Time Square Watch Kit

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Chuckt
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Time Square Watch Kit

Post by Chuckt » Sat Dec 15, 2012 12:28 am

I built the Timesquare Watch Kit by Adafruit. It took me about an hour and fourty six minutes but I built it. Putting the Atmega 328P in its vias and putting the 8X8 matrix in the vias took a lot of time. I had a hard time bending the pins because I wasn't trying to break it and the matrix was a little easier but I found from bending them twice that the pins went into alignment. My soldering tip is about 1/64th of an inch and I felt that some of the soldering points were tight so I cannot recommend enough to use a small tip or a pen style soldering iron and I tried to solder both ends of the PCB because I feel any watch on my wrist has to be rugged to last.. My soldering iron isn't an expensive one so it takes longer to heat up and I was using lead free solder which is harder to work with which is why it took me so long. The lead free actually rides up the soldering iron instead of going down when you don't make good enough contact with the board.

One of the problems is even with a magnifying glass, the resistors are too hard to read the colors but I was able to figure it out because the one 10K resistor was by itself. Even though I'm getting older, my wife and son have a hard time as well figuring out the colors because components are getting smaller by the industry.

The hardest part I had with this kit was figuring out how to set it but I finally set it. I also find it hard to take the battery out so I recommend tweezers to take the coin cell battery out.

If you make a mistake with this watch, it would be hard to fix because the matrix sits on top of the circuit board and it would be difficult to desolder. I built this watch right the first time and it works. I'm sorry I didn't take pictures of my soldering work but the soldering points were good and I only had a little window of time to get it done.

The band is a little small for my wrist but it fits. I think this watch would fit a woman better.


1106parts_MED.jpg
1106parts_MED.jpg (25.55 KiB) Viewed 8013 times
(I am not the person in the video and I did not invent this kit.)

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brad
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Re: Time Square Watch Kit

Post by brad » Mon Dec 17, 2012 8:58 pm

That's a great watch - nice and chunky :)

What's the battery life like?

Chuckt
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Re: Time Square Watch Kit

Post by Chuckt » Tue Dec 18, 2012 12:43 am

They tested it and got 500 button presses out of it. They also tested it with another piece of equipment which I don't remember but I think they were testing it for voltage drop which doesn't explain battery longevity. There are eight limiting resistors to keep the LEDs from draining all the life out of the battery. This watch is best viewed in darkness.

I don't know yet how long it will last in standby mode because I haven't had it that long. The band just fits me but I feel its size is better for some women.

The watch is great for New Year's because it is nice for show but nobody I know would wear it full time.

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brad
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Re: Time Square Watch Kit

Post by brad » Wed Dec 19, 2012 11:59 am

It's like Steve Wozniaks Nixie tube watch (I.E. chunky!)

Image

(image taken from http://jerseyfame.files.wordpress.com/2 ... 846_50.jpg)

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