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picking cheap watches for development

Hello all.
Recently looking at all those innovative cheap non-chinese smartwatches I've got an obsession on picking ones for some random development.
How about we gather some little info on devices ready for custom upgrades and firmwares. Certainly this doesn't include android wear devices as they are ready for development.
Almost all cheap smartwatches do not allow installation of custom apps and some can't even show the time without being connected with your phone!
But some of them allow firmware upgrading/flashing... So I'm looking for any device having some native sdk or compatible with arduino toolkit or anything else.
1. A perfect example of what am I looking for is sony smartwatch mn2. They already have:
- open smartwatch project with it's ported arduino toolkit
- star wars game on mn2
I would probably pick those but they're pretty old and lack some sensors.
2. The second one is weloop tommy. (suggested by qkall and raicg)
These have a huge standby time (I guess more than the first pebble), waterproof but they have accelerometer inside only and no touchscreen. I guess the price is huge comparing to others.
Still there is an opensource project around with a custom firmware.
As I understand a huge work is done and the device was carefully examined and all that pin-out stuff was collected to make it working and you're pretty ready to go with development of your own features.
My next possible targets are mt2502 based watches as there are some stuff (mediatek linkit) around on mediatek site.
I'm unsure if this sdk will allow to do something with randomly picked mt2502 watches.
So I'm interested in any info if someone tried this or had any other success on development/moding of their watches.
Thx.

I feel like I'm being a bit slutty with this today... but the Weloop Tommy might be interesting to you:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/sma...s/weloop-tommy-smartwatch-looks-best-t2864444
http://forum.xda-developers.com/sma.../weloop-tommy-smartwatch-faq-updates-t2995858
https://hackaday.io/project/4510-open-source-sportsmart-watch

gvma said:
Hello all.
Recently looking at all those innovative cheap non-chinese smartwatches I've got an obsession on picking ones for some random development.
How about we gather some little info on devices ready for custom upgrades and firmwares. Certainly this doesn't include android wear devices as they are ready for development.
Almost all cheap smartwatches do not allow installation of custom apps and some can't even show the time without being connected with your phone!
But some of them allow firmware upgrading/flashing... So I'm looking for any device having some native sdk or compatible with arduino toolkit or anything else.
A perfect example of what am I looking for is sony smartwatch mn2. They already have:
- open smartwatch project with it's ported arduino toolkit
- star wars game on mn2
I would probably pick those but they're pretty old and lack some sensors.
My next possible target are mt2502 based watches as there are some stuff (mediatek linkit) around on mediatek site.
I'm unsure if this sdk will allow to do something with randomly picked mt2502 watches.
So I'm interested in any info if someone tried this or had any other success on development/moding of their watches.
Thx.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
NO.1 SUN S2 has firmware available new watch with decent specs. Here is some firmwares for it http://en.001phone.cn/download-19.html I bought mine on gearbest.com but right now they're selling a crappier version probably preproduction stuff

qkall said:
I feel like I'm being a bit slutty with this today... but the Weloop Tommy might be interesting to you:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They are nice but their price is huge when you think about their hardware.
spriteboost said:
NO.1 SUN S2 has firmware available new watch with decent specs. Here is some firmwares for it I bought mine on gearbest.com but right now they're selling a crappier version probably preproduction stuff
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didn't mean any watches that have official firmware binaries.
I'm talking about totally customized firmwares, original firmware sources, sdk toolkits for mt6260/2502 soc or arduino toolchain port.
I want to pick some cheap smartwatches like u8/u80/20$-45$ and do some coding.
I wonder if someone who have mt2502 device would check the mediatek sdks on the possibility to build custom firmware (look for mediatek labs linkit one sdk, that SoC has mt2502 cpu and complete IDE).
Also most cheap devices use mt6260 but I didn't find much info about it.
I'm glad that someone answered me and thanks for you replies!

u8 customization
I just received 2 U8's in the mail. I'm keeping one in a new state, but the other is ready for the lab...where do we begin?
Pacman8521

I suggest to you the weloop
The great on weloop smartwatch is the battery time, up to 21 days! And it's waterproof!
One user has a open firmware project of weloop Smartwatch: https://hackaday.io/project/4510-open-source-sportsmart-watch
Take a look, it's open firmware.

