Okay, so I wanted to mess around with this MIP display I got, and make a simple watch. I’d seen some cool projects online, but wanted to try it out myself, from scratch, you know?
Getting Started
First thing, I grabbed the display and hooked it up to my microcontroller. I’m using an ESP32, ’cause it’s got built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, which is handy. I spent a bit of time figuring out the wiring – the datasheet was kinda confusing, but I got there eventually. Nothing was burning, so, good sign!
Coding It Up
Next up, the code. I’m using the Arduino IDE, ’cause it’s what I’m used to. I found a library for the display online, which saved me a ton of work. I installed that, and then started messing around with some example code to get a feel for things.
- I started by just trying to display some text. “Hello, world!” and all that.
- Then I tried drawing some shapes, like lines and circles. Basic stuff.
- After all done,I Made sure everyting working good.
Once I felt comfortable with that, I started working on the actual watch part. I used the ESP32’s built-in real-time clock (RTC) to keep track of the time. The library I found had some functions for displaying numbers, so I used those to show the hours and minutes.
Making it Look Nice
I wanted it to look like an actual watch face, so I spent some time tweaking the layout. I added some colons between the hours and minutes, and I played around with different fonts and sizes until I found something I liked. It’s not super fancy, but it’s readable, which is the main thing.
Power Saving
One of the big advantages of MIP displays is that they use very little power. So, I wanted to make sure I was taking advantage of that. I put the ESP32 into deep sleep mode whenever it wasn’t updating the display. This means it’s only using a tiny amount of power most of the time. I haven’t done any proper battery life testing yet, but it seems to be lasting for ages on a single charge.
The Final Result
So, yeah, that’s pretty much it! I now have a working watch on a MIP display. It’s not going to win any design awards, but it was a fun little project, and I learned a lot along the way. I might try adding some more features later, like maybe a stopwatch or something. But for now, I’m pretty happy with it!