I demand BangleJS3!

Unless the case becomes the antenna...or the antennas are build into the case. I mean something like this https://blog.antenova.com/4-ways-to-incr­ease-wireless-antenna-performance-in-met­al-devices

Sure, would not reduce the cost of the case...

Yes, it's definitely possible - the issue is really the design costs. Especially a full metal device I might sell a few hundred of at the moment. The cost of designing and certifying an aerial for Bluetooth and GPS in a metal case is going to be tens of thousands of pounds - and per-device for 100 devices it's just not going to be something most people are willing to pay for :(

First of all: i like the Bangle js concept.
Size and design: I prefer the V1 to the V2
Screen: V2
I miss the loud speaker.

https://www.nordicsemi.com/News/2021/03/­Mo-Young-Ltd-uses-nRF52840-in-Leadoys-C1­6-Smart-Watch

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Interesting that they had press release with Moyoung, yes this watch (called Rock or C16) runs unofficial builds of Espruino. It has basically same hardware as Magic 3 (C17) and QY03. All three are posible to update to Espruino without taking apart.

Thanks for the info, I didn't know that. I shared it mainly because of the design.

Thanks for the info, I didn't know that. I shared it mainly because of the design.

Yes, what a coincidence :-) More info e.g. here https://github.com/jeffmer/WatchApps#roc­k-and-magic3 But of course as unofficial port it is not properly maintained and currently it is outdated and only some subset of apps work. However with some effort it could be usable. You get what you pay for :-)

I don't really understand why you wrote that it was a "coincidence". I was deliberately looking for a watch that looks good and uses an NRF52 chip. I don't think - although I could be wrong - that the Bangle JS 3 project has a budget for its own design. What I like about Gordon's projects is that they are rationally planned. Besides all that, really thanks for the info!

I don't really understand why you wrote that it was a "coincidence"

You randomly found a watch that you like. This exact watch is one of the very few that already can run Espruino. That means someone wrote support for most/all the hardware inside, figured out and documented installation procedure and made usable build for you. That looks like quite a coincidence to me.

And BTW 99% of NRF52 watches cannot be updated with custom firmware without taking them apart because the firmware is signed by private key of the manufacturer and the device update won't accept any other. Da Fit - mobile app+watch firmware made by Moyoung company is rare exception. Bangle2 hardware is rare exception too with SWD pins on charging connector allowing custom firmware installation too.

if you type this into the google search engine: "nrf52840 smartwatch" the third search result (for me) is this watch. When I searched for a picture, it was the second one. I think other people look for it in the same way, there is nothing surprising about it. For me, the question was basically what type/style the new watch should be. The retro line (e.g. Casio) is also interesting, but for corporate use it is not serious enough for me, I vote for such a form, that's why I shared it. If anyone, then I definitely support Gordon's developments, I have already bought a lot of factory Espruino devices.

First of all, bangle.js 2's hardware is good enough for me, so while there is availability of it and no interest from Gordon's side in a new model, I'm very happy with it. In my opinion software support and quality apps are more important that a new model. Nonetheless I'm going to give my preferences, more or less in this order, for a future model:

• Good BT LE like bangle.js 2 is a must.
  
• Good battery life at least as good as bangle.js 2.
  
• I'd like more buttons of better quality (better if recessed for fewer unintended pushes).
  
• Very good sensors (GPS, HR, accelerometer, gyro...). Barometer is not that important for me.
  
• Water resistance for swimming would be ideal.
  
• The screen quality of bangle.js 2 is very good (transflective), but having more screen percentage of the total surface would be great (less bezel, smaller watch or bigger display).
  
• Not glued case, so it would be easier to open it without damage for repairs. Better with user replaceable battery.
  
• Sturdier case.
  
• Thinner is always good for a watch.
  
• Rectangular is better than round, more comfortable and easier to make the most of the display.
  
• USB-C for charging and even for data would be much better. I know that USB-C would be difficult and it would take a lot of internal space and be detrimental to the overall size and thickness of the watch.
  
  

Did I said that free software is the most important thing for me and the reason I chose bangle.js 2?

Thanks! A lot of those are on my wishlist too.

I'm very tempted to overmould the case with rubber and have rubber buttons and wireless charging so there was a really nice water resistance and maybe an unscrewable rear cover - but that probably makes USB/baro/mic/speaker a no-go.

I think there's got a be a decision about whether we go for water resistance or not - because to be properly able to go underwater it really means no holes at all.

[...] that probably makes USB/baro/mic/speaker a no-go.

I don't think USB and water resistance are totally incompatible. About microphone and speakers I care so less about them that I forgot mentioning. Now I realize that I forgot to mention that a slightly more powerful vibration motor would be nice.

About water resistance, being able to swim with it would be great, but without going that far, resistance to washing the dishes and shower would be good. I happened to run under medium rain and I took it off because I was too worried for it. I'd be happy not to worry for so little.
Also +1 for gps. Altitude is also very imprecise in my runs, I think it's related to another captor (baro ?)

