[Discussion] Share your projects

Nikolai Simonov

Hey guys!

Looking at your screenshots, Your projects looks really ambitios, I want to give you a heads-up on a few technical constraints:

First off, remember that you don’t have nearly as much memory here as you do in a web browser (suuntoPlus simulator).
For topographic maps, we usually rely on specific symbols. I highly recommend looking into the spritemap technique for this.
There is no any sync api. If you want to upload information (like routes), your probably go into the Settings API, which allows you to pass a string. data from suunto app settings.
However, the string length is limited and you probably run out of memory if you try to put whole json in the settings, so you’ll need to design an efficient encoding protocol maybe try treating the string as a binary array…
On Suunto watches, the Canvas API is heavily restricted.
- there’s about 50 draw calls.
- also not a full-fledged AP, e.g there is no drawImage method.
which means you won’t be able to render images directly onto the canvas. worries not it could be bypass by layout layering technics, probably.

don’t want to say it’s impossible but it could be a challenging!

surfboomerang

@Nikolai-Simonov said in [Discussion] Share your projects:

First off, remember that you don’t have nearly as much memory here as you do in a web browser (suuntoPlus simulator).

Check! Found that out the hard way
Project worked fine in the simulator but totally crashed my watch upon field testing. I was surprised that it not only crashed the app, but the watch as a whole. The watch totally hang.

Is it known how much memory each watch type has?

Unpaired8373

@Nikolai-Simonov Thanks for the suggestions.

I have a first draft of a (hopefully) efficient encoding for the route data to get it onto the watch and not consume all the memory at once. Is the settings API the only way to get data into the watch? I saw something in the BLE methods that sounded like the watch could pair to a phone acting as BLE peripheral and offering data via characteristics.

there’s about 50 draw calls.

what exactly do you mean by that? Only 50 functions or only 50 calls before everything goes sideways?

Nikolai Simonov

@Unpaired8373 said in [Discussion] Share your projects:

I saw something in the BLE methods that sounded like the watch could pair to a phone acting as BLE peripheral and offering data via characteristics.

yes it as LiveTracking app exactly working, however i believe it’s much more drawbacks then wins. 1. you lost connection with the main suunto app, it’s really annoying for users. 2. the mtu so small payload ~20B to sync smth complex you need to orchestrate queue etc. and keep in mind memalloc on every step. 3. what if you lost packet int the middle?.. etc. I personally think encoding to string and copy - paste to setting is much more convenient way for this purpose.

@Unpaired8373 said in [Discussion] Share your projects:

what exactly do you mean by that? Only 50 functions or only 50 calls before everything goes sideways?

So, i faced up this behaviour in parkrun QR app, that canvas just became black after around 50th call on canvas it became black. to be honest it solving relativelly easy via 9patch tehnique

Unpaired8373

20B MTU is not much indeed.

@Nikolai-Simonov said in [Discussion] Share your projects:

So, i faced up this behaviour in parkrun QR app, that canvas just became black after around 50th call on canvas it became black. to be honest it solving relativelly easy via 9patch tehnique

I really have to get my 90s game dev skills up to speed I’ve been in firmware development for a good time now but never with graphics output.

Do you know if one can change HTML DOM from the javascript?

Unpaired8373

To answer my own question: apparently you cannot

oleksandr

I wasn’t happy about the lack of proper gym tracking experience so I built my own. Hopefully I get accepted to the partner program to submit the package soon.

Meet oSpotter

OutdoorMan

@oleksandr nice one, this looks really good!!

brechtvb

@oleksandr This is very nice, i was pondering about a kettlebel swing counter. But we only have an accelerometer, there is no gyroscope.

Thibault B.

I just sent for approval a simple SuuntoPlus app called Manual Interval+.

I built it because I wanted an easy way to run manual intervals while still seeing the key information from the previous lap, and to have something that works for any interval style — even sessions without real rest blocks.

It shows the main metrics for the current interval, along with a small panel that switches between the most important details from the previous one.

Hope it’s useful! Feedback is welcome.

