Programming@programming.devbythe16bitgamer@programming.dev
1 day

Finished my first coding project in a very long time. A watch face for the Pebble's.

I’ve been meaning to make new dev projects for a while. But finding the time to sit down to just code is difficult for me these days. However I wanted to make a watch face for my new watch and I just said screw it.

Through a mix of using the Pebble SDK documentation, and referencing a few AI chatbots, mainly GPT-OSS I’m running in Alpaca, I was able to make it, make it run, and since it’s in C, I was able to have no memory leaks (according to the logs).

I’ve uploaded the source code to Codeberg if you want to look at it, I’ve yet do document it, so hopefully it’s not too hard to understand and not a spaghetti mess.

https://codeberg.org/the16bitgamer/poketech-dx

** Notes on my experience using AI to aid in coding **

When I was taught to coding, Google-fu was the goto way if/when the documentation fails you. However with both how old, and incomplete the Pebble SDK docs are, Google-fu wasn’t helping since the info it would pull was about a decade or older and mostly out of date or hard to decipher information on Stack Overflow. I would almost say using an AI along with the actual documentation and tutorials was a necessity for me to even finish this project.

The AI wasn’t perfect, endlessly gas lighting me, telling me to do over the top things for functions I already implemented, and putting me down rabbit holes going no-where. But compared to what I could get from Google, and it’s ability to try and break down what the code is doing, it was a lot more helpful than I thought it would be.

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    • Avid Amoeba@lemmy.ca
      7 hours

      What’s the blue “ring” around the display? A 3D printed trim piece?

    • AnimalsDream@slrpnk.netEnglish
      10 hours

      Isn’t there a Pebble project that lets anyone create watchfaces through easy drag and drop interactions?

    • whoisearth@lemmy.ca
      10 hours

      Good job and on your AI notes this is exactly why the anti-AI crowd is delusional. There is clear and quantitative value in AI and it very much is a game changer. The train has left the station.

      What we need to get behind is getting guardrails in place and introducing a UBI before it’s too late.

          • the16bitgamer@programming.dev
            6 hours

            My watch face, eyeing it carefully for bugs. Paranoid I forgot something 🤣 (loving it though and happy I can get a Aqua color like in platinum)

            The Time 2, loving it. Had the original time and it feels like it but smoother and faster. Time has moved on and I hope Pebble will make a more expensive one which has GPS for actual fitness tracking. But as a smartwatch, it’s crazy that no one else has made a superior product.

            The Framework 13, best laptop I’ve ever gotten. Now I got it at a time when RAM and storage was cheap, so it was a lot cheaper than it is today. But even the base AMD machine is a beast when it comes to development and gaming. Not as good as a steam deck, but I don’t think I have a need to upgrade for a long time.

      • the16bitgamer@programming.dev
        1 day

        Compared to my previous watches.

        Pebble Time: It’s a significant improvement, but that was to be expected considering it’s 10 years old. I love the larger display and the slimmer bezels are nice. The build is excellent, and I appear to not have gotten a defective unit, so it’s solid. I put a 3D Printed Bezel on it for the glass, mostly since I wanted to add more color, and partially due to the hoopla about the cracked displays a small number of users are reporting. Currently I’ve only charged my watch once since it arrived to top it off, and I am only at 34% at 19 days in. It looks like I might get close to the promised 30 day battery life. But we’ll see.

        Garmin Fenix 6: I prefer to use my Garmin as my exercise tracker, especially with the GPS built it. The Pebble’s battery life is equal since they both have transflective screens. But where the Pebble wins out is being a better watch. Day to day, it has better app support for watch features, like timers, and stop watches. Notifications read better on the Pebble, and on Android more options to respond to messages. I’m still going to use my garmin for bikes and other fitness stuff. But my Pebble Time 2 has outright replaced it at this point.

        With that said, I find it hard to recommend a Pebble, if the idea of a Pebble hasn’t already sold you. If you are looking for a fitness tracker you will be much better severed with a Garmin. But the tinkerability of Pebble, it’s long life time (my original time did last 10 years), and the fact the entire eco system of Pebble, from the App to the website is now open source, I would recommend it, if this sounds nice to you.

    • vrighter@discuss.tchncs.de
      11 hours

      you know what? I have had several projects where finding documentation online was hard, sometimes impossible for some proprietary stuff. Shit still got done.

      The excuse for rationalizing ai reads as “when it got too hard, i gave up and gave the task to someone else”. And it wasn’t even the task itself that was hard, it’s just the information gathering and digesting stage (the part in which you learn stuff).

      Edit: I also wrote my own watcfaces back when I had the first pebble model. Llms didn’t even exist yet. Documentation was there and it was very clear. Writing my first watchface was done within the day. And it was also one of my first times with c

      • the16bitgamer@programming.dev
        10 hours

        I could write the watch face app in a day, their tutorials were clear enough for that. But holes started appearing for things like, how to utilize 1 or 2bit Palettes. How to implement a sprite sheet and select a character, and the formats which are being returned from Clay when you update the settings.

        There are no guides, just example projects, which I could use and learn from. But man the LLM made it easier. Even when it was wrong, it gave me enough that I could go to the docs and say, oh that’s what that meant.

    • FluorideMind@lemmy.world
      1 day

      Sadly my brand new Pebble has stopped charging. Probably an issue with the little charging bean.

        • potustheplant@feddit.nl
          2 hours

          Suggesting they Buy a replacement cable for a new product seems like a weird response. If it’s within the warranty period, they should simply get it fixed/replaced free of charge.

          • the16bitgamer@programming.dev
            34 minutes

            My recommendation was more of a “quick turn around to solve a problem” solution. I would hope they would’ve already reached out to Core designs, and Core Designs appear to be responsive to issues, even out of the warranty period. However Amazon can have a new charger at your door step in days if you wanted to do basic trouble shooting.

    • twinnie@feddit.uk
      1 day

      You’ve got some balls admitting to using Windows on Lemmy.