The PineTime is an inexpensive smartwatch designed to run open source software. Introduced last year, the PineTime isn’t ready for the general public yet, but developers can purchase a dev kit for $25.
Don’t want to spend the money, but want to tinker?
One user in Singapore has set up a system that lets you flash firmware on their PineTime dev kit over the internet while watching what happens on a YouTube livestream.
The Remote PineTime Bot basically monitors a Telegram group for commands, and when it receives a request to flash the firmware on a single PineTime smartwatch in Singapore, it will execute that command.
The README file on the project’s GitHub page has links to the Telegram group, instructions for flashing firmware, and troubleshooting issues that may arrive. There are also tips for building your own firmware for the watch.
You’ll also want to check out the page for the latest link to the YouTube livestream, since that link will change periodically when a Raspberry Pi computer that’s streaming the video reboots. But this video shows what it looks like when you flash firmware on the watch remotely:
via @MisterTechBlog
Now Playing on Remote #PineTime @ThePine64https://t.co/53NtPILKdo pic.twitter.com/b7SYTkm0nJ
— Lup Yuen Lee 李立源 (@MisterTechBlog) October 5, 2020