I think the rapid development of AI, specifically chatbots, boosts the case for having a microphone and maybe even a speaker.

Couple it with an open source LLM chatbot could be cool - accessed via an android app or via http-requests.

Although one could argue it's better to connect some bluetooth headset to the bangle for audio interfacing. Counter to that, you might not always want to have a headset on you.

This does not mean I argue strongly for a mic/speaker though.

There was talk of being able to use your phone's mic for input. Would need some kind of speech to text on the phone then.

In lieu of a mic or speaker, it might be useful to make a predictive text input that contextually predicts chunks of words it thinks you might want to enter into your prompt and present them as a list of options to append to your prompt.

Initially it could start with generic "What, when, why, how, where" etc. and probably would need at least one or two other seed words that are input by the user with a keyboard app to give better context.

Here's the basic thought process on how it might work:

1. The Watch: Display the initial list of options. When an option is selected, send the selected word to the server.
   
2. The Server: Receives the selected word from the watch. This selected word is used as a seed to generate new potential words/phrases using an LLM. The server then sends the generated words/phrases back to the watch.
   
3. The Watch: Receives the new words/phrases from the server and displays them as new options. Once the user is satisfied they can send the whole prompt to be answered like normal.
   
   

Back on topic... I thought it would be nice for Bangle.js 3 to have an LED indicator that could double as an ambient light sensor. Similar to how the LED is being used on this open source chirp device.

From the description:

Light sensing

A simple LED is used as a light sensor. Capacitive properties of diodes are used. LED is driven forward-biased for some time, then it’s driven reverse-biased to charge the internal capacitance. The time it takes for this internal diode capacitance to discharge depends on the amount of light that falls into the diode. Microcontroller timer is used to measure this time and estimate how much ambient light is out there.

This hw would be pretty cool for a Bangle.js 3 (transflective display!):

https://youtu.be/uqrNepmk4ls

I guess the platform doesn't gel easily with espruino though?

Following 2:42 in the video what looks to me like swd connectors are shown.

I think these are its specs: https://www.phonemore.com/specs/xiaomi/a­mazfit-pace/

Edit:

Bonus link (someone compiled a list of watches with transflective displays):
https://www.reddit.com/r/smartwatch/comm­ents/r6nn1b/comment/i8lvybh/?utm_source=­share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xc­ss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

Runs a build of Android. Apparently uses a chinese "Ingenic M200" cpu - http://www.ingenic.com.cn/en/?newton/id/­13.html so no, unlikely to be an option for Espruino.

Can someone please explain me what the advantage of this transflective display is? I have no problem to read the Bangle.js 2 outdoors. (to be fair, we do not have much sun here in northern europe).

The one thing I like is the 4GB storage to play music from.

The Bangle.js 2 already has a transflective display :)

Reflective LCDs work by reflecting ambient light. They are readable without a backlight, but cannot be backlit well if at all. They work well if there's enough light, but not very well in the dark. At best, you might have a frontlight that lights the screen unevenly.

Transmissive LCDs instead pass light through. They have a backlight to cover dark environments, but they are only properly visible with the backlight. In brighter environments, you need to turn up the brightness to compete with the ambient light. In sunlight, you end up needing to use a lot of power, if your backlight can even get that bright at all.

Transflective LCDs are capable of doing both reasonably well. In a dark environment, they can be lit evenly with a backlight. In a bright environment, the ambient light helps rather than competes, so the backlight can be turned off and the display remains visible. This saves a lot of power. As halemmerich has pointed out, we already have one on the Bangle 2. This is a huge reason why we can have multi-week battery life with an always-on display.

Dual-frequency GPS please

Although one could argue it's better to connect some bluetooth headset to the bangle for audio interfacing. Counter to that, you might not always want to have a headset on you.

Just noticed this comment. Unfortunately Bluetooth headsets are so far all classic Bluetooth which nrf52840 does not support. There is LE audio standard coming but it still might take some time to get widely used and unfortunately nrf52840 may be too slow to support this as per https://devzone.nordicsemi.com/f/nordic-­q-a/72791/bluetooth-5-2-support-for-nrf5­2840/299994#299994

The LC in LC3 codec name means low complexity so decoding should be OK but we are talking about encoding here if we want to send audio to the headset.

Some CPU numbers for encoding are here https://devzone.nordicsemi.com/f/nordic-­q-a/93689/nrf5340-lc3-decoder-question - 48% CPU for encoding stereo stream but that is on 128MHz Cortex M33 nRF5340 so it will be at least twice as much for 64MHz 52840.

Ah - bummer.

Does it mean nrf5340 would drain the battery when working with audio?

It sounds like if it is possible at all CPU-wise it will be awfully close. Probably too close for someone (Nordic) to attempt to implement newer bluetooth LE codecs on these chipsets. If it somehow actually works, storage would be the next big problem. 8MB flash is not much to store audio samples.