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A bit of bad news

A project log for Color Open Source Smartwatch

Reverse engineering the SMA-Q2 smartwatch to run open source firmware on it

emerythemeryth 04/08/2018 at 15:482 Comments

A few months after release, the watch has received a slight silent mechanical redesign.

Most noticeably, the buttons are now oval instead of round (and feel nicer).

Unfortunately for the hardware hackers, the screws on the back that held the watch together are now GONE!

Left: old watch, right: current version

I don't see any seams on the back, I'm afraid the watch is now glued together and has to be disassembled from the LCD "glass" side.

I'm pretty sure the electronics remain the same, because there is no mention of different watch versions when downloading firmware.

Still, the watch remains entirely hackable without disassembling.

You can upload your own firmware through OTG, you just have to be more careful.

If you soft brick it somehow, you will have to wait for the battery to die to let you reset and go into the bootloader again.

Discussions

emeryth wrote 04/09/2018 at 15:54 point

I assume it's glued, since it needs to be waterproof. The first pebble units were glued together and later, ironically, they switched to screws.

The Apple Watch is glued as well, so that's a pro thing to do ;)

  Are you sure? yes | no

deʃhipu wrote 04/09/2018 at 11:02 point

Are you sure it's glued, and not just using internal snaps? A plastic prying tool might be enough in the latter case.

  Are you sure? yes | no