Floppy disks, payphones, cassette tapes — these are just some examples of the numerous applied sciences which have turn into out of date and gone the way in which of the dodo chook. Whereas we could not want out of date tech, lots of people keep in mind it fondly and wish all of it the identical. That is very generally seen with classic computer systems and online game consoles, the place massive communities of fans maintain these programs working for future generations to take pleasure in — and, in fact, they play a couple of rounds of Pong and Area Invaders within the course of.
Not each lengthy gone know-how has such a big group of adoring followers nonetheless singing its praises, nonetheless. Take the pocket watch, for instance. These watches could as soon as have been a logo of wealth or excessive social standing, however as we speak there may be simply no place left for them anymore. Actually. I imply, who has a particular pocket put aside only for a watch lately?
Assembling the {hardware} (📷: abe’s initiatives)
Nicely, YouTuber Abe, of abe’s initiatives, simply may. He loves pocket watches, and determined to specific that love by constructing a brand new one. However he was decided to construct it in a manner that may additionally signify his love for classic tech. The answer was maybe a bit unorthodox, however proved to be very cool all the identical. Abe designed a pocket watch to look as if it had been salvaged from an alternate timeline — one wherein pocket watches maintained their reputation into the Nineteen Eighties.
To carry this creation to life, Abe first put pen to paper and received busy with the design work. When all the pieces began to match the picture in his thoughts, a mannequin was created with Autodesk Fusion 360 earlier than being 3D-printed. Naturally some iteration was essential to get issues excellent, then the ultimate case was painted to offer it a weathered and aged look.
After selecting to go together with a digital show, Abe chosen the Seeed Studio Spherical Show to construct the watch round. Except for a slick 1.28-inch spherical display, it additionally comes outfitted with a connector for a chargeable battery, a socket for a microcontroller, a real-time clock with a coin cell holder for backup, and an SD card slot. Hmm… that sounds suspiciously like practically all the pieces essential to construct a watch. After including in a Xiao RP2040 microcontroller improvement board, the batteries, and a button, the {hardware} was full.
Writing the firmware for a watch is fairly simple, however Abe did run into a couple of bumps alongside the way in which. Every time the display was turned on, it could briefly show random noise earlier than displaying the meant graphics. After doing a little analysis, this difficulty was traced to one of many libraries that’s answerable for turning on the show. A command was being issued that turned it on earlier than it was provided with information to show. So, Abe eliminated that line and relocated it to make sure that information would all the time be obtainable earlier than turning on.
When all was stated and completed, this distinctive pocket watch was able to displaying the time, day of the week, moon section, battery life, and a thriller “triangle meter.” It doesn’t appear to look particularly 80s-esque to me, however that could be a matter of opinion — and for the reason that watch comes from an alternate timeline, that could be completely applicable. However in any case, it is a very cool construct that demonstrates simply how simple it may be to hack collectively a gadget that you should utilize every single day.
