#xadow

Smarter Your Pebble Time

Xadow Pebble Time Adapter enables the RePhone(Xadow) modules to talk to the Pebble Time via the Smartstrap interface using One-wire serial protocol which makes it possible to create accessories with electronics built-in to improve the capabilities of the watch itself.  We integrate the tiny and powerful RePhone modules – Xadow GPS v2 and Xadow NFC v2into Pebble’s existing ecosystem, making your…

Xadow is designed for wearable electronics, and a typical application is wristband. My first understanding is that as wearable electronics, Xadow has special requirements for its enclosure: 1st, flexible & bendable as a band; 2nd, prevent damage of pulling force; 3rd, convenient to change PCB and for wearing. To solve the problem of bending, we try fastening PCB onto a soft belt. To avoid PCB & FFC from the damage of pulling force, the material of soft belt need to have a very high elasticity.

The following 3 sketches show the thoughts:

nylon tape + Magic Tape

silicon tape + PVC + buckle

chainable plastic cases

Nylon tape + clips

The soft band in the sketch above is nylon tape. There are magic tapes on the nylon tape and at the back of PCB. Use magic tape and the lower nylon tape to fasten PCB, and use clips to fasten the upper and lower tapes. On the one hand, the simple structure makes it easy to change and assemble PCB; on the other hand, the materials are very common in daily life, and the process is not complicated either. However, the downside is that the upper tape and lower tape couldn’t be synched in bending. Besides, different sizes of PCB make the appearance unsmooth, lack of esthetics. In order to synch the upper and lower bands in bending, we use screws to fasten the bands.

Sketch: Nylon Tape + Screws

Effect drawing- Nylon tape + screws

Technology is no longer just the "design" as a feature, they began humbly ask for advice to the fashion industry, because they want to put it into a wearable device fashion.

Let wearable devices become fashionable!

Imagine a world where your clothes regulate your body temperature, monitor your vital signs, and your necklace begins to glow when the sun goes down.

-- MAKE FASHION

MAKE FASHION is an annual wearable technology fashion show. It introduced Calgary designers to the exciting world of wearables through a series of informative, hands-on, designer-lead workshops.

As the sponsor of MAKE FASHION 2014, we provided Seeeduion & Xadow series, which are extremely suit for designers and wearable applications.

Make it wearable with Xadow

Tech Tie used the Xadow mainboard and 16 of the OLED screens - it was encased in milled aluminum and showcased a variety of scrolling designs.

credit: Shannon Hoover

These pieces here also used the Xadow components

We had fans that lit up when moved with the accelerometers, and lights programmed by the xadow mainboard, and the umbrella would create patterns with the LED's when they were spun.

more gallery:

https://plus.google.com/photos/+JeffMcDonald/albums/5986247294569111393

How to Join

In support of the Intel Makeit Competition, Seeed Studio is giving away FREE Xadow modules from 3/10 to 4/4 for you to prototype the next big idea in wearable technology. To participate, upload your project idea and outline the Xadow modules needed to any of Seeed Studio’s social channels, tag: #MakeitWearable with #Xadow, and @seeedstudio. You can use flickr, twitter, vine, youtube, instagram, google+, facebook, or email us directly at [email protected]. We will select ten winners each week and post them on our blog! Follow our blog to check if you’ve won!

After the confirmation, the selected winner must create a project page on seeed studio wiki to update the project and implement the idea raised by yourself. We will send out the modules

Here is an Example for you.

Hi: If you are not familiar with Wiki, please tell us and we will write howto for you

What is wearable technology?

Wearable technology (wearables for short) is a device that is worn and controlled by the user to augment knowledge, enhance experience, or improve lifestyle. This industry started to grow when Pebble raised over ten million on Kickstarter, and has continued to gain popularity with Google Glass and rumors for Apple’s iWatch. Currently there are 127 products, with average price $389. Applications of wearables span medical, fitness, gaming, lifestyle, and entertainment areas, and you can learn more about it here

The Intel Competition

If you’re as excited about wearables as we are, you should enter the Intel Makeit Competition! If you win, you will receive help to bring your ideas to the market, and make your imagination a reality. For more information, please see the official website: (link)

What is Xadow?

