Wow, apart from obviously cool project I'm super impressed with the minimalist website design, aesthetics, effort put in the video to match the aesthetics and all without any JS.
Either this is the first time I'm visiting this site or I don't remember; But I wonder how they are managing to compete with Node.JS in the search engines with that name. Google doesn't respect even N-O-D-E, where as DDG brings up the site as first result for N-O-D-E. Not to mention there's another famous Youtube channel by the name Node by Corridor Crew.
They seem to sell some items based on their design along with the stuff they make at their store of the same name, I would like to know how they reach out to their audience from any regular subscriber of their work.
I also liked the transcript below the video so you can read along. I wish more sites would do that. I'm not hearing impaired (though it's definitely a boon if you are), but it's a lot more convenient to just see the words sometimes.
I found N-O-D-E a few years ago when I was just starting to get into programming. Their early raspberry pi gadgets were so cool and encouraged me to go out and try to make my own stuff. On top of that their channel used to do semi regular tech news updates, and after a bit of a hiatus it appears as though they're posting again which is exciting.
I assume their videos got buried by the YouTube algorithms now as it doesn't conform to typical tech (read marketing) videos shot with RED cameras and Robots rigs.
I used to buy F91W watches all the time. they were fun and practical, but wasteful.
the most shameful fact about the F91W isnt its spartan design or its affordable price, but the fact that the timepiece with its ten year battery will easily outlast its resin strap, and its springbars are nothing more than pot steel held into the soft plastic lugs by friction alone. Chances are, when you replace the band after a few years youll pay just as much as the watch to do so, and run a pretty good risk of damaging the springbars to the point of rendering them warped or broken. the simple act of removing the springbars themselves is enough to strip out the lugs sometimes.
the clearances between the lugs and springbars are also very tight, so it discourages aftermarket additions like NATO bands or third party straps.
This is hilarious, I realized the exact same thing about the F-91w after wearing them for 3 or 4 years. Another alternative is the Casio F-84w, which is almost completely identical to the F-91w. It's slightly more expensive, but the default strap has small circular rather than wide ovular notches. This seems to have completely fixed the strap weakening/breaking problem. I have only had it for about a year, but it shows no signs of letting up anytime soon.
There's been a real dip in strap quality. I remember the only thing that would kill one was complete destruction(crushing) or simply losing it.
Ones I've purchased in past 5~ years all have had straps fail. They've clearly switched to cheaper materials.
They made a new model 'W-217H', which is just a larger F91W. I enjoyed the larger face and wouldn't go back to a F91. But the strap too broke a few months after use.
And like you said, with the cheapest of straps being almost the cost of the watch, and there's no guarantee it'll easily fit.
Similar to Travis Goodspeed's goodwatch project, which is a replacement board for Casio calculator watches that contains a sub-GHz programmable radio. I've built a few of them and had fun writing software for it.
Bought one in silver. As a massive product play, making this and other retro era watches into a fido authenticator would be the use case functionality that would make it huge.
I was going to do an Atari 2600 case based wifi router a while ago, and this idea of taking design classics and adapting them to minimalist modern use cases would be a company.
I ended up making an "app" to do hundredths of seconds for TSD rallies. Awesome project. My build is 2-4 years old (IIRC), so it has some power issues, sometimes I'll catch it waking itself up more than usual, and I can hear the wakeups in the piezo which doesn't help.
Wow I'm amazed by the option of adding a chip from a tap to pay card.
This would be a lot better than an NFC chip on a standard smartwatch as the F91W could last for years with that chip inside it.
The F91W is cheap, and really reliable. I've always fantasized about modding one, and this exactly would be my dream.
Sadly, I don't have enough time on my hands.
The link is at the bottom of the site, but it's pretty subtle, and I think these watches have the same mods.
Edit: These have NFC, but no SD card, so maybe they will show up with enhanced storage later, but anyone wanting the NFC features with the watch it looks like they are available.
Edit Edit: The NFC chip in the ones for sale is not tap-to-pay :( still neat though!
It is possible to scavenge the NFC antenna/chip from an Oyster card or indeed any other card, which the author alludes to in their video. There are details floating around on how to do it, by dissolving the card in acetone.