I got some infomation about mtk2502
it seems have rtos sdk,I am not sure if we can flash our custom firmware to the target watch
www dot seeedstudio dot com/wiki/Rephone#Eclipse_IDE_for_RePhone_Kit
how do you guys think?

Possible to have android on a U8 smartwatch?

I've ordered a U8 smartwatch off Amazon.co.uk and when I get it I want to toy with it but I am just wondering if anyone has attempted to put android on it?

not possible, specs are way too low for that

What about the u10?
Could you put android on the u10 smart watch?

no
even though RAM is bigger, it's still only 128mb
processor is only 300mhz
chinese smartwatches don't have the specs to run anything but the limited firmware they have preinstalled

JarlSX said:
chinese smartwatches don't have the specs to run anything but the limited firmware they have preinstalled
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
False. There are multiple Chinese smartwatches that run Android.

hmm, i was thinking android wear, android would require a cellular modem, no?

Not necessarily. The cell side in Android can be hidden, like how a lot of tablets have hidden dialers in them even when they didn't have cell radios. I would not be surprised if there's a lot of cellphone specific code in Wear as well.
As far as Wear, if one had full source they could compile a working Wear build for a number of Chinese smartwatches. In fact, Com1 did it on their prototype, but because they were not part of Google's exclusive "Wear Partners" club, Google shut Com1 down.

for both android and android wear you'd need drivers though, to access all hardware, so you would need a kernel specific for the watch
available?

Most Chinese smartwatches are MTK based, so no.

so it's not possible then

Depends. The TS has a custom ROM and git which was cobbled together from multiple bits of sourcecode. It's mostly a matter of how much work one wants to put into it.

Is there a cheap AndroidWear watch available yet?

Hi all,
I am after a smart watch, but primarily to use different watchfaces with it. I am not after all notifications, calling and other features. Initially wanted to get a known Android Wear brands but the cost put me off.
So I went with a D5 initially but soon realized it limits me to use watch faces ( watchmaker and Facer Pro) as those are only for Android wear and they need to be mutilated and converted to a format the watch can recognize and etc.
Now I am trying to find a cheap Android Wear (or whatever watch supports watch maker faces), and I am not keen to pay $200-300 mark for just that feature. Have Chinese managed to up their games and make a real AndroidWear at low cost?
I saw there will be ELE watch but not sure when it is released.
Any help is appreciated

There's at least one I know of but the Chinese Wear based smartwatches are Chinese only language with mostly Chinese only apps.

Lokifish Marz said:
There's at least one I know of but the Chinese Wear based smartwatches are Chinese only language with mostly Chinese only apps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, Apparently they released an English version, but I believe it is not Android Wear but some dedicated OS by the company, I might be wrong

The tic watch recently had an ota update that now has English language as an option. If you look at what the watch offers for the $150 price its a pretty good deal. The only thing I hope is that Google now services will be an option hopefully in the future.
The OS is a bases in android 5.1 to look like android wear but optimized for the watch with an option to load and use android wear apps which is pretty cool.

primod808 said:
The tic watch recently had an ota update that now has English language as an option. If you look at what the watch offers for the $150 price its a pretty good deal. The only thing I hope is that Google now services will be an option hopefully in the future.
The OS is a bases in android 5.1 to look like android wear but optimized for the watch with an option to load and use android wear apps which is pretty cool.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So ticwatch will be able to run for instance WatchMaker on it without any issues?

Don't know info was base on what I read on the web.

bennz said:
So ticwatch will be able to run for instance WatchMaker on it without any issues?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes it do support watchmakers but with conditions:
1. you need to switch on the AW compatible mode (which is now AWC compatible mode)
2. you need to manually extracted out the android wear apk from watchmaker apk and sideload it to your watch

MTK2503D Development

Hi all,
More and more Chinese smart watches and devices are appearing in Alibaba, which are based on the MT2503 SoC. I guess these are to replace those devices based on the MT2502 SoC, which I believe is now discontinued.
Did anyone come across some useful information as to how to develop software / firmwares for these devices? I got a MT2503 based device on Alibaba, and I would like to re-purpose it, by writing some embedded C code, flash it onto the MT2503 based device, and run it.
I have searched for info on MT2503 for quite a while, on Chinese, Russians and other sites, but to no avail. Mediatek do not provide any useful info on their site either.
Thanks in advance for any help or pointers provided.

Anyone with MT2503 development experience?

