TI Chronos ez430 Watch

brendan October 02, 2010 Embedded Electronics 2 Comments

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I’m really liking the looks of the Texas Instruments ez430-Chronos development kit in watch form. The biggest impediment is my MacBook; last year’s switch to Mac OS has been okay for most things, but especially with EE related tools, I find there is often no Mac OS support. It’s slightly ironic that I switched away from Linux after years of exclusive use on the desktop, just when everyone started supporting it.

Regardless, TI seems to have put together a really interesting platform. I’d be even more excited if it ran via bluetooth, but I understand that the power consumption and cost of the bluetooth transceiver are likely prohibitive. I will say, it’s a tempting product.

etc.

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2 Responses to “TI Chronos ez430 Watch”

  1. Forest K said:

    Feb 14, 11 at 7:52 am

    I have the ez430 Chronos watch; it’s very handy, but there are some downsides.

    If you drop it, even from 2 – 6 inches and it lands incorrectly, it will reset. My watch was new-in-box but purchased a year before I got it, so I don’t know if that might be a factor in its volatile properties.
    On rare occasions, the watch LCD simply goes blank, and I have to remove the battery and put it back in to get it working again. No idea why this happens…

    Now for the really cool stuff it can do:
    It can act as a computer mouse, so you can control your computer with seemingly jedi-like mastery.
    It can read the temperature, altitude, XYZ acceleration (used for the mouse) and if you get a BlueBird watch band (others with such sensors might work), you can monitor heart rate and related health nut data.
    All of this data can be logged to the computer.
    Finally, the programming tool that comes with it is actually a $20 product when purchased separately, and it can be modified to program other TI MSP430 devices using the JTAG connections. I’m working on an adapter that sits right on top of the programmer, and has a socket for MSP430F20xx devices.

    I got mine for $20 at a microcontroller expo last summer, so it was definitely worth it. If you have $50 you are willing to spend on this, I’d go for it, because it makes a good watch and has some really neat functions and stuff that comes with it.

  2. brendan said:

    Feb 14, 11 at 8:12 am

    Thanks for the tips! The only real reason I haven’t already picked one up is the lack of Linux/Mac support in the development software. Of course a VM is an option…
    Anyway, I’ll take a second look. Any comments on battery life?

    Cheers

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