However, the relevant authorities might take a dim view of repurposing the transit card in this manner and probably have certain restrictions in place, to deter people from defacing their property. On another note, the author is using a NTAG213 on the watches sold via the shop and Oyster is Mifare, from what I can remember. There might be issues with response times regarding the proximity to the reader, if you wanted to experiment.
While it does seem useful, I’d be curious of the security implications; does wearing such a thing on your wrist make it easy for others to scan your credentials? I’m not incredibly familiar with NFC chips, but they do seem to have a much shorter range than most regular RFID chips, which seems like it might help. However all anyone would have to do is embed a reader under/in the table you sit at (say, at work or at your local coffee shop). Maybe we can keep the circuit hidden in a faraday cage, such as another (modded) microSD card slot, and just pop out the chip when needed.
Please add a few bullet points on the top of the page, it takes way too long to figure out what functionality you added, when I open the page all I can see is you starting with "It's a mod of this model watch" and then you talk about how it looks now, and how you put it together...
Readit News
Either this is the first time I'm visiting this site or I don't remember; But I wonder how they are managing to compete with Node.JS in the search engines with that name. Google doesn't respect even N-O-D-E, where as DDG brings up the site as first result for N-O-D-E. Not to mention there's another famous Youtube channel by the name Node by Corridor Crew.
They seem to sell some items based on their design along with the stuff they make at their store of the same name, I would like to know how they reach out to their audience from any regular subscriber of their work.
Self plug: I have a startup related site which is text only and occasionally I draw some comics which always consists of transcription.
[1]https://hitstartup.com/tags/comics/
What i'm thinking is that popularity and SEO issues are not really a concern since it looks like a very closed community type of thing.
Couldn't find the channel, what's the name?
A highlight: https://n-o-d-e.net/nano_server2.html
the most shameful fact about the F91W isnt its spartan design or its affordable price, but the fact that the timepiece with its ten year battery will easily outlast its resin strap, and its springbars are nothing more than pot steel held into the soft plastic lugs by friction alone. Chances are, when you replace the band after a few years youll pay just as much as the watch to do so, and run a pretty good risk of damaging the springbars to the point of rendering them warped or broken. the simple act of removing the springbars themselves is enough to strip out the lugs sometimes.
the clearances between the lugs and springbars are also very tight, so it discourages aftermarket additions like NATO bands or third party straps.
the B650WB is somewhat more durable.
I imagine the average person generate more daily plastic waste before lunch time than goes in to an average F91W.
Ones I've purchased in past 5~ years all have had straps fail. They've clearly switched to cheaper materials.
They made a new model 'W-217H', which is just a larger F91W. I enjoyed the larger face and wouldn't go back to a F91. But the strap too broke a few months after use.
And like you said, with the cheapest of straps being almost the cost of the watch, and there's no guarantee it'll easily fit.
https://kk4vcz.com/goodwatch/
https://github.com/travisgoodspeed/goodwatch/
I was going to do an Atari 2600 case based wifi router a while ago, and this idea of taking design classics and adapting them to minimalist modern use cases would be a company.
https://github.com/carrotIndustries/pluto
This would be a lot better than an NFC chip on a standard smartwatch as the F91W could last for years with that chip inside it.
The F91W is cheap, and really reliable. I've always fantasized about modding one, and this exactly would be my dream. Sadly, I don't have enough time on my hands.
If it were for sale, I'd buy it immediately !
The link is at the bottom of the site, but it's pretty subtle, and I think these watches have the same mods.
Edit: These have NFC, but no SD card, so maybe they will show up with enhanced storage later, but anyone wanting the NFC features with the watch it looks like they are available.
Edit Edit: The NFC chip in the ones for sale is not tap-to-pay :( still neat though!
However, the relevant authorities might take a dim view of repurposing the transit card in this manner and probably have certain restrictions in place, to deter people from defacing their property. On another note, the author is using a NTAG213 on the watches sold via the shop and Oyster is Mifare, from what I can remember. There might be issues with response times regarding the proximity to the reader, if you wanted to experiment.