Few details:

pace displayed is average of interval (makes more sense than current one IMO).
HR displayed is current one for current interval.
tenth of second displayed even if we reached the minute or more.
interval number display alternates with time of the day.

ManualIntervals+-4.png Sans titre-3.png

guderaber

@Unpaired8373 I managed to get it work on my Race S. There was quiet a few mismatch between simulation and this watch with text position, and also had some crashing as well but now it works, unfortunately i have to clear the watch fully/reinstall.

For objects i made a json based object that contains metadata + lines + predefined objects with coordinates which can be drawn + it might have free drawing background in the future (at a limited extent) to be able to highlight rock contours :

  "name": "Salathe", "wall": "El Cap", "grade": "V", "pitches": 3, "width": 400, "height": 1600, #route metadata
  "anchors": [
    {"x": 75,"y": 1217,"grade": "IV","length": "33m","info": "This is the description of the first pitch"}, #points with metadata and text notes for additional info
    ...
  ],
  "route": [[75,1217],...], #free drawing 
  "features": [ #drawn objects
    {"type": "slab", "x": 82, "y": 1057,"w": 52, "h": 52},
    {"type": "tree","x": 102,"y": 1196},
    {"type": "crack","x": 251,"y": 723,"w": 9,"h": 120},
    {"type": "rappel", "x": 177,"y": 807},
    ...
]}

I made a visual editor that can export these jsons, and the sync can be the suuntoplus app text input, so i can paste the json from clipboard.

Unpaired8373

@guderaber Nice!
I am surprised it works to just have a JSON copy&past over.

Do you run a canvas based implementation?

surfboomerang

Today my app was approved

There seems to be a bug in the manifest config for some reason. The text size dropdown list is correctly populated with values from an array but when I select another value the Suunto App crashes. The SuuntoPlus app works fine however.

Data.json

    "textSize": {
        "sizes": [
            "Small",
            "Medium",
            "Large"
        ],
        "size": 1
    }

Manifest.json

{"shownName": "Text size", "path": "textSize.size", "type":"enum", "valuePath": "textSize.sizes"},

Does anyone have a clue?
Unfortunately I cannot test this in the simulator.

Edit:
Entering the values directly seems to work.

{"shownName": "Text size", "path": "textSize", "type":"enum", "values": ["Small", "Medium", "Large"]},

guderaber

@Unpaired8373 I tried the image based implementation, but its not viable as i the image has to be baked in the source code, although it worked on the watch as well. The canvas based was working, but i still have to test some more complicated topos with a lot more objects, then i’ll try to get it approved, because otherwise i cannot not use it.

Still have to play a bit more with UX as my app has 3 screens (selector + topo + pitch notes) and also some minor QoF improvements.

runyx17

@surfboomerang Perfect. Very useful. Thanks

safari

@surfboomerang I think I’m mistaken… I can’t find where to add a note

Correction… the relevant part appeared after synchronization :).
I’m testing it. Thanks.

Pottu

@Nikolai-Simonov, @unpaired8373
I played around with canvas and found that you can quite easily go around the draw limit just by splitting the drawing to multiple canvas with their own build functions.

Unpaired8373

@guderaber interested in your results.

I had some issues with the canvas and Nikolais comments made me explore the sprite-map appoach, which seems to work although giving a different set of challenges. Let’s see where this leads. Maybe a hybrid sprite+canvas approach is the solution.

Jan Krejčí

@oleksandr this looks awesome we definitely need more weight lifting apps

safari

@surfboomerang

The app is generally good. I needed an app like this.
It reminded me of my Casio Databank from my childhood
There are just a few issues.

It would be nice if old notes could be deleted from the watch.
Entering and editing long notes is difficult on the phone. I save them to a notepad and then copy and paste. It’s a bit impractical.
You can’t use the buttons on the watch to pause or end the exercise while on this screen. There’s fast forward/rewind and zoom in/out. You have to move to the next part.

Finally, it’s a great app, thank you. This should definitely be a widget. It would be great to be able to define it as a shortcut to access notes. Wishing you continued development.