[Alessandro G.]

I had an idea a few minutes ago... As we all know BLOCKS modules cannot be made of metal, as even the least conductive ones, like stainless steel and titanium, are still too opaque to RF to be used. So the team decided to use polycarbonate, which is a good insulator (so transparent to most RF) with nice mechanical properties. Now, for how good PC might be, it is still a plastic and some might find it not premium enough, at least for higher end shells. So what about advanced ceramic materials? There are several watches on the market made of such materials, which are good insulators so should cause negligible attenuation of RF, just like PC. What follows is my idea of a "premium" BLOCKS. I've been thinking about it for quite some time (except ceramics which are, as I said, a last minute add-on) and I was considering making these sheels myself, but now that DIY is not an option anymore, there's really no reason for me to keep these ideas to myself. So I was thinking about this:

• A Core entirely made of titanium, lighter than steel and with comparable properties.
  
• Modules made of titanium for the backside and an advanced ceramic for the frontside.
  
• Everything coated in shiny and ultra scratch resistant DLC (diamond-like carbon)
  

The DLC coating is just a personal preference clearly, many like the natural look of titanium and ceramics exist not only in zirconia black. The upper portion of the Core shell might be made in the same ceramic material of the modules to mantain more continuity, particularly if the smartwatch hasn't been coated. By the way, I got the idea of DLC coating before the guys of ForeverSpin came out with it in their latest KS campaign!
Ceramics are becoming very popular in my field lately, but with purposes far too different from watch-making, so I have little experience in this particular field. Anyway, just an idea, maybe someone from the team or Tateossian (yeah, ceramics might cause a not too little increase in the price of the smartwatch) will consider something similar in the future. Just get me a nice discount if you do ok?

[Alessandro G.]

Hi everyone, here I am again with yet another idea for developers. Today's subject is NFC. As we all know the NFC module that will be available as part of Phase 1 will be passive. As such, it will have great limitations in terms of flexibility, mostly for contactless payments and transit passes. So IMHO an active NFC module should be a priority for developers after the release of BLOCKS, followed by the full integration of Android Pay. Here's some specs I found about NXP (the largest manufacturer of NFC controllers) latest chip, the PN7120: PN7120 product page. It seems as NXP made it on purpose for BLOCKS! Fully compliant even with a small antenna, embedded firmware with all protocols pre-integrated in it, ultra-low consumption while not in use, can be connected directly to the main microcontroller and allows direct supply from the battery. NXP made it with the specific intention of allowing developers to easily and rapidly integrate NFC under the Android (and Linux) environment.

[Snyper493]

Heya folks, what would you think of a small attachment through a magnetic charge link, modify it slightly so that you can make a 'patch' that you can stick to the back of the watch and be comfortable. Also, that patch is the receiving end of a wireless charge dock? Been looking on youtube on how to make a wireless charge system and It looks like it should be feasible. I can easily clunk up something once I get more information on what kind of charge it needs to start drawing that power.

I will wait for more updates before I start working on something, but for now... the idea is out there.

[Alessandro G.]

(02-09-2016, 10:38 PM)Snyper493 Wrote:  Heya folks, what would you think of a small attachment through a magnetic charge link, modify it slightly so that you can make a 'patch' that you can stick to the back of the watch and be comfortable. Also, that patch is the receiving end of a wireless charge dock? Been looking on youtube on how to make a wireless charge system and It looks like it should be feasible. I can easily clunk up something once I get more information on what kind of charge it needs to start drawing that power.

I will wait for more updates before I start working on something, but for now... the idea is out there.

If you can cope with a slight increase in thickness, it should be feasible, and quite easily too! A Qi coil isn't that thick, you would just need a little room for the converter that would connect the coil to the charging port on the backside of the smartwatch. Maybe you could even model the other side of such an adapter to your particular wrist, in order to get perfect fit and Qi charging. I'd probably stick with the normal charging system, but I'm used to low profile watches so it would make more sense for me. We would only need the specs of the connector to be 100% sure of the overall feasibility of the project, so let's just sit tight and wait a few more months. I'll just keep on gathering my ideas here in the meantime.

[Alessandro G.]

The latest post from a_guy made me think about what the v2.0 of the current modules would (or should) look like. Tell me what you think about them!

• Extra battery module v2.0: sporting the latest battery tech from SolidEnergy, a future battery module might have a higher capacity than the current one, and might also double as the clasp, like in Qualcomm Toq smartwatch.
  
• Heart Rate module v2.0: it might use LG Innotek latest 5 LEDs bio sensor, capable of measuring heart rate, oxygen saturation and stress indices. It is also optimized for accurate reading and low battery consumption.
  
• GPS module v2.0: the satellite constellations of GPS and GLONASS will remain the same for many years to come, so the only upgrade I see for a future GPS module is full compatibility with the soon to become operative EU Galileo system and with the soon to be made global Chinese Compass system.
  
• NFC module v2.0: the natural evolution of this module should be an active one, maybe sporting the highly integrated PN7120 NFC controller by NXP, made specifically to work under the Android environment. Then integration with Android and Samsung Pay (and Apple, where they ever to allow it), plus major transit companies worldwide, would make this the perfect contactless module.
  
• Adventure module v2.0: sporting BOSCH Sensortec latest environmental sensor, the BME680, it would be able to measure temperature, pressure, altitude, relative humidity and even air quality.
  

I would kill to have the time and resources to develop all these modules, but I would end up getting only the Core from BLOCKS

[Tails32]

I've posted an idea for the watch in the comments section of the kickstarter project long before the forum went up so I post it here so that it makes it eventually to that list of yours.

Quote:I still think that it's very sad that Samsung patented their rotating bezel but I've thought about an alternative to include this awesome feature without a fight with them. What do you think if the border around the screen were touch sensitive, so there is no mechanical rotating part but the result would be the same. I just hope this isn't too similar to the technology Apple used for their iPod.

Can you make it?

[PureW00d]

Hi there,
This may sound like a wierd idea, but it jumped in my head.
Is it possible to make the core with 4 small vibration units each at 90° from eachother.
So if you're GPS tell's you to turn right, the vibration unit close to your wrist vibrates. If you have to go left, the other side vibrates and so on...
Stupid idea?
Or could this be a real design feature?

Greetings Reinout

[Snyper493]

It is too late to do any of that. The core is finalized for the most part. What I can suggest though is that there could be a 'dummy' core for the hypothetical second band that can do that. That will take some programming and a good magnetometer for that. On the other hand, I would like to say that this is not really possible.

[PureW00d]

(03-17-2016, 10:02 PM)Snyper493 Wrote:  It is too late to do any of that. The core is finalized for the most part. What I can suggest though is that there could be a 'dummy' core for the hypothetical second band that can do that.

That will take some programming and a good magnetometer for that. On the other hand, I would like to say that this is not really possible.

I know this isn't possible to do with this core, it just sounded handy in my head.
Thanks for the reply :-)

[a_guy]

(03-17-2016, 10:11 PM)PureW00d Wrote:  

(03-17-2016, 10:02 PM)Snyper493 Wrote:  It is too late to do any of that. The core is finalized for the most part. What I can suggest though is that there could be a 'dummy' core for the hypothetical second band that can do that.

That will take some programming and a good magnetometer for that. On the other hand, I would like to say that this is not really possible.

I know this isn't possible to do with this core, it just sounded handy in my head.
Thanks for the reply :-)

We talked about such implementation for a GPS in another thread but I don't remember which