Friday, August 1, 2014

Final look

Here is a picture of what I am going for. This is my first prototype (with the sensor board removed) in the Apple Ipod Nano Aluminum Watch Band.


Really pretty. But here is the thing. It is tight in that case. The Ipod Nano 6th gen is tiny!!! I have the battery for it next to the watch in the picture and you can see that it takes up half the volume of the compartment. To make this all fit and still make it so it can be a hobbyist project may be a little much. The piezo speaker I got in from Mouser is only 3mm tall and is way too big for the housing. It will also be tough for the battery to slip in on top of components mounted on the board. I have a couple of options. I can make the watch a little thicker and stay with the rubber case which is pretty forgiving, I can strip the watch down a bit to fit in the nice rugged case, or I could try to fabricate a custom case for it. I am leaning toward the rugged case. I think the next watch will probably be a redesign using a Sharp Memory Display and a dedicated power management chip. I may also go with an ARM processor. I will update as this unfolds.

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