Working on babby's first #BangleJS app, and it's almost fully functional! It's a simple app for controlling music playback via Gadgetbridge. The libraries for creating the UI and sending/receiving Bluetooth messages are pretty nice and easy to get into, there's just a few edge cases and gotchas I wasn't expecting (like not being able to query GB for the current track, and instead waiting for it to broadcast it)
#banglejs
Hold up, you're telling me #BangleJS2 can track my sleep and heart rate overnight and only lose ~2% of its battery? What sorcery is this?
Does anyone have any experience with Bangle.js? "Hackable Smartwatch"?
How is it, customizability-wise, and privacy-wise?
I wanted to write a follow-up on my "I hate software" post from few days ago and what prompted it, but instead of a rant about my (former) Huawei GT 2 smartwatch it'll be something about a shiny new Bangle.js 2 watch I bought.
It's a smartwatch running JavaScript. :D No, don't run away just yet, but feel free to stop reading if that scares you.
What I really like about it: it's open source, made by someone who wanted to make a smartwatch and not a company that wants to sell you crap by giving you a complementary smartwatch. It also costs under 100€. You can change every piece of software on it just like that. And no third party will decide what you may or may not install on it. Also don't need to pay for a developer account.
It's got a pretty cool collection of sensors on board. Kinda impressive that you even get a barometer, temperature and magnetometer for a compass in this thing. The battery is now 54% after five days, although I played around with it a lot. Officially it will last anywhere between four days or four weeks.
I really like that the display is a reflective color LCD which you can read perfectly in full sunlight. The harsher the sun, the better. :p I think it has something like 16 colors but some dithering makes it look like more.
All I really wanted from a watch is to get notifications of some few things I define, step and distance walked counter, a few infos about the current weather, a timer because I use that a lot and it even tells the time.
It works with an open source app called Gadgetbridge on Android (via F-Droid) and none of my collected data is sent to any "cloud" to "improve our services and offerings".
Pretty happy with this thing and also really happy to support small projects like this instead of giving money to companies that only steal more of your data and then sell it.
Apparently you can also get OpenStreetMap onto it, but I haven't tried that one yet.
I got mine from BerryBase in Germany.
Trying out a BangleJS for first time. #banglejs #banglejs2 #smartwatch #smartwatches
Not good
My #BangleJS knows how much I suffered last night
My cunning #BangleJS plan is turning out to be trickier than I was hoping. All I need is a button press event!
Megérkezett múlt héten az új bangle.js órám és eddig azt mondanám, hogy ez jelenleg az egyetlen okosóra, amit hosszú távon el tudok képzelni magamon: napokig tartó üzemidő, nincs big tech háttér, szabadon módosítható, normális áron...
Egyre több ehhez hasonló projekt van, külön köszönet részemről a @gadgetbridge -nek, amiért lehetőséget adott, hogy rájuk találjak #smartwatch #banglejs #opensource
Yay, my smart watch app got approved. Coming to a #BangleJS app store near you soon.
Bangle.js V2, open, hackable Smart Watch, kann man in Javascript programmieren 🙂
@Anachron I previously used a #BangleJS2 for some time, but unfortunately, it stopped working due to a common issue with one of its buttons breaking easily. Another drawback of the watch is that it isn't truly waterproof.
Now, regarding whether you can use this device as a health tracker, I would advise against it. In fact, I conducted an analysis on this topic some time ago and found significant limitations in its performance (see my report here: https://fe.disroot.org/notice/ASZLvhVU3aeXmiVGJU).
Specifically, the step counting was inaccurate compared to reference devices, with large discrepancies. Additionally, other tracking features like heart rate and sleep monitoring were also unreliable. Under movement, the heart rate readings were essentially meaningless.
It's worth noting that the developer of #BangleJS has since reverted back to using proprietary algorithms/software supplied with the original hardware, which is why they're able to provide more accurate measurements. However, this means they rely on closed-source code for these functions.
Despite its limitations, I still think the #BangleJS2 is a fantastic gadget and appreciate its 100% open source nature. Perhaps some of these issues have been addressed since my analysis was conducted, but unfortunately, my watch is currently out of commission due to that pesky button breaking.
Now, regarding whether you can use this device as a health tracker, I would advise against it. In fact, I conducted an analysis on this topic some time ago and found significant limitations in its performance (see my report here: https://fe.disroot.org/notice/ASZLvhVU3aeXmiVGJU).
Specifically, the step counting was inaccurate compared to reference devices, with large discrepancies. Additionally, other tracking features like heart rate and sleep monitoring were also unreliable. Under movement, the heart rate readings were essentially meaningless.
It's worth noting that the developer of #BangleJS has since reverted back to using proprietary algorithms/software supplied with the original hardware, which is why they're able to provide more accurate measurements. However, this means they rely on closed-source code for these functions.
Despite its limitations, I still think the #BangleJS2 is a fantastic gadget and appreciate its 100% open source nature. Perhaps some of these issues have been addressed since my analysis was conducted, but unfortunately, my watch is currently out of commission due to that pesky button breaking.
My #PineTime smart watch suddenly stopped working last year (not expensive, but not high quality either). Now I can't decide between buying
1️⃣ an open-source #BangleJS that has more features, supports apps and is easily programmable, but also costs much more and could turn out to be low-quality too,
2️⃣ a high-quality #AndroidWear watch that has all features imaginable but isn't supported by #MicroG. Flashing #AsteroidOS could break some functionality & the “ease-of-use”.
What should I buy?
Change of watchface today on my new #banglejs smart watch for #StarWarsDay!
Just got a #BangleJS, this is definitely the spiritual successor of Pebble. I'm loving how hackable this thing is #Espruino
#BangleJS #opensource #freiesoftware
Neue APP für BangleJS2 für Squash Spieler.
+ Punkte hoch und runter Zählbar
+ Sätze werden mitgezählt, derzeit auf 2 gewonnene.
+ Spiel kann auf 0 gesetzt werden
Getting errors trying to include an image using the #BangleJS layout library. I'm sure I've had problems before trying to figure out the right boxes to check in the image converter but I foolishly didn't make notes!
#BangleJS #opensource #alyxclock #freiesoftware
Anpassungen
+ Datum wird nun angezeigt
+ Akku laden wird nun angezeigt
+ Herzen zeigen nun Akkustand an
+ Schloss Symbol zeigt locked an
+ LEDs zeigen Bluetooth Status an
Guter Abend 😁😄
Diese Woche meine #banglejs erhalten und die #alyxclock installiert. Leider zeigt diese nur die Uhrzeit an, mal sehen, was man da ändern kann 🙂
Today's #DIY project: repairing my #BangleJS 2.
Let's see if I can get that Bluetooth aerial to connect properly.
Full story here:
https://mastodon.nu/@johan_m_o/112048578876715329
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