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Comment by xrd | Hacker News Reader

I'm trying to find a good open source friendly watch. What I need is:

  * GPS so I can track my runs
  * Bluetooth+mp3 support so I can listen to a podcast with Bluetooth headphones while I'm running
  * Multi day battery life
  * Hackable. gadegetbridge compatibility looks like a great litmus test for that!

Bangle.js looks great. But, I'm unsure if I can use a Bluetooth headphone with the watch only. I don't want to carry my smartphone with me.

I messed around with various old Android WearOS watches that I installed AsteroidOS on, but the battery life was awful generally and the software was spotty at best.

Anyone know?

Or, can anyone on this thread suggest the watch to get?

I had a Garmin that I liked but it is now at the bottom of a lake. And it wasn't very hackable.

View on HN

My impressions of the Bangle.js 2 are here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32968185

The Bangle.js 2 is equipped with a GPS and has a decent selection of location tacking apps,[1] though I've never used this feature. There are currently no Bangle.js apps that support streaming audio to Bluetooth, since it only has 8 MB of flash memory, but if you're comfortable with this limitation, you're certainly free to develop this feature and get it supported on the device and on Gadgetbridge.

The battery lasts about 3 weeks on a charge when used for notifications and alarms. GPS use would drain the battery heavily, but I'm not sure how quickly.

Because it runs on the FOSS Espruino JavaScript interpreter, the Bangle.js 2 is the most hackable watch I've found to date. Espruino has a web-based IDE,[2] and the Bangle.js app loader currently shows 336 apps available, all FOSS.[3]

[1] Outdoor apps for Bangle.js: https://banglejs.com/apps/?c=outdoors

[2] Espruino Web IDE: https://www.espruino.com/ide/

[3] Bangle.js app loader: https://banglejs.com/apps/

Bangle.js 2 does have a GPS but is a no-go for music listening because it only has an 8MB flash memory. The ecosystem is also much much much less polished than an Android watch. However Bangle is very hackable and easy to write apps for, you can literally do it in one minute using the Web IDE: https://www.espruino.com/ide/

(Top left connect icon > Emulator > Bangle JS 2)

Just don't expect the ecosystem to be very polished.

But I'm intrigued to think that with 8mb I could transcode my podcasts to a very low bitrate. I'm assuming given what you are saying that there isn't an audio player for BangleJS because of the flash memory limitation, however.

Yup. There's also no Bluetooth audio stack right now, so even if you could put your music on it you wouldn't be able to connect your headphones. :-(

I think about this problem during my longer runs.

The HR stuff can be solved with a Bluetooth compatible chest strap, so I just need GPS and cellular (for emergencies).

I always have my phone in a little band around my arm or in a bag, so the watch itself just needs to display telemetry and manage inputs like start/stop, laps.

I use my pinetime

If the parent meant to do those things without bringing the phone along for the run then the PineTime wouldn't work since it has no onboard GPS or enough storage for music.

Got a mini review of what you can do with gadgetbridge for us?

There's not a lot to review, it's pretty bare bones. It has a clock, heartrate sensor, and can tell you notifications. I only really use it for the time and notifications, since that's all I really want from a watch. Battery lasts around a day and charges to full in like 30 minutes.

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