Use case: medicine reminder
#1
Hello everybody!

Could you give me your opinion for the feasibility of a little project? I'm a software developer, very familiar with open source, but totally unfamiliar with any hardware tinkering, soldering etc. I can put a plug in a socket, and that's it :-)

For an elderly friend, I'd like to have a watch that shows the time, and which at several times of the day beeps, or vibrates, and shows a message "Please take your medicine now!" and requires some kind of complex action to switch the alarm off. (This could be tapping three times on a button.)

This is more about IoT than "smart". My friend does not use a smartphone, and does not want one. The fact that it wouldn't be connected to a phone or to any kind of network - that's a big advantage here, and the long battery life of the PinePhone looks very attractive.

So, instead of getting an expensive smartwatch and spending days to deactivate everything, I'd love to get a PineTime and spend weeks of tinkering with it. Embedded Rust sounds fun! I'm not pressed for time. If I can get this to work somewhen in 2020 I'm happy. (Until then, there are other reminders in place for my friend.)

My question to you: Does this sound like a feasible plan? Can the PineTime beep or buzz? (On the wiki I only read about the vibration motor.) Can I develop for this watch without soldering - be it by connecting/holding wires, by Bluetooth (no matter if it's slow), by emulators?

Thank you for reading!
#2
The PineTime arrives with the back not attached so it is not very feasible to wear it as a watch.  Soldering is not required, the wires to program it can just be inserted in holes in the motherboard. 

The Pebble watches would be perfect for this application (and an application may already exist) except no new Pebbles are being made and the development environment (eg. CloudPebble) does not seem to be running anymore.

There are existing applications like this for WearOS watches (Medisafe has one for the phone and one for the watch).  WearOS watches are not cheap however.

The following link points to a watch using similar hardware to the PineTime but is physically ready to wear and more easily programmed.
https://www.espruino.com/Bangle.js
#3
I'd say this is feasible although the PineTime doesn't have a beeper, it can only buzz so I think your friend would have to be in the habit of putting on their watch *before* their first dose is due..

The development kits are unglued, meaning the back falls off if you wear but it can be programmed without soldering (although it is fiddly). For early development people often build a frame to hold the watch, charging cable and programming cable in place (think a small lunchbox and blutac for example... there is one shown somewhere in the mynewt+rust tutorials). Once things are a bit more stable you would be able to burn in a bootloader that permits over-the-air updates and then start taping things together.

My take is that if you think Embedded Rust sounds fun then it probably will be... writing an app for your friend gives you a nice focus for your hacking but I'd recommend prioritizing fun over making them a product!
PineTime: wasp-os and MicroPython, Pinebook Pro:  Debian Bullseye


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