ID205L port, any hopes?

[espruino-discuss]

Posted at 2020-03-24 by alexeyguskov

Hey guys,

I've seen some work done to port Espruino on ID205 smart watch. Driven by nRF52840 it looks really promising for very reasonable price (30eur on amazon). If I understand correctly using this hardware with a espruino firmware off factory may have been an original plan for Bangle but then @gfwilliams changed his mind.

Is there any backstory for it? Should we still spend time making this work?

As I understand the major bummer is ID205L devices are pretty hard to open without breaking the glass, is that right? What about ID205 (aka older version with two buttons)? Based on fccid images the case back is plastic and should be easily detachable if using a hot gun.

[espruino-discuss]

Posted at 2020-04-20 by @gfwilliams

Yes, it was originally the idea, but there were a few things against it.

• nRF52840, but no USB
• relatively expensive
• The 240x240 display is SPI and it's really hard to get it to update fast enough that it's not laggy
• It's basically impossible to open - out of 5 of them I had I think I managed to get just a single one disassembled that worked ok (by drilling into the back in order to poke the display out the front)

So basically you need the factory on board, and IDOOSmart said they would flash custom software for 500pcs, but then they turned around late in development and said 1000. When I came to order they said 3000 - and that's when I decided to change suppliers.

But the firmware itself should still work ok I imagine... With some tweaks you might even be able to make it compatible with existing apps.

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Posted at 2020-04-20 by alexeyguskov

Short update from my side:

• I have bought an ID205L which is completely different device from ID205, different pin layout etc. Has NRF52840 onboard, 4MB external flash, heart rate sensor, ST7789V with full touch, a button and an accelerometer. No light sensor.
• Its pretty easy to open using a hot gun. I managed to open mine, reflash it and seal it back without causing much damage (and i believe it can be done with no damage at all, but i don't have another device to check that :D)
• I managed to figure out most pin assignments. Able to access display, touchscreen (incl swipes), flash memory, accelerometer readings (with interrupts). I also can communicate with heart monitor chip, but don't know how to make it start a measurement yet. DFU updates also work fine for me.
• I wrote a jswrap module to work with SPIM interface. On nrf52840 it enables up to 32mbps communication via SPI with hardware SS and D/C pins so screen updates are pretty fast now. It also supports asynchronous js calls.

I will try to create PRs asap. Meanwhile my current progress can be found here and here.