the #twatch!
This is not the first exciting project we worked with former Hackaday editor Ian Lesnet, you may remember the two bus pirate v2 pre-orders. It was quite an exiciting omni-potent tool with complete documentation and continous upgrade. They were sold like hot cakes, we drained all the stock from Digikey, Mouser and Farnell, but the shortage of ICs delayed the second batch for about 4 weeks…
Now Ian started wherelabs LLC, which presents monthly projects with professional engineering and support, Seeed Studio will cooperate with manufacture, stocking, retailing and warranty. We use our best resouces to facilitate these open source innovations, now enjoy the first project:
The #twatch connects directly to Twitter and scrolls the latest trending topics and related tweets on an LCD screen. It’s a stand-alone network appliance that stays updated without a PC. It was awesome to watch #iranelection, Michael Jackson, and other historic events scroll by while we developed the #twatch. This article documents the #twatch hardware and design.
In addition to a Twitter trend ticker, the #twatch is a generic ethernet LCD backpack. It’ll show playlists, PC stats, and other info with programs like LCD Smartie. It’s also software upgradable, so it’s never outdated.
You can preorder the #twatch hardware for $30, or get a #twatch with an LCD screen for $45, including worldwide shipping. Orders end September 23th, 2009. The #twatch is open source, so you can download our designs and build your own too.
More videos and complete design details after the break, more discussion in the #twatch forum. We’ll send a free #twatch PCB if you’re the first to tweet the #twatch!
Concept overview
The #twatch grabs the latest trending topics from Twitter, then loads a few tweets for each. The trending topics and tweets scroll on a screen. The #twatch grabs fresh trends and tweets every five minutes so you always see the latest trending topics.
About Author