Nope, the only thing I met which is related to MTK2503 is this article. http://www.chinawatchs.com/mtk-2503-new-soc-the-upgrade-of-mtk2502/

Thanks Smith 001. Yes, I also came across this article lately. I have also seen quite a few devices based on 2503 on Alibaba, so wondering how these were developed.

dbroda235 said:
Thanks Smith 001. Yes, I also came across this article lately. I have also seen quite a few devices based on 2503 on Alibaba, so wondering how these were developed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which one did you buy? Anything special?

I got a MT2503 based GPS/GPRS tracker off Alibaba. See attached picture.
What I am trying to do is repurpose the device to run my own firmware which I want to develop.
I am looking for info such as:
1. How to extract the current original firmware from the device
2. Development environment for MT2503 and tool chain to write new firmware and flash to the device
I think MT2503 is a MT6261 + a GPS chipset (MT333x) all in one SoC, so any MT6261 information will be applicable.
Any idea about these?

You can check the MTK 2502 development thread. I think how to make a backup for your watch is the same as the mtk 2502.
MTK 2503 is considered as the upgrade of MTK 2502, so I think mtk 2502 app or firmware development is available for MTK 2503.

Ok, thanks, will give it a go. If MT2503 is an upgrade to MT2502, do you know if a VXP running on MT2502 will also run on MT2503?

dbroda235 said:
Ok, thanks, will give it a go. If MT2503 is an upgrade to MT2502, do you know if a VXP running on MT2502 will also run on MT2503?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Although I don't have a MTK2503 watch, I think at least vxp face works in mtk 2503.

Mtk2503 watch faces
Hi everyone!
Recently I bought Lemfo F1 watch with MTK2503 CHIP.
It's a great piece of gadget for it's price.
So I wanted to load/install new watch face but without any success!
I tried with FunDo software and with Mediatek Smartdevice sortware. but all I get is error message "Install fail for internal error" all the time.
Do you have any idea what am I doing wrong?
Is there another sortware available to load VXP files?
Thank you very much in advance!
Sincerely,
Hrvoje

It is programmed via standard Arduino IDE with LinkIt ONE SDK installed via board manager. Search for LinkIt ONE SDK.

According to https://www.dr-lex.be/hardware/china_phone_flashing.html :
Caution: there is a new series of cheap smartwatches based on the MT626xDA. The ‘D’ in the model number seems to signify that these chips are incapable of using more than 4MiB of ROM. To compensate for this, the ROM seems to be compressed, which makes these watches pretty much unhackable. The ROM can be downloaded, but looks like random junk. Do not buy these things, because they will still be full of bugs and there will be no possibility whatsoever to fix them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Hi guys,
i have an IWO 10 gps with Mediatek 2503 ave i have tried with both Fundo and mediatek Smart device to install vxp faces.
Always give me the same error "installation failed for internal error"
Any good advice to install the vxp faces?

Installing Wear OS in Apple Watch

Hi there!
I know that this is a very weird question, BUT, is not improbable to do, I think.
The existing Android Smartwatches are not so good like the Apple watch, but, this last one doesn't work with Android, what stinks.
So, my questions is: Does exist a method to replace the OS in the Apple Watch for installing Wear OS, or a ROM based on?
Well, just let me know if you think is possible or you know a way to do it.
Cheers!

No, it's not possible.
Apple Watches are just about barely jailbreakable and all that introduces is some custom watch faces. WearOS is made to run on Android-compatible chips such as the Qualcomm 2100, 3100, 3300. It will just plainly not work at all on the S4 chip inside the new Apple Watch, nor the ones prior. That's assuming you even made it as far as unlocking the bootloader or otherwise getting to the low-level bits of an Apple Watch which just isn't possible. Doing it the other way around is also impossible for the reasons stated above and the fact that watchOS source code is proprietary and closed.
What do you mean by "this last one doesn't work with Android"? Did you buy a Galaxy Watch or one of the newer Huawei GT series? They don't run wearOS, but Tizen and LiteOS respectively, as both Huawei and Samsung want to distance themselves from wearOS.
And yes, one could argue that the new Apple Watch is better - specs-wise it smacks anything running the standard Qualcomm 2100 config in the face meaning it's certainly snappier, but it's also worth nothing that it doesn't allow for the "hackability" and customization that's present on the wearOS platform, such as sideloading native Android apps through adb.

are you retarded?