Please read the whole text, as there were updates, some of the parts of this text are outdated (for purpuse to preserve how it was on the day 1 launch)
First, a bit of introduction. Watchy is an open source eink watch, with open hardware and software. I'm a hobby developer for that device and a member of the community of it (I'm not associated with SQFMI in any way). I have been maintaining a list of resellers because SQFMI delayed the 3.0 version for almost 2 years saying it "Will be shipping next month"... Well that situation was pretty much cleared out, SQFMI officially allowed those resellers to "resell". Well I'm not here about that, more information about it is in the repo above.
So the 3.0 version of the Watchy finally starts shipping to customers. I have been helping the first guy that received it to use it. Here is the story. His watch was not responding because he wanted to connect it to wifi. He tried to follow the official docs to troubleshoot it. And here is the second problem (apart from the endless delaying of shipping it). The docs are outdated at least 3 years, they don't work. They don't even work for the 2.0 watchy. That's not a problem I said, let's get the latest code for it... There is nothing, nothing is open sourced about it yet. We wanted to reflash the firmware, there is nothing. We wanted to look at the schematic to add support to my firmware, there is nothing... Customers have been waiting for 2 years and when the product arrives there is nothing what was promised. Let me say that again. Nothing.
Okay, well let's try to restore the firmware that's on there, I suggested he restarts it with esptool but he went with disconnecting the battery. Here is the reason why I'm writing the post, this was the final straw. There are small SMD components next to the battery port, Obviously when trying to disconnect it they broke off, the watchy is broken.
https://github.com/Szybet/WatchySourcingHub/blob/main/images/3.0/20240629_223535.png
https://github.com/Szybet/WatchySourcingHub/blob/main/images/3.0/20240629_223446.png
This is a fatal design.
Do you know the best thing? In the 2.0 version there was empty space instead, so they thought of it then, not now.
https://github.com/Szybet/WatchySourcingHub/blob/main/images/3.0/2.0connector.png
For people who will say they needed to put it there because of lack of space, um no, the PCB is pretty empty in my standards of PCB designing
https://github.com/Szybet/WatchySourcingHub/blob/main/images/3.0/pcb.png
I have only noticed it now, but they shipped that guy one button with the wrong size...
Further more, the 3.0 improvements are laughable compared to 2.0, with the increase in price. It's 100$ while the 2.0 is 50$ (Well I know the 2.0 currently is a reseller from china), I hope. I really do hope that the case costed so much, as for the improvements:
- CPU is more modern, it uses less components on the PCB. So in theory the thing should be cheaper. No USB-UART IC, no RTC IC. Well it will be a bit more power efficient for sure
- Buttons look more solid but it's still the same flawed design. The previous ones broke off too often.
- Screen is said to be a modern version. It's said it's faster, well no - Only full screen refreshes are, but my eye can't see a difference.
- They added a TVS protection diode on the USB traces. Yay, at least that
There may be more, but there is no spec or anything, so just my eye is guessing.
And to other issues with SQFMI:
- There has been almost no communication with the community, only a few times on discord (In 2 years!). I'm not even sure all people know who ordered that they will receive the 3.0 version instead of the 2.0. It's supposed to be better, but not really
- Recently people started getting banned from the discord server (without explanations), the watchy subreddit is now restricted, I can't post this post there. I could a month ago (Update: Reddit closed the subreddit, I contacted the mod and he reopened it... classic reddit)
- The software SQFMI provides is horribly basic, that's not an issue because I and others similar to me exist who write third party software, but for the 3.0 we can't. Also the software he wrote made the device not responding in the first place...
And that's the basics, I didn't even go deeper in the problems I described.
With all of that in mind, even if some issues that will be resolved in the future, others can't. Do you support such behavior? I don't, I will vote with my wallet and just order the 2.0 watchy from aliexpress, It's fine enough.
Why am I writing this? I just can't handle it anymore, I wanted the watchy to succeed, to be an awesome device. That's why I spend hundreds of hours to write a fully custom firmware for it, to help people in the community with their tech problems (mostly solved by not using the SQFMI provided software) but SQFMI does everything wrong. I'm sick of it.
But the biggest problem, the summary of it all? No communication, zero, none. None... Almost all of those issues would be solved with a bit of communication, a tiny tiny bit...
I will not edit the text above with new informations, as this was the information I gathered when the first watchy v3 users appeared, so, new info:
- The cpu is esp32s3 so 8Mb of flash and usb otg support (the circuitry is not designed to support it, will be harder to use). Well the flash storage is cool
- Another customer received an broken screen. This is weird, packaging of the screen was pretty good and when I ordered 3 of those screens they came in a horrible packaging and survived. I hope this is a one off incident. Also the count of watchy 3.0 users who received something wrong / broken is now 2 out of 4. This number means nothing, but it's weird that it happened?
- Another person with a broken button... Ugh
Cry, acceptance, laugh
Finally some communication!
So software & firmware has been addressed finally :D
2 users tried the software with the same not working result... lol...
Ok firmware maybe fixed, WatchyGSR and I with InkWatchy also added support for it, looks good
Another person did it :(
- There is only the schematic, no PCB source files, which is lying to customers.
- Official software and docs were made to barely work.
- There were a few users who had wrong resistor values on the charging IC. It got hot really fast, could probably burn down or even start a fire if the users weren't paying attention
- Nothing what was promised was delivered, like platformio support
- I and another user took some measurments of the 32khz quartz used to track time, in short, they cheaped out on it and time will drift like in the previous 2 versions. The device would need to cost 1$ more for it to track time reasonable well.
- Zero communication with the community
- The official software has some comments about Chinese timezone for no reason at all. My wild theory is it was fully outsourced, as SQFMI was originally originated and was placed in the USA
- the OSHWA certification is outdated, it's for the version 1 while we are on version 3
Yea, I'm tired of this
Community provides support for it, Inkwatchy and watchy gsr support it (but writing the software for it clearly indicates there was no second thought put into it)
Well that's rough for sure, do what you want
I think all the problems were resolved (as much as they could be)
So, a bit of a TLDR:
- Software, Hardware, Docs situation cleared out (Soon available). It's a bit sad it wasn't there on day 1, or maybe even before production has begun (I would catch that smd components - connector flaw...) but hey, better sooner than never
- The flaw I described should be covered under warranty and will be addressed in the docs to make sure everyone is careful. Good, very good. SQFMI also points out that the device will work anyway without those components, I disagree, it's more complicated than that and we both are right, it's a bit of a lottery. I would advise users to use a bit of hot glue (not crazy hot) on those components or add more solder to them (If you can do that) to make them more solid
- Apologized for the lack of communication
- Took into account some of the suggestions the community made
- The banned user I was taking into example was reported by many users, Idk what he did so wrong to take a ban, not the nicest dude I have met but an OK one, whatever at least not random baning complaining random customers. Still the user should have received warnings first
Also a big thing, at least for me: He didn't banned me and we had a nice conversation about it all, which is suprising. This post was very negative about him, further more I advertised watchy clones, Took it out to other social media platforms, I create a "competitor" device https://github.com/Szybet/Yatchy (It's not commercial just my hobby project leave me alone, but it can be received as a competitor I understand that)
But well, I achieved what I wanted: change, action - I don't know if it's because of me or just a coincidence, the point being that the wheels started rolling for a better future, we will see. Everything I have done or said is, in my opinion for the best of the future of the Watchy project, I love this thing, and it was dying off so I needed to take action.
The conversation I had with SQFMI for further details:
