi-function wrist-mounted personal computers of Fallout.

We like the magnetic clasp on the back end.

[Arnov] has created a really clean wearable design with great build instructions, so anyone who wants to make their own should have an easy time. Prefer to put your own spin on it, or feel inspired by the wrist-mounted enclosure? He’s thoughtfully provided the CAD files as well.

Inside the PIP-WATCH is a neat piece of hardware, the Lilygo T-Display-S3 Long. It’s an ESP32-based board with a wide, touch-enabled, color 180 x 640 display attached. That makes it a perfect fit for a project like this, at least in theory. In practice, [Arnov] found the documentation extremely lacking which made the hardware difficult to use, but he provides code and instructions so there’s no need to go through the same hassles he did.

In addition to the Hackaday.io project page, there’s an Instructables walkthrough.

If you put your own spin on a Pip-boy (whether just a project inspired by one, or a no-detail-spared build of dizzying detail) we want to hear about it, so be sure to drop us a tip!

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A Repeater For WWVB

August 7, 2025 by Bryan Cockfield 11 Comments

For those living in the continental US who, for whatever reason, don’t have access to an NTP server or a GPS device, the next best way to make sure the correct time is known is with the WWVB radio signal. Transmitting out of Colorado, the 60-bit 1 Hz signal reaches all 48 states in the low-frequency band and is a great way to get a clock within a few hundred nanoseconds of the official time. But in high noise situations, particularly on the coasts or in populated areas these radio-based clocks might miss some of the updates. To keep that from happening [Mike] built a repeater for this radio signal.

The repeater works by offloading most of the radio components to an Arduino. The microcontroller listens to the WWVB signal and re-transmits it at a lower power to the immediate area, in this case no further than a few inches away or enough to synchronize a few wristwatches. But it has a much better antenna for listening to WWVB so this eliminates the (admittedly uncommon) problem of [Mike]’s watches not synchronizing at least once per day. WWVB broadcasts a PWM signal which is easy for an Arduino to duplicate, but this one needed help from a DRV8833 amplifier to generate a meaningfully strong radio signal.

Although there have been other similar projects oriented around the WWVB signal, [Mike]’s goal for this was to improve the range of these projects so it could sync more than a single timekeeping device at a time as well as using parts which are more readily available and which have a higher ease of use. We’d say he’s done a pretty good job here, and his build instructions cover almost everything even the most beginner breadboarders would need to know to duplicate it on their own.

Spotted At Supercon: Glowtape Wearable Display

November 16, 2024 by Tom Nardi 14 Comments

We’re big fans of unusual timepieces here at Hackaday, so it didn’t take long before somebody called our attention to the gloriously luminescent watch that [Henner Zeller] was wearing at this year’s Supercon.

He calls it the Glowtape, and it uses a dense array of UV LEDs and a long strip of glow-in-the-dark material to display the time and date, as well as images and long strings of text written out horizontally to create an impromptu banner. It looked phenomenal in person, with the energized areas on the tape glowing brightly during the evening festivities in the alleyway.

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Is That A Large Smartwatch? Or A Tiny Cray?

June 21, 2024 by Al Williams 7 Comments

While we aren’t typically put off by a large wristwatch, we were taken a bit aback by [Chris Fenton]’s latest timepiece — if you can call it that. It’s actually a 1/25th-scale Cray C90 worn as a wristwatch. The whole thing started with [Chris] trying to build a Cray in Verilog. He started with a Cray-1 but then moved to a Cray X-MP, which is essentially a Cray-1 with two extra address bits. Then he expanded it to 32 bits, which makes it a Cray Y-MP/C90/J90 core. As he puts it, “If you wanted something practical, go read someone else’s blog.”

The watch emulates a Cray C916 and uses a round OLED display on the top. While the move from 22 to 32 address bits sounds outdated, keep in mind the Cray addresses 64-bit words exclusively, so we’re talking access to 32 gigabytes of memory. The hardware consists of an off-the-shelf FPGA board and a Teensy microcontroller to handle mundane tasks like driving the OLED display and booting the main CPU. Interestingly, the actual Cray 1A used Data General computers for a similar task.

Of course, any supercomputer needs a super program, so [Chris] uses the screen to display a full simulation of Jupiter and 63 of its moons. The Cray excels at programs like this because of its vector processing abilities. The whole program is 127 words long and sustains 40 MFLOPs. Of course, that means to read the current time, you need to know where Jupiter’s moons are at all times so you can match it with the display. He did warn us this would not be practical.

