ArduBreakout on a watchX

General
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I can’t find much information about the company itself, let alone who owns the company.
I can’t find where they’re based or even whether it’s a registered company.

I’m guessing they’re based in Turkey given that the other language the watch.io website supports is Turkish.
(Though it could just as easily be Cyprus or Romania.)

It seems Zak is aware of their existance though:
http://forum.zakkemble.co.uk/thread-97-post-140.html#pid140

(From having a dig around, it seems that he’s aware that Atmel Studio uses C++ but possibly doesn’t know how to write C++.)

It’s hard to say whether argeX copied the code or not.

Interestingly though, unless murataka is a member/employee of watchX or he’s given them special permission, their official firmware copies his code.

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Reply from watchX is that they are “in contact with Zak”, while in the same breath still pushing for / hoping for the community themselves to do the work of creating a full-featured watch sketch:

Not so inspiring… particularly when you compare Zak’s work to the mess they are offering as ‘official’:

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I don’t like that Zak’s code is all in C,
but it’s somewhat more organised than the ‘official’ watchX code.

‘In conctact with’ doesn’t necessarily mean in a nice friendly way.
It’s hard to say either way though, not enough information about.

By the way, was “uXe” taken, gonzo?

33

True, have E-Mailed Zak hoping for some clarification…

gonzosmoonwomb was a band I played in once upon a time, always guaranteed not to be taken as a ‘screen name’! :blush:

http://www.lexicon.net/gonzosmoonwomb/

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It will be interesting to see what he says.

You know a website is old when over half the links 404 or just don’t respond.
(Skeletonsoup is up for sale.)

I miss the 90s style websites though. Larry Wall knows 90s websites are cool.

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35

are you using a Zulu/nato band for that arduwatch?

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The band came with the kit, apparently it is a Nato band yes, but I have no idea what that means! :crazy_face:

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The Fascinating and Humble History of the NATO Watch Strap

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Ah yes the deep history of the Nato strap, my most favorited watch strap out there. So versatile, So comfy. :yum:

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Yes … the forum is forming a view of @Keyboard_Camper. He likes $20 terrorist watches with cheap Nato straps.

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I moved the posts over here to stop people thinking:
“What the hell have watch straps got to do with Accelerometers?”.

Luckily watch straps are on topic for a thread discussing the WatchX.
Although hopefully watch straps isn’t all we’ll discuss,
otherwise I’ll have to rename the thread “Watch straps! (Featuring ArduBreakout on a WatchX)”.

made its debut in the British Ministry of Defence Standard (DefStan) 66-15. For soldiers to get their hands on one, they had to fill out a form known as the G1098, or G10 for short. Subsequently, they could retrieve the strap at their unit’s supply store of the same name.

Explains why they’re popular in Britain.

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You can also find NATO straps in some James Bond movies!

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Has Zak replied at all?

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Yes. Had been waiting on Zak’s permission to share his reply:

“I have zero involvement with watchX, other than being the guy who originally designed and made the N|Watch as a personal project which they’ve stolen. They promised some compensation, but of course I’ve not seen a penny.”

"Yeah I gave them the list of emails I had from people who wanted to be notified about availability of the original N|Watch kits that I was selling (probably wasn’t the best idea to give them that list, really).

Sure, you can share with others what I’ve said."

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44

I can only say they’re foolish not to make a deal with him. Seeing how all the source code is glued together and supplying incorrect technical details. They cleary don’t have the technical expertise they need.

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This is Mustafa, Co-Founder and CEO of watchX. Please ask your questions. I am here to reply em all.

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46

Hello uXe,

The design is completely ours. There is no design similarities, you can compare the hardware pictures. This is our Insta page: https://www.instagram.com/watchx_official/ . Please keep in mind that, Zak did a DIY project. watchX is a product. Making an Arduino watch can’t belong to anyone.

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We originally going to make a deal with Zak. We were planning to ship watchX with Zak’s code. Then we invested on changing the MCU and canceled the shipping with Zak’s code. watchX is a development board. Some of our customer from Japan did an amazing job to port Zak’s code. That’s all. Also we have the technical expertise no worries:)

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You can understand though how even if your hardware/software is now unique, that you cant argue that originally it wasn’t based off of someone else’s work. Plus having the original author accuse watchX of misappropriating his work is quite serious. That alone brings into question your business practices, which may or may not be true. A bit of advice, pointing to hardware pictures alone aren’t enough to clear those questions, schematics and source code will. Finally, necroing a thread that is months old by this point is also an odd thing to do. I know you want to clear the allegations against your company, but clearly making amends with Zak and the fragmentation in your community should be your higher concerns.

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And yours isn’t? don’t you have to assemble it and print your own 3D case?

Changing from one AVR MCU to another AVR MCU isn’t a big change in software and it still has Zaks look and feel. Besides that there is another issue to address.You are still advertising using the original ATMEGA328P based design and hardware specifications so you are misleading consumers. That’s doesn’t sound very trustworthy

Really? Ending with a link to promote your sales?

I hope a moderator wil agree that that’s inappropriate and removes your spam link.

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