That’s fair. Fingers could be easier to flex. Ultimately, between fingers or wrist motions (or both), the end goal is to pull more or less reel out of the watch because the watch measures the amount of reel pulled out or returned. I hope to keep the system versatile enough to accommodate user’s preferences. However, this will be easier to test once I’ve made prototypes.
@binitshah, I could have just ignored your excitement about DD, if I changed my opinion with a time. But NO 
DD is just the best. The more I ride, the more I realise it again and again. It’s a pity, that not everybody can build it as easy as scheiss-belt drive. But if you manage and do it properly, then you will definitely share my opinion