Pebble Time

[Starlord]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/597507018/pebble-time-awesome-smartwatch-no-compromises

Over $5M on Kickstarter in the first 5 hours.

Curious... If it's using an e-ink display, why does the battery only last 7 days?  E-ink doesn't require constant power.  It should only need to wake up once per minute to update the time and check for email.  Does bluetooth require an always-on connection to work properly without the user having to constantly confirm the connection?

[tom66]

It's pretty small, maybe they've got a 100mAh battery in there, in which case the quiescent current would be on the order of ~600uA, which does sound fairly high, but perhaps they're including some typical usage figures.

[tvtech]

Now sitting at $8,924,900 South African time with 30 days to go still......

They are going to break their own previous record on KS by a Mile.

[SeanB]

If I want a watch I want it to last at least a year on a battery. My cheap Chinese watch uses a very cheap 377 cell, and lasts around 12 months per battery, and my Seiko lasts around 5 years on a CR2032 cell. A week on a charge is not a workable thing, probably because they are using a regular microprocessor there and even with all sleep modes leakage current is a killer.

Ks is dead at the moment, looks like they are using an Amiga as the backend.........

Error 503 backend read error

backend read error
Guru Mediation:

Details: cache-lcy1131-LCY 1424885897 1631412435

Varnish cache server

[tvtech]

Fair enough Sean

Interesting part is that many people that bought the original Pebble years ago are promoting this new one. And buying it too.
Pebble must be doing something right.

[SeanB]

I got cheesed off with a wall clock that was eating an AA cell every month, so replaced it with another cheap ( $3) one. As it is a nice unit, but just has an appetite for batteries ( the Chinese are starting to supply 'continuous' movements in cheap clocks now as almost a standard) so i did a quick modification to it.  One slightly used 5mm red LED, the existing 560R series resistor for the LED ( old panel indicator that was in the ewaste pile) and some used network cable for the hookup wires, plus a used 1000uF 16V capacitor ( yes it is a Crapxon, but here the ESR is not going to be an issue, and it is not bulging like the rest in the computer were) and some solder and glue, and it is now powered by a lead acid battery that provides my cordless phone with battery back up.

Phone base station uses 7V, supplied by using 2 old burglar alarm charger boards. The first, with transformer, charging a 12V battery, and the second modified ( a few wire links and resistors changed around) to give me a 7V regulated output at up to 2A, though the base is only using 2W. Fits in a used GRP box, so the clock is now on the front panel, on the wall behind me at work. I had to float the output of the charger, as it turns out the base station floats at -60V WRT mains ground, due to the phone line voltage. The 14V VDR to ground on the charger output was very unhappy with this till I cut it off, though another 5 minutes and it likely would have unsoldered itself.

[tom66]

I was like this with a smartphone. I thought, I will never remember to charge it every night; I'll keep my old Nokia 3310i, with it being good for 2 weeks in standby. But, I managed to adapt. I haven't forgotten to charge it once. I could probably live with a smart watch with a 7 day battery life, if it offers enough convenience to offset the inconvenience of charging it so often, in the same way as a smartphone does.

[tvtech]

I am from South Africa too Sean.

I want to make my (our)flag listed on Forums.

BTW, do you know the new Pebble can do Zulu too 

And Afrikaans. This little watch is a Nation Builder if there was ever one.

[Marco]

I think expectations are being mismanaged here. Pebble never used e-ink to begin with, it had a transflective LCD which gave it considerably worse daylight readability than most people expected when they heared e-paper (transflective LCDs have worse reflectivity than reflective LCDs, which have a theoretical maximum of 50% to begin with).

With the colour display they are going to double down on that deception. A colour reflective LCD has a maximum reflectivity of just 16%, if they get high single digit with their transflective display in practice I'd be surprised. That's a pretty dark grey, readability without the backlight on is going to be atrocious.

The only technology I'm aware of to do good energy efficient colour displays is CMY electrowetting (RICOH has demonstrated a CMY electrochromic display but the colours are pretty poor).

[plazma]

Doesn't Pebble use Sharp or Japan display memory LCD?

[FlevasGR]

I get that the Pebble team didn't used e-ink but what if someone actually used? e-ink seems like an interesting and cheap technology and you only need to update it when you have something you need to display

[jkestner]

Someone did do a e-ink watch, though it's just a watch, and has a segmented display. Hasn't shipped yet, but great showcase for the tech. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1655017763/cst-01-the-worlds-thinnest-watch

On battery life, the Sharp transflective displays do need a minuscule standby current, but I'll bet the thing that sucks battery life is the radio that's constantly checking in with your smartphone.

Here's the display the original Pebble uses:
http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Sharp-Microelectronics/LS013B7DH01/?qs=%2fha2pyFaduhWhdga2DBIvx9I1HRGIQxzXtJMdvvh%2f55%252b1l2wyOQYUA%3d%3d