I had a great idea the other day and wanted to know the forum's thoughts.
I was sitting in a parking lot with my smart phone and got a great idea for a simple programming project, but alas i didn't have a pc or a bulky MCU.
I had to wait till I got home to start the project, and by then I had forgotten half of what I was going to do.
Wouldn't it be great if there was a piece of tech we were comfortable using, always had on us, and could be programmed with ease.
That's where my (hopefully) original idea came into play. I had a femtoduino laying around, throw in a power switch, one or two of these The world's lightest rechargeable battery, lithium polymer 3.7V 450mg, tiny batteries ultra light batteries, and then implement a super cool breadboard pin system: thus creating the arduwatch(name suggestions also appreciated)
The watch would come in 3 versions.
The standard, barebones, self powered system.
A USB version including a FTDI board wired to the femtoduino for serial communication and sketch uploading
And a bluetooth (or some type of wireless protocol) version. Able to be controlled and have sketches uploaded wireless from either a laptop, or a smartphone app
I think it would be cool for each watch to have two of these micro batteries, with a amp/volt switch. (No idea how to do this) you could switch them from being wired in parallel for amperage dependent applications, or series for voltage dependent applications.
I would love help if this turns out to be a viable project, and also some guidance or partnership.
If there is truly nothing like it out there I would like to start a kickstarter because I'm pretty broke, and want to get away from using a femtoduino and possibly find a way to print my own custom boards.
I'm pretty novice when it comes to these things, but I had an idea, wanted help, and thought "hey, why not"
Heres a super basic sketchup on my idea, the MCU is blue, the PSU is green etc.
I personally would LOVE one of these, I could see using it constantly, imagine the possibilities
The black dots would be inputs wired to each pin on the arduino. Breadboard wire could be attached to any pin to connect to a simple (or complex) project.
These pin inputs are open to suggestions or modification
Imagine interfacing with electronic equipment in the field, imagine a real life Mass Effect Omni-tool
Throw a 1inch screen on the top for data readout
A serial cable for interface with standard devices
Wireless programming of your wearable items
Control and monitoring of other devices
The model I drew up took me half an hour maybe, it's rough, needs a ton of work, and I need help and suggestions from any other people who want to get in on the possible groundbreaking piece of tech. Lets all be Jack Shepherd and get our own ArduWatch!