While the Cray wouldn’t qualify as a supercomputer today, we love learning about what was state-of-the-art not that long ago. Cray was named, of course, after [Seymour Cray] who had earlier designed the Univac 1103, several iconic CDC computers, and the Cray computers, of course.

A Solar-Powered Wristwatch With An ATtiny13

March 13, 2024 by Maya Posch 23 Comments

Wristwatches come in many shapes, sizes, and types, but most still have at least one thing in common: they feature a battery that needs to be swapped or recharged somewhere been every other day and every few years. A rare few integrate a solar panel that keeps the internal battery at least somewhat topped up, as environmental light permits.

This “Perpetual” wristwatch designed by [Serhii Trush] aims to keep digitally ticking along using nothing but the integrated photodiodes, a rechargeable LIR2430 cell, and a power-sipping face that uses one LED for each hour of the day.

The face of the perpetual wristwatch. (Credit: Serhii Trush)

The wristwatch’s operation is demonstrated in the linked video (in Ukrainian, auto-generated subtitles available): to read out the current time, the button in the center is pressed, which first shows the hour, then the minutes (in 5 minute intervals).

After this the ATtiny13 MCU goes back to sleep, briefly waking up every 0.5 seconds to update the time, which explains why there’s no RTC crystal. The 12 BPW34S photodiodes are enough to provide 2 mA at 0.5 V in full sunlight, which together keep the LIR2430 cell charged via a Zener diode.

As far as minimalistic yet practical designs go, this one is pretty hard to beat. If you wish to make your own, all of the design files and firmware are provided on the GitHub page.

Although we certainly do like the exposed components, it would be interesting to see this technique paired with the PCB watch face we covered recently.

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Watch on the wrist, with all the sensors facing the camera. There's a lot of them, and a lot of wires of all kinds tying everything together.

2022 Cyberdeck Contest: IP00-Minus, A Daring Wearable

October 4, 2022 by Arya Voronova 10 Comments

[Rob]’s IP00-Minus watch stands out on the Cyberdeck Contest project list page; it’s clear he decided to go a different path than most other hackers, and we can certainly see the advantages. For example, if there’s no case, there’s no need to redesign it each time you want to add a module — and [Rob] has added many, many modules to this watch.

Picking between regular LCD, memory LCD, and OLED displays can be a tricky decision to make when planning out your gadget, so he just added all three. The CircuitPython firmware initially attempted to resist the trio, but was eventually defeated through patching. Jokes aside, we can almost feel the joy that [Rob] must have felt after having put this watch on for the first time, and this project has some serious creative potential for a hacker.

[Rob] has been focusing on day-to-day usability first and foremost, with pleasantly clicky encoders, impeccable performance of its watch duty, unparalleled expandability, and comfortable wrist fit — it provides a feeling no commercial wearable could bring.

Out of the myriad of sensors, the air quality sensor has been the most useful so far, letting him know when to open a window or leave a particularly crowded place. The ESP32-S3 powered watch has been quite a playground for [Rob]’s software experiments, and given the sheer variety of hardware attached, we’re sure it will bring unexpected synergy-driven ideas. Plus, it’s no doubt a great conversation starter in nerd and non-nerd circles alike.

Good things happen when you give hackers a wrist-worn watch full of sensors, whether it’s a particularly impressive event badge, a modified firmware for an open source smartwatch, or a custom piece that pushes the envelope of DIY hardware.

Put 3D Metal Printing Services To The Test, By Making A Watch

August 18, 2022 by Jenny List 17 Comments

Have you ever been tempted by those metal 3D printing services? [Carter Hurd] has, and puts them to the test with a wristwatch. (Video, embedded below.)

It’s fair to say that among Hackaday readers you will find a very high percentage of 3D printer ownership compared to the general population, but for most of us that means an FDM or perhaps even an SLA printer. These two technologies have both effectively delivered polymer printing at the affordable end of the market, but as readers will also be aware they are only the tip of the 3D printing iceberg. We know the awesomeness of your industrial 3D printer is defined by the size of your wallet, and while our wallets are small, we are offered a chance at the big time through the services of rapid prototyping companies that will print our models on these high-end machines. Thus [Carter]’s project video is as much about using these services as it is about making a wristwatch.

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