AsteroidOS – An open-source operating system for smartwatches | Hacker News Reader

AsteroidOS – An open-source operating system for smartwatches

asteroidos.org

208 pointsskbohra12339 comments

I love how this project matured, I used it last year for my old G Watch and it ran pretty well, definitively worth checking out if you have a compatible smartwatch as it can be booted once leaving WearOS intact. It uses Libhybris to communicate with some Android libraries but the front end is Linux components like Wayland and QT. You can make Apps in QT which is nice. Notifications work with Asteroid app and the OS feels responsive. You cannot reply to notifications yet. I flashed v1.0 to my G Watch permanently since it fills my needs. The choice of watchfaces is neat too.

Shame that most Wear OS watches don't come with pins for USB access.

Unfortunately this does not solve Wear OS watches short battery life.

> Shame that most Wear OS watches don't come with pins for USB access.

I thought I was out of luck with my moto360 1st gen, but I found this : https://www.rootjunky.com/moto-360-adapter-usb-cable/

Basically, there is usb connection on that watch, it's just hidden and made difficult to use.

Which makes me think : maybe it's the same for other apparently usb lacking watches? I can imagine manufacturers' developers would want a mean to debug devices out of factory.

You loose waterproofing, and Moto 360 has a TI chip which makes it difficult to port Asteroid OS to it.

Thanks for mentioning it, I don't care about waterproofing but I intended to attempt a port (I get a librem5 as soon as they're out so my android wear will be basically useless by then), so the chip thing may be a problem.

Do you know if anyone documented a previous attempt somewhere? Or do you have any other knowledge that makes you say this will be a problem?

https://asteroidos.org/wiki/porting-guide/

You can try, the sony sw3 has a bcom chip and has still some bugs.

Yes, that's what I read before deciding to try it :)

But my question was more about what you were saying about the TI chip, what makes you say it will be a problem? (eg different architecture, known limitations, etc)

Well, since it uses Libhybris for interfacing with Android it should not be a problem to port it, but, the advantage of the snapdragon chips is that most watches use the same chip so the code was reusable (eg: g watch > g watch r), so you might encounter some issues that are not present on the existing ported watches. Fortunately the source code for the kernel on the omap3 is available for download: http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/OMAP3_GIT_Linux_Kern...

Awesome, thanks for the info!

thanks to google/motorola build quality (which was during the phase moto360 and motoX came out) the back of both those devices are 100% guaranteed to be cracked already and any waterproofing claims gone.

but you are rigth on the TI chip. not even wearOS was updated past the release version there.

I would definitely do this, but my G Watch refuses to work with the charging dock now - any tips for bringing them back to life?

I owned a first gen G watch and had the exact same issue where the charging pod connection to the watch becomes unstable and eventually it stopped working after a few months so it just ended up in my cardboard. I suspect the connection point on the watch is not very resistant to sweating.

Ah yes, I just put a rubberband to tighten it, clean the dock with cleaning alcohol as well as the watchpins with a q-tip.

There is an opensource OS for Pebble as well! https://github.com/ginge/FreeRTOS-Pebble

Thank you for this! I was disappointed to not even find mention of pebble on the website. Looks like this is still in the early stages, but I'll be keeping an eye on it.

"Hack your wrist" may not be the best slogan..

Yeah, some of us can't help but picture that.

> It got into my hand and it went bad.

> So I lopped it off at the wrist.

> But that didn't stop it. It came back.

> Big time.

It appears to not support always on display and according to the issues in github it is a complex problem that won't be solved soon.

This is a killer feature, I'm not giving up having the time visible on my poled watch at all time even if android wear sucks.

hmm why one would want 'always-on' i guess raising the wrist to look at the time ... is both ideal and battery saving too? please enlighten me.

Because then you don't have to raise your wrist to look at the time?

I have an Apple Watch that doesn’t have an always-on display, and this lack is mildly annoying. Most of the time “it just works”, but there are times where I would have like a smarter raise detection. Always on display isn’t necessarily the best solution to this problem, but it certainly is one.

I’ve been interested in watch OSystems for some time. Would LOVE to collaborate with someone who wants to work on a sideproject. I run a UI/UX firm and want to contribute with design. Feel free to reach out if interested. Details in my profile.

FYI website doesn't scroll correctly on safari mobile. Scroll indicator stays stuck to the top of the screen. Navigating to other pages like "installation" leads to a blank page. "Request desktop site" does not work either.

This website breaks on desktop Safari as well.

Are there stats on Android Wear watches sold vs currently activated/in-use?

I've found them to be such poor experiences and falling so far short of expectations/hopes/marketing that I went back to using G-Shock. I would be surprised to learn people find their smart watches useful and are still actively using them for anything more than just telling the time (for which they are a chore to constantly charge).

I wear a Huawei watch, although not daily, I tend to switch between my 'real' mechanic watch and the smart watch. I use it mainly to tell the time, but I do use it to control my music, or quickly look at an incoming message. I think the best 'feature' of a smart watch is being able to tell the time in low light environments.

I do see a lot of them around here (Netherlands), but I do agree that the novelty has worn off.

Well, it's sad that it didn't worked out for you, but please don't presume the whole world share the same experience :)

I've bought mine 3 years ago, mainly for managing notifications (I was doing business oriented things back then and had a lot of social notifications), and it was immediately worth it : no need to get my hand out of that keyboard to unlock my phone and see a notification I don't care about every 5 minutes (especially frustrating when you're a vim user trying to optimize your hand movement around the keyboard).

Since then, there's three other use cases that make me use the watch every single day for those three years:

* controlling spotify without needing access to my phone when outdoor

* having my up to date grocery list at the wrist any time I feel like shopping (thanks to google keep)

* setting timers through voice control while cooking

That's certainly not as game changing as having a computer vs not having one, but that's still far from completely useless.

For me the features I love are:

* TOTP generator

* Music control

* Notifications

* Emergency light (it isn't that bright, but has saved me a few times when I just needed a bit of light)

What is a pity about all this is how s* bluetooth chipsets and drivers are. At least once a week my phone's BT just glitches off >:|

> I would be surprised to learn people find their smart watches useful and are still actively using them for anything more than just telling the time (for which they are a chore to constantly charge)

Well, I find my Apple Watch useful for tracking activity and notifications.

Using a Samsung Gear S2 watch and not Android Wear, but after 1.5 years, I am still wearing it daily. Main use cases are: alarm that never fails to wake me, convenient message notification in situations where it's impractical or inconvenient to pull out the smartphone, "find my phone" feature, telling time/date, tracking sleep and steps, and sometimes nightlight.

Do Android Wear watches have the same "bootloader isn't unlocked" that Android phones do, or are they generally open by default?

All WearOS watches have firmware shipped from Google, which means that Google controls updates, UI, etc... All WearOS Watches with exposed USB pins (LG G Watch, Urbane, ZenWatch...) can be unlocked via fastboot oem unlock

Interesting, I think the presentation is superb and the overlying purpose is great, but I really would've used Lua for this.

I'm very interested in all hackable watch format platforms, I've been fiddling with sport specific ideas but can't seem to find a good open platform for this purpose.

Yesterday I came across this post, which might be interesting to you: https://hackaday.com/2017/02/15/chronio-diy-watch-slick-and-...

Actually, if you search for "watch" on that website, you'll find plenty of stuff. Maybe you can find some inspiration there.

Nice project, is this project in anyway related to the IOS Platform ?

Anyone know if they are planning to add support for LG Sport?

There is a typo in the title you might want to fix it from asteriod to asteroid, which I assume is the correct name given the domain.

Thanks! Updated.

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