Getting Started with Watchy

On Debian install the following:

sudo apt install arduino python3-pyserial

To access the serial connection necessary for uploading to your device you'll need to add yourself to the dialout group.

sudo adduser $USER dialout

You will need to log out and back in for the change to take full effect. You can check whether you are in the dialout group with:

groups $USER

With the setup complete you should be all set to get started working on a watch face. The Watchy library provides a number of example faces from which you can use as a basis for your own. Open an example watch face File >> Watchy >> WatchFaces. So far I've found 7_SEG to be a good starter for learning, but you should feel free to try out all options.

A basic change you can make to see if things are working is to swap the 7_SEG color scheme by changing line 3 of Watchy_7_SEG.cpp to false.

#define DARKMODE false

Then verify your project with the Check ✓ icon. If it succeeds plug in your Watchy to your computer via USB and click Upload. You'll likely need to confirm your device (something like /dev/ttyUSB0 on Linux), then after a few seconds you should see your watchface invert colors.

I had an issue while building the watchface in Arduino where python could not be found because Debian testing does not currently have a python symlink. I had python3 installed so I added one as follows:

ln -s /bin/python3 ~/bin/python

~/bin= the default location for user scripts in Debian's bash .profile. It will automatically add this directory to the path if it exists so no additional configuration is needed. However, if you had to create this directory you may need to log out and back in for it to take full effect.

For other distros you may need to add ~/bin to your .profile or .bash_profile

# set PATH so it includes user's private bin if it exists
if [ -d "$HOME/bin" ] ; then
    PATH="$HOME/bin:$PATH"
fi

Watchy is a neat little toy and it's crazy you can pack this much stuff in for $50 USD. Although, I would have preferred something more expensive if that meant it was a more polished product. As someone who is not that interested with tinkering with electronics I found the overall package too clunky to actually use and wear.

The final nail in the coffin was when, within my first couple weeks of use, I accidentally snapped one of the plastic buttons (K2-1114SA-A4SW-06). I just don't have enough enthusiasm about the device to go through the hassle of repairing that.