At first we create a prototyping, with Hardwares below

Seeeduino V3

NFC Shield V2

Grove - Chainable RGB LED

you can enjoy the youtube here:

Youtube Link

The good part of them is a bigger antenna for NFC Shield, isn't it ugly when you communication with the cat with it's tail while the shield beside.

We think of another way: Use Xadow within her itself, cat can work independently!

New Hardwares are:

Xadow Main board

Xadow NFC

Xadow Breakout

Grove - Chainable RGB LED

Youtube Link

Have you heard of our small form-factor Arduino compatible prototyping board, Xadow? If not, now is the time to take a look. It has a lot of distinctive features that separate it from the traditional boards, such as its compact size, which makes it extremely suitable for space sensitive and portable projects such as wearable devices and art projects.

Xadow – Main Board is no larger than a quarter. It is a light-weight board based on the Atmega32U4 chip. It consumes minimal power and runs off of a USB connection or lithium battery. In addition, it can be connected in a series, so you can join multiple modules together and add versatile features to your projects. It uses standard flat flexible cable (FFC) connections which are supple and bendable. FFC connections are perfect for small spaces, such as the inside of your laptop, or wearable applications that rely on resilience and movement.

Currently there are 15 complementary modules which when added to the Xadow – Main Board provide additional functionality, such as display, GPS, etc. Apart from the previous Xadow modules, some new members like the Xadow – Buzzer and the Xadow – GPS join the Xadow family.

The Xadow-GPS has two main components: the receiver module and the antenna. The low power receiver has a Fastrax IT530M chip which allows you to determine position, satellite information, and time. It has a very high tracking sensitivity and can track weak signals, making it a perfect fit for navigation projects. Connect it to the Xadow – Main Board to display and record your data.

Sometimes you need a little more space to store your variables, configuration settings, etc. With the Xadow – Storage module you can now increase your EEPROM storage by 32K bytes in addition to the 1K bytes provided by the Xadow – Main Board.

Combine storage module and GPS module, binggo! You got a GPS logger.

Xadow + Grove = Awesome!

Overview

This is a SO beautiful watch I ever made~ A lot of animation were used. But this is only the prototype edition, I hope you'll like it (Of course I will give a updated version!!)

I cut a lot of features, because there is no more space for me to burn the firmware into the board(32U4).

Now you can check your time and calendar there, a stopwatch is included too~

A NOT-SO-USEFUL flashlight is also there, ignoring the brightness of OLED is not so good.

The original and reference one is: http://blog.zakkemble.co.uk/diy-digital-wristwatch/, Instead of writing the codes in avr-style, I adopt his avr workbench into a arduino solution, so every one can download the codes and upload hex to his own hardware easier!

Functions

First, The not so smart Xadow smart watch is a "Watch"~ I use a RTC module so this won't lose time if it's out of power (Forget the time on the picture, only for testing) There is a beautiful animation when the seconds plus+ ^_^

You can set up the current time~

Click here to enter "stop watch" mode

Click the "right" button, start timer!

Sleep mode help you save battery power!

Materials & Tools

[Xadow main board][8]

[Xadow RTC][9]

[Xadow breakout][10]

Perfboard

Buttons

Notes:

There is no button module on Xadow, so you have to use Xadow breakout and Perfboard, together add three more button presenting left, confirm and right.

Software

I publlihthe code at https://github.com/xhbang/Xadow-digital-watch under GPL license, it's totally free and open! If you are familiar with Arduino, you can make a watch now! Please mod a better looking beyond my design!

Please download and report bugs to me .THX Zak for his initial work!

Handwork

A deeper understanding of Xadow Watch:

A wired jumper you should pay attention to. There are two times within RTC module, but only one of them will be shown on the back of board: INTB. The main logic is: RTC and button will sent INT to MCU, and OLED changes according to the interruption. So connect the INT to the RX on Xadow compatible interface.

To make it simple and wear more comfortable, I cut off a short segment of cowhide.

Just use a little clip, it's on your hand now!

Later plans

In this picture, I add a ultrasonic module to use it as a add-on for this watch~

raise your hand, point to the girl you like. You got the distance between you and her!