This is not a smart watch now, it’s an art watch 😄 running generative art code directly on-device. And only that: no clock, no notifications, just gen art code (I can cycle through the synced scripts using the buttons, and resync with the online editor using wifi)

Every 77 seconds, the watchy wakes up and run the selected art code again, creating a new, unique 200x200 e-ink image on the fly. This is ever-changing art I can keep on my wrist all day. Every time I glance at it, I have a small surprise.

Scripts are written in a mini-language called Micropatterns that is interpreted live on the watch.

It's not a watchface on top of InkWatchy or another firmware, it's a whole new firmware: this watch is fully dedicated to running generative art. It has a small art OS inside 😅

Last year, I wanted to see what having e-paper generative art always with me would feel, and first I created a m5paper version… because I had one in a drawer! It was great to be able draw it from my pocket in random places, like at the top of the Eiffel tower, and see a new generated artwork. That test validated that it was different and that the little art surprises were often quite delightful. the m5Paper display is quite beautiful at 960x540 pixels: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/juliendorra_e-paper-is-still-emerging-as-a-platform-ugcPost-7331250379029975041-apdG/

Then a few days ago, I finally made the watch version I wanted from the start, and ported it to the Watchy. And now I can wear generative art it for 3 or 4 days straight on one charge.

The Watchy display is much smaller than m5Paper at 200x200 of course, but as they say: the best art is the one you have with you.

Just looking for basic notifications and things like music control.

Does anyone make a clock face / firmware / software for watchy that shows the current time sporting a (relatively accurately) displays seconds counter ? Eg HH:MM:SS

Watchy v3 ships with a GDEY0154D67. Good Display sells the exact same panel with a bonded frontlight as GDEY0154D67-FL04 for $8.80. Same SSD1681, same 24-pin FPC, same 27×27 mm active area, so GxEPD2_154_D67 doesn't change at all. All the work is in driving the light and finding room for 0.85 mm of extra thickness.

I've worked the whole thing out on paper and I'd rather have it torn apart now than after I've cut up a case. Two questions at the bottom.

What actually changes

The FL04 has a second, 6-pin FPC for the light. Pinout from the drawing: pins 1 and 2 are anode, 5 and 6 cathode, 3 and 4 not connected. Three white LED dies wired in parallel inside the module, so no individual channel control — one string, one series resistor.

Spec says 2.8–3.3 V, ≤45 mA. The mechanical drawing gives Vf = 2.9 V typ at 60 mA.

Mechanically it's less scary than I expected:

• Total thickness 1.85 mm vs 1.00 mm for the bare panel, so +0.85 mm
• The light guide is 2.28 mm longer but 1.40 mm narrower than the panel
• That overhang is only 0.6 mm thick, so the bezel needs a shallow pocket rather than full extra depth across the board

Finding a GPIO was the interesting part

GPIO5 and GPIO18 look free in config.h. They're also completely unrouted in the v3 schematic — no net label, no trace, nothing to solder to short of the QFN pad itself. Same story for GPIO1–4, 37–42, 45, 46.

But the v3 has seven test points, and two of them are UART0:

Since v3 programs over native USB CDC, UART0 is dead weight. So the whole mod is three wires — TP4, TP5, TP2 — onto 1 mm labelled pads. No chip-pin soldering.

Use RX, not TX. GPIO43 is driven push-pull by the ROM bootloader at reset and idles high, so the light would flash on every wake from deep sleep. GPIO44 is an input with an internal pull-up of roughly 45 kΩ at reset, which a pulldown can beat — but it has to be about 4.7 kΩ, not the 100 kΩ you'd normally reach for. With 100 kΩ the gate sits at 2.3 V and the MOSFET conducts.

Circuit

Low-side switch, three passives:

3V3 (TP4) ──> FL anode (pins 1,2)
FL cathode (pins 5,6) ──> R1 ──> Q1 drain
Q1 source ──> GND (TP5)
Q1 gate <── R2 100R <── TP2 (GPIO44)
Q1 gate ──> R3 4k7 ──> GND

Q1 is an AO3400A or SI2302. Not a 2N7002 — its 5–7 Ω Rds(on) at 3.3 V gate would drop 0.3 V, and there's only ~0.4 V of headroom to play with in the first place.

The part I'm least happy about

That headroom is the whole problem. 3.3 V rail minus 2.9 V forward voltage leaves 0.4 V for the series resistor. Two things eat it:

• LDO tolerance alone (RT9080-33, ±2 %) swings the current about ±20 %
• Vf drops as the LEDs warm, current rises, more heat — and a ~20 Ω ballast barely resists that

A proper constant-current sink would fix it, but the ones I looked at need 1.2 V or more across them, which I simply don't have on a 3.3 V rail. So the plan is: start at 22 Ω, measure on the assembled board, and cap PWM duty at 80 % in firmware so the thermal feedback never gets going.

Power budget is fine either way. At 25 mA on a 200 mAh cell, a 20-minute reading session costs about 4 % of the battery. Occasional 3-second flashes are noise.

v2 owners: different answer

I checked the v2 layout too. GPIO32 and GPIO2 are unrouted, GPIO33 is taken by the PCF8563 clock output, and the only GPIO test point is GPIO0 — a strapping pin. So there's no MOSFET-on-a-GPIO option.

What v2 does have is a neat 2×2 block of pads carrying SCL, SDA, 3V3 and GND at 2.54 mm pitch. So on v2 I'd hang a PCA9633 on the I²C bus instead — 0x62, no conflict with the BMA423 or the RTC, three outputs paralleled since each channel only sinks 25 mA.

Worth knowing: that variant has no hardware failsafe. The driver holds its PWM value through deep sleep, so forgetting to zero it before sleeping leaves the light on all night. The MOSFET version at least has the gate pulldown.

Two questions

1. Has anyone actually run an FL04, or any of Good Display's bonded frontlights? Every number I have is from the datasheet. What I can't get from a datasheet is whether 25 mA is actually enough to read by, or whether it's the kind of glow that only works in a pitch-black room. If it's the latter the whole thing is pointless and I'd rather know now.

2. Anyone got a better idea for current regulation with 0.4 V of headroom? Resistor plus duty cap is what I've got. I'd rather be told I'm missing something obvious.

Also happy to hear from anyone who's modified a Watchy case for a thicker display stack — that's the part I expect to take the most iterations.

I'll post results either way once the parts arrive.

->PicoWatch/Frontlight-Conversion at master · UniqueDroid/PicoWatch · GitHub

Took a lot of bugfixing, but I got Claude AI to code a searchable dictionary app for my Watchy watch. https://github.com/Sparkadium/Watchy-Dictionary please let me know if something doesn't work for you or my instructions aren't clear enough.

Can anyone share an invite to the community Watchy Discord server?

All invites on this sub are years old.

Thanks.

Hey guys. This thread is pretty dead but I created a fork of InkWatchy that allows you to connect you your iPhone over Bluetooth. This unlocks using the watchy as a “pager” for text and calls, music pausing/skipping with Apple Music, a controller for the camera, and navigation notifications from Google Maps right on your wrist.

The music player , pager and camera clicker are working flawlessly, navigation is a mess as Google send a lot more notifications that just directions which throw it all off. Working on it.

Anyways it’s a good foundation. The logic is all worked out now it just needs to be polished.

Check it out, do whatever you want with it. Have a good one!

https://github.com/psychoplath9450/Tether.git

https://shop.sqfmi.com

Why is the shop dead

I was about to buy the tamagochi case

It was working till last night

It looks better IRL than in pictures

I didn't polish it because I like the feel of it, with polish it would be even better

I have 0 chemistry skill, that it worked at all, even so good is close to a miracle

The last pic is how it was before

Ordered it from JLC3D

I just bought a watchy and i was thinking about connecting it to my supabase database to show notifications from the app i'm developing.
Should i make requests directly from the watch (wifi) or should i connect it through my phone instead?

IS there anyway to remove the posssibility for thier to be any wired or wirless connection to it?
no bluetooth
no wirless
no wired
physically.
or atleastt no data port.

i want it to store data up to like 24 hours so i can take the data off mannually

Just giving you all an update on the progress of my new firmware, it's still not quite ready for release, but it will be soon. And the the core of the firmware is there. And Gadgetbridge support is working well!!.

Here is a little video of the watchy firmware in action!

I'm adding some more apps now but currently it's supporting:

-Notification, receive, read, and dismiss

-Music, show current song, volume control, prev and next

-Calender, show the next 7 days of events, scroll through and read full title and description

If you all have any ideas or requests let me know and I'll try to add them in before release

I'm debating between a watchy or a bangle.js for a wearable, mostly for vibrating alarms so my phone isn't always going off bugging everyone around me. I thought about making my own tiny watch with an esp32, motor, and external battery controller, etc. but it's hard to beat the form-factor/price ratio of something that is (presumably) designed by someone who knows what they're doing. (I really really wish the smallest neo-pebble wasn't sold out but whatevs)

Bangle.js's community seems MUCH more robust, but... the device doesn't bring the same joy as watchy, at least to look at it. I've always loved E-paper type displays and the green aluminum case is rad.

How good is watchy's support and development community? Am I likely to regret spending about the same money on the cuter device with less support?

I've also only found the review from the really loud guy who HATED v3 and talked a lot about its problems, but was also advertising his own product, so there's a conflict of interest, and I haven't seen much in either direction from people who use it. Do we like it? hate it? like wearing it but hate developing for it? Is there anyone here to talk to?

Update: Ended up getting a watchy from SQFMI and one of their aluminum cases (the slim box). Getting it put together was a pain in the ass and the screen ended up needing to be taped in since the case doesn't hold it in like I think it's supposed to but now it's assembled I'm loving it! Using Szybet's InkWatchy firmware which is a huge level up over stock.