Tweets
Replying to @M_uh_lee and @OtterBox
I almost got squished this morning at Lee and Wallabout by a driver with “MAN POWER” license plates swerving to get a few feet closer to a traffic jam. Must be something in the air today.
(original)
Replying to @justinrwlynn
The main type of Casio watch that won’t work is anything with the blue EL backlight, including the A168. The plastic enclosure inside those watches is different and the Sensor Watch board won’t fit. It needs to be the one with the dim green LED backlight (or amber in older ones).
(original)
Replying to @justinrwlynn
So far I’ve tested with several variants of the F-91W including several F-91WM’s; everything with that prefix has worked, as well as the metal A158. It seems that Casio uses the same movement in all of these, including compatible dimensions and a compatible LCD.
(original)
Replying to @kfury
unsettlingly messianic (and disturbingly homicidal) tech CEO. I suppose it was inevitable?
(original)
Replying to @josecastillo
This has been a bad streak! Five in a row picking the wrong answer first. Wordle 290 4/6*
🟨⬛⬛⬛⬛
⬛🟨⬛🟩🟨
🟩🟩⬛🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩(original)
Replying to @RWB93174525 and @adrianbowyer
haha I’ve pushed the envelope before https://mobile.twitter.com/josecastillo/status/1428062324951289858
(original)
Replying to @josecastillo
It’s a documentation bag. You put it around the documentation to protect it, but it’s clear! So you still get the full visual of the documentation.
(original)
Replying to @josecastillo
Screw it, the house is a three minute bike ride from the shop and there’s a printer there; it’s the one I used to print the quick start guide anyway. Plus the good paper cutter!
(original)
last minute bit of extra documentation: realized I neglected to include instructions on inserting the temperature sensor board! Which made me realize I didn’t have an SVG of the sensor board. Made it! But now our laser printer is out of toner and TL;DR it’s yaks all the way down.
(original)
Fell down some steps yesterday carrying my bike so I’m a bit sore. But I need to bike to Greenpoint for labels for the watch shipment, so here we go. It’s funny: you think the work is fun engineering stuff, but sometimes the work is hauling your aching body up and down Union Ave.
(original)
Replying to @justinrwlynn
The main thing to look for is the center segment of the 1st digit. If it goes all the way across it’s real; if there’s a tiny gap on the left side, it’s a counterfeit. (There are other clues like the microprinted U on the front, which is bigger on a fake). https://mobile.twitter.com/josecastillo/status/1466394195426430977
(original)
Replying to @justinrwlynn
One worry: the packaging on those strongly resembles the packaging on some counterfeit F-91W’s I got on eBay, and the board doesn’t work with the fakes. If you press all three buttons at once it will turn on all the segments, which should offer a hint to whether they’re real. 1/2
(original)
Replying to @josecastillo
speedran this one for no particular reason. Wordle 289 4/6*
🟨⬛⬛🟨⬛
🟩🟨🟩⬛⬛
🟩🟩🟩⬛🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩(original)
Replying to @josecastillo
Speedran this one when I realized at 11:56 that I was about to miss my chance. Wordle 288 5/6*
⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
⬛⬛🟨🟩⬛
⬛🟩🟨🟩🟩
🟩🟩⬛🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩(original)
Replying to @josecastillo
* also to clarify: these 90 boards go to the 90 Special Edition backers; alas it’s going to be a while for the main batch that can ship worldwide including the EU. Will post an update about it this week.
(original)
One step closer! Final build of Movement flashed on all boards. Tomorrow all the pink bags go into blue bags, then all the blue bags go to Mouser. Then these first 90 boards go to those first 90 backers.
(original)
Replying to @spencerbyw
I haven’t written multi-button gestures into Movement, but this in particular seems like a great application for it. Hold the alarm button and then press Mode — instantly back to the first face! I sense that edge cases lurk if I go there, but it seems worth looking into for sure.
(original)
Replying to @spencerbyw
I’m imagining like a remote control, where Light and Mode could be like volume up and down given their positions. But if there were a hard constraint that watch faces couldn’t override the mode button, it would free up long press for another use like this. Food for thought!
(original)
Replying to @spencerbyw
That’s a good idea! Currently I’m treating it as the “escape hatch” to get to the next watch face if a watch face doesn’t relinquish control. I can see limited cases where a someone might want to claim the Mode button for something, so long press always advances the watch face.
(original)
Replying to @esi_jg and @bitshiftmask
I seem to recall you were talking about a gadget like this at some point?
(original)
RT @v1nc1nt: Flashing UF2 Bootloader to Sensor-Watch with ESP32 @josecastillo
(original)
biked out today unprepared for april in new york. It’s so cold I’m appreciating the warmth of the feral cars I’m forced to weave past.
(original)
Replying to @bradanlane
It’s more Adafruit goodness: they have a library called Adafruit_DAP, which I believe they use in house for this sort of thing. It turns any M0+ board into an SWD programmer. My flashing app just has the bootloader hard coded in a header file; sketch here: https://github.com/joeycastillo/Sensor-Watch/blob/main/utils/flash_watch_pyruler/flash_watch_pyruler.ino
(original)
Replying to @josecastillo
Next up is flashing the release candidate firmware onto each of the boards, which should be quick. Still I want to be abundantly sure that it’s 💯 before I do, because I’d like to go straight from flashing the firmware to placing them in bags to be shipped to backers.
(original)
Flashing the new bootloader on the 90 Special Edition Sensor Watch boards. I’ll have to streamline my process before the big order, but for now I can do 5 boards per minute using my Adafruit PyRuler and a homebrew cable (made from a 2×3 DuPont connector and some pogo pins).
(original)
Q: Is it normal for a wolf to wear sheep’s clothing?
A: Absolutely, you have nothing to worry about.source: the wolf.
(original)
Replying to @George_Cave
In particular I’d be curious what the registration looks like on the vias: if the hole is dead center, and if the annular ring around each one is plated all around on both sides.
(original)
The difference between millionaires and billionaires. To get a million dollars of Monopoly money, it would cost nearly $1000 to buy 49 board games. To get a billion, it would cost nearly a million real dollars to buy 49,000 of them.
At some point you’re just running up the score. https://twitter.com/Foone/status/1510276644216324096(original)
what deranged primate wrote this bug?
…it was me, right. https://github.com/joeycastillo/Sensor-Watch/commit/dd3e6c5fc37fe2dd42808797400406867e204d7d(original)
Replying to @josecastillo
this one wasn’t so bad. But of course I reached for the one it wasn’t before the one it was. Wordle 287 5/6*
⬛⬛⬛⬛🟨
⬛🟨🟩⬛🟩
⬛⬛🟩🟨🟩
🟩🟩🟩⬛🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩(original)
Replying to @George_Cave
Oof that’s rough! Curious if you could email me close-up photos of that board; based on this and another thing, I’m tempted to adjust my design rules for prototype sensor boards.
(original)
Replying to @tahnok
Yep! Dropped it in the same folder here. Note that it’ll say “blue” instead of “green” in the settings screen. https://joeycastillo.sdf.org/sensorwatch-rc1/watch.uf2
(original)
OKAY! Sensor Watch release candidate firmware is online with the emulator! Also includes all the instructions that are coming printed in the box. One shortcut: you can click the “Set Location Register” button to make the sunrise/sunset face work quickly! https://joeycastillo.sdf.org/sensorwatch-rc1/watch.html
(original)
Replying to @nodechomsky
Thanks for the suggestion! Yea I definitely think that for the final run of ~1600 I’m going to pay for printing and folding, since there’s going to be a lot more paper involved to ship to the EU.
(original)
Replying to @josecastillo
if this is oversharing, I’ll stop, but I do feel like sharing the process is useful. This afternoon it’s stuffing 100 bags with two folded pages of documentation. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about sending things out into the world it’s this: you have to love doing the work.
(original)
Replying to @bitshiftmask, @crowd_supply and @PCBWayOfficial
yeah I’m pushing it far beyond its recommended 20 insertion cycles. On the plus side after over a year of testing I’ve only had one of these fail, so I figured I could get away with it? still I’ll have to figure something out before I have to make 1600 of these for the big order.
(original)
Replying to @josecastillo
A video of the test procedure. Honestly, it feels a bit visceral: handling the board, my body heat warms the sensor; then when I remove my hand, the temperature begins to drop. I know I used my body to make these, but using my own body heat to test them feels like something else!
(original)
Timelapse: depaneling and testing 100 temperature sensor boards for Sensor Watch @crowd_supply backers. Once again, this is the @PCBWayOfficial sponsored flex panel, and I’m stoked to tell you that there was a 100% success rate on these: every last one of them tested flawlessly!
(original)
Replying to @RangenMichael and @adafruit
Yea I always go for LiPos with over/undervoltage and short circuit protection, never raw cells. The voltage divider on the Feather is there to let the user of the board measure the voltage, for like a low battery warning in their application; you don’t need it unless you want it.
(original)
Replying to @josecastillo
(truth be told I was futzing with this yesterday because I realized I had some small chips lying around, and I realized they’re just comically small; my idea made more sense as a gag than a gadget)
(original)
Replying to @RangenMichael and @adafruit
Yea the LED in my circuit is just a proxy for whatever you want do do with VHI; I feed it into a 3.3V regulator, and power the battery charging circuit (if any) direct from 5V. Adafruit’s Feather M4 schematic demonstrates it well: https://cdn-learn.adafruit.com/assets/assets/000/057/242/original/arduino_compatibles_schem.png?1531010817
(original)
I am not above designing a ridiculous board for april fool’s day. hold me closer, tiny gadget!
(original)
Replying to @RangenMichael
For just battery and external power, I’m a fan of this circuit (which I cribbed from @adafruit’s recent Feathers): one Schottky diode, a P-channel MOSFET and a resistor to pull down the gate.
(original)
Replying to @twilliability
I’m pretty sure it’s also Forest’s wristwatch in Devs!
(original)
Replying to @twilliability
Not what’s shipping out with the CS campaign, no. But the sensor boards are modular, so it’ll be easy to swap in an accelerometer board later. There are even design files for it in the repo. I just don’t have the capacity to make more than a couple of them for testing right now.
(original)
Replying to @MakerBlock
one can lose many things even with perfect strategy; life is unfair like that too. I think it’s interesting that it’s not fair. Implicit in many puzzles is the sense that there’s always a way to win, if you can find it. Hard mode forces you to live with loss from time to time.
(original)
Replying to @bali_gon
Sometimes you eat the bear, and sometimes the bear, he eats you.
(original)
Replying to @josecastillo
…or not. Wordle 286 X/6*
⬛🟨⬛⬛🟨
⬛🟨🟨🟨⬛
🟩⬛🟩🟩🟩
🟩⬛🟩🟩🟩
🟩⬛🟩🟩🟩
🟩⬛🟩🟩🟩(original)
so. much. writing. (and someday I’m going to have to translate all this to German)
(original)
Replying to @josecastillo
Obviously I expect many folks will immediately trash the stock firmware and load up the watch with a list of watch faces that they prefer; still I would like for the gadget to be useful even if someone unwraps it and does the board swap immediately. This list feels useful enough.
(original)