Texas Instruments eZ430-Chronos Wireless Watch

Demo Videos

• ​The watch controlling lights
• ​Detailed view of Vera control panel

Description

From TI's ​EZ430-Chronos Wiki Page:

The eZ430-Chronos is a highly integrated, wearable wireless development system that comes in a sports watch. It may be used as a reference platform for watch systems, a personal display for personal area networks, as a wireless sensor node for remote data collection, or simply as a watch.

Based on the ​CC430F6137 <1 GHz RF SoC, the eZ430-Chronos is a complete CC430-based development system contained in a watch. This tool features a 96 segment LCD display and provides an integrated pressure sensor and 3-axis accelerometer for motion sensitive control. The integrated wireless feature allows the Chronos to act as a central hub for nearby wireless sensors such as pedometers and heart rate monitors. The eZ430-Chronos offers temperature and battery voltage measurement and is complete with a USB-based ​CC1111 wireless interface to a PC.

The eZ430-Chronos watch may be disassembled to be reprogrammed with a custom application and includes an eZ430 USB programming interface.

Purchasing

The eZ430-Chronos watch can be purchased ​directly from TI for $49. The watch works out of the box with this plugin and does not require any custom firmware or additional hardware.

Functionality

This plugin currently provides access to 3 of the watches hardware buttons: *, #, and UP (depicted with an upwards pointing arrow on the watch). Upon installation, the plugin defines a new device which displays the current status of the buttons:

Pressing one of the above 3 buttons on the watch toggles the device's corresponding button state. The button states can be directly used to trigger events:

The watch offers plenty more, including an integrated 3-axis accelerometer, temperature sensor, and pressure sensor. If there is enough interest, I may add support for these features in the plugin.

Installation

These instructions are for Vera releases 1.1.1047 and up.

Hardware & Driver

Before setting up the plugin, a driver for the watch's USB dongle must be enabled.

1. Locate the USB RF dongle supplied with the watch (the object in the lower right corner of the image above), and plug the dongle into one of the USB ports on your Vera device.

2. If you have not already, enable SSH access to your Vera, and establish an SSH connection (see ​http://wiki.micasaverde.com/index.php/Advanced_Commands).

3. Enter the following commands over the SSH connection:

   echo "vendor:0451 product:16a6" >> /etc/cmh/serproxy.ports
   

   echo "usbserial vendor=0x0451 product=0x16a6" > /etc/modules.d/60-usb-serial
   

   mv /etc/modules.d/60-usb-acm /etc/modules.d/70-usb-acm
   

4. You should now reboot your Vera as follows. Select the Advanced icon from the toolbox and then the Net & Wi-Fi tab:

Click the Reboot button as indicated above.

Software

After your Vera has rebooted, follow the directions below to install the software for the plugin and create and setup the eZ430-Chronos device on your Vera.

1. Download the following files (links are to latest release version):
   • D_eZ430Chronos.xml
   • D_eZ430Chronos.json
   • I_eZ430Chronos.xml

2. Upload the files to your Vera by selecting the MiOS developers icon from the toolbox and then the Luup files tab:

Select the above files for upload, check the Restart Luup after upload box, and click GO.

Device configuration

With the hardware and software in place, all that remains is creating and configuring the device.

1. Create a new instance of the eZ430-Chronos device by selecting the MiOS developers icon from the toolbox and then the Create device tab:

Enter D_eZ430Chronos.xml as the UpnpDevFilename, and a name for your new device as the Description. Then click on the Create device button.

2. Select MiOS developers then Serial Port configuration, and find the serial port named [{{usbserial}}]:

Select 115200 as the baud rate, and then select your new device from the Used by device dropdown list. If you do not see your new device in the list, you may have to refresh your Vera.

3. Once you select your device, you will be immediately taken to a dialog like the following:

Simply do nothing here and exit out of the dialog by clicking the X as shown above.

4. Select SAVE and click continue. After your Vera has refreshed, if you return to the Serial Port configuration page, you should see something like:

This indicates that the serial port has been assigned to your device, and at this point you are ready to test your Chronos.

Testing

Before following the procedure below, consult the demo videos to get a sense of operation.

1. Toggle the # button on your Chronos until the PPt mode is enabled.

2. Enable wireless communication by pressing the DOWN button (lower right). You should see an icon indicating that wireless transmission has been enabled.

3. While in this mode, pressing the #, *, or UP buttons should trigger an update of the device's button status:

For further help with installation or troubleshooting, please see the Discussion & Troubleshooting section below.

Discussion & Troubleshooting

Please consult the following thread at the MiCasaVerde? forums:

​http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php?topic=5822.0

Release History

• Version 1.0: March 1, 2011