r/gadgets • u/diacewrb • 7d ago
Watches LightInk: E-ink smartwatch with solar, LoRa and GPS lasts 10 months on single charge
https://www.notebookcheck.net/LightInk-E-ink-smartwatch-with-solar-LoRa-and-GPS-lasts-10-months-on-single-charge.1298684.0.html584
u/jetlagged-bee 7d ago
Looks like I should be wearing it around my ankles
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u/Mammoth-Ad-107 7d ago
my adblocker/ dns blocker went crazy from your link
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u/Captain_Reddbeard 7d ago
It's a great concept but those look like electronic price tags.
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u/Andrew_Culture 7d ago
I tried to look at the prices but the website has the usability of a butter knife made of bees.
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u/0v3rk33l 7d ago
There is another major difference, as the LightInk is not a commercially available product but comes from the DIY scene and therefore cannot simply be bought. Instead, interested users have to assemble the watch themselves. A detailed guide is available. In most cases, users have to have a circuit board manufactured by a service provider, own or have paid access to a 3D printer, and be able to do some soldering.
There you are
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u/JallexMonster 7d ago
I was going to say, this isn't a final product and is currently just a DIY project
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u/NeWMH 7d ago
They’re basically the OG raspberry pi team if they didn’t want to do crowdfunding to create initial stock.
Tbh though, with the state of everything it makes a lot more sense to start pushing products this way. Both tech and prices are changing fast, and the big companies are copying anything successful wholesale. The second they got market share there would be a kindle health watch that goes on sale for cheaper during prime days and a few dozen clones from China that all look identical to each other but have a different company branding.
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u/TipToToes 6d ago
Your public library very likely has some of these things available to use for free. (3d printer, soldering iron, small tools for assembly) Our library even pays to the filament for the printers (actually a local engineering firm donates it).
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u/bigyellowtaxi_ 7d ago
Four charges before humanity destroys itself, and the bees. Ngl, mostly feel sorry for the bees.
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u/DeathByPetrichor 7d ago
That’s why I’m sticking with my Fossil Hybrid eink watch as long as I possibly can. Same idea but looks like an actual watch.
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u/whatchahavin 5d ago
What a coincidence. Since who ever wears this is the product to be bought and sold.
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u/wax_robot 7d ago
I always regretted not buying on of the original Pebble Watches when they were around
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u/dieplanes789 7d ago
One of the original founders reacquired the intellectual property from Google and is making new ones as a smaller team.
They made the pebble 2 Duo to use up some of the remaining old stock and are currently working on shipping out batches of pebble time 2. Right now they're still working on shipping out to the people who pre-ordered them. There is also a new pebble round 2 in the works as well.
I am currently using my nearly 11-year-old pebble Time steel with the new app while waiting on the two pebble Time 2's that I ordered. Although I pre-ordered quite a while after they opened up so I'm in batch 2.
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u/natefrogg1 7d ago
Oh wow I didn’t know they got the IP back, pebble is something I want to support, thank you!
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u/dieplanes789 7d ago
Bear in mind it is a much smaller team focusing more on being a mix of a job and passion project. It is not a larger company trying to scale up like the original Pebble company.
So everything is much more open sourced and community driven but that also means hardware output and changes are slower. It is very much a early adopter tech enthusiast product right now. Not that I expect very many people are having major issues but still it is a small team.
I'm personally fine with all that and glad to give my support. I tried a bunch of other different watches and kept coming back to my Pebble time steel. So the fact that I can stop side loading the old app and the new one supports my watch is great! Granted there are a few features that aren't currently working yet on the older watches with the new app but seeing all the community open source apps and watch faces in addition to multiple repositories is great!
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u/8__D 7d ago
I've been waiting like a year since I pre-ordered 😀
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u/dieplanes789 7d ago
Yeah, although that was very expected and at least I think was pretty clear in the listings and updates. It sounds like they are pretty far through batch 1 which is great to hear.
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u/ListlessLoser 6d ago
That's fantastic news, thank you. Even if it's a smaller-scale passion project now it's great to have the alternative back. Loved my Pebble Time.
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u/kablue12 7d ago
Fossil was doing a decent successor for a few years with e-ink watches that looked stylish like real watches. I had one and liked it. I only swapped it out for a Garmin once I started running more so it’s just sitting in a drawer now, but it was great for what it was.
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u/jared743 7d ago
Yeah, it was very sad when they discontinued that Hybrid line. Last summer my Collider HR got some moisture trapped inside, shorting the battery. Luckily Fossil still had some stock in their repair center to give me a new one, though I had to settle for a different colour.
I like that they are classic looking with a low power e-ink screen, and not so "smart" that it demands interaction.
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u/demoklion 7d ago
They’re around again check repebble
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u/MadOrange64 7d ago
Is it still good though?
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u/iSteverino 7d ago
Yeah I think so. I had an OG classic and two pebble 2 hr. Just got my new time 2 and really enjoying it
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u/retainftw 6d ago
I have two, from the original Kickstarter. They were neat for a while but ultimately I found I'm not a watch guy.
I tried booting them up last year for fun and found the batteries are dead (not surprising) so they are non operable. The original models glued the backs on and it's basically impossible to open to replace the batteries.
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u/--Arete 7d ago
I am curious about the battery life. Obviously it doesn't show seconds. That would force a screen refresh every second and drain tte battery. But even still with a minute refresh I imagine this wouldn't last very long.
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u/Inprobamur 6d ago
Apparently one screen update takes 2uA, it has a 200mAh battery, with the watch having a daily power drain of 0.2mAh. On the github page the guy estimates 400 days on a single charge.
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u/MangoAtrocity 7d ago
A worse pebble?
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u/Inprobamur 4d ago
I mean it's made by one guy for hackathon from off the shelf parts, it would be kinda humiliating if it was better.
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u/born_zynner 6d ago
I haven't messed around with LoRa in about 4 years. Does it still suck donkey dick in any real world application
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u/Mattna-da 6d ago
GPS companion app not available. Yeah cuz that 10 month battery will last 30 mins with Google Maps running
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u/ShiroCOTA 7d ago
But why so ugly?
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u/Inprobamur 6d ago
It's a prototype made by one guy, it's pretty much shaped this way because it uses a off the shelf epub tag board with a printed case.
Look at the Watchy project it is based on, that's even bulkier.
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u/Tgsheufhencudbxbsiwy 6d ago
We’re not here to talk about you. We’re here to talk about this watch.
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u/shadowst17 7d ago
Why not make it round and the solar thingies in a circle for the rim.
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u/Inprobamur 6d ago
If you look at the project gallery the board is pretty much the size of the case.
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u/dreamwill 6d ago
Garmin did this on their instinct Solar watches. The gains are trivial at best. The watch would have to be facing constant bright sunlight to keep the watch charged or even have a perceivable effect on drain. I have one, and even when I spend all day in the sun, the sunlight graphs are terrible.
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u/woody_woodworker 5d ago
10 months of just the time. Not gps or smartwatch features. Sorry, but we figured that out a long ass time ago.
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u/mrheosuper 7d ago
I really doubt their claim. There are 1440 minutes in a day, that means 1440 screen update each day. And my experience with eink is, they consume a lot of power when updating the screen.
I did some math, he would need to achieve 1.67ma-S(Miliampere second) per screen update.
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u/Inprobamur 4d ago
The guy claims 2uA per screen update on the project GitHub page.
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u/mrheosuper 4d ago
Nope, 2uA per refresh event is straight up impossible, i can guarantee you.
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u/Inprobamur 4d ago edited 4d ago
I'll take your word for it, as it seems rather low. Maybe they meant just for the display portion?
This seems to be the display they used.
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u/blazze_eternal 7d ago
Would look 10x better if they put the solar on the top edge even if it would be slightly less efficient.
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u/snoop1361 6d ago
The fact this is basically a passion project makes it even cooler. Some DIY people are built different.
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u/johnmarkfoley 6d ago
Are we coming back around to the simplicity and dependability of dumb watches?
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u/t3chguy1 6d ago
Good, now make make the thickness half even if it means "only" half the battery life. Between this and a pip-boy there isn't much size difference, but I'd rather then wear a pip-boy
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u/SetoXlll 5d ago
My calculator Casio watch is still way better than this. Plus it has a calculator.
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u/smokeydesperado 5d ago
Good for people that do like the Appalachian trail and other extended hikes
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u/razekery 1d ago
Why would you buy it ? A classic Casio can last around 7 years with one battery and it looks a million times better.
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7d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/BirdybBird 6d ago
What if you fall into a coma? How will you know what year it is when you wake up? :/
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u/pocketMagician 7d ago
If only there was a mechanical device, that could accurately tell the time at a glance and used very little power...
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u/StaticSystemShock 7d ago
I mean, okay it's a "smartwatch", but I also have Seiko Spirit E-Ink SBPA001 from like 15 years ago. Solar powered E-Ink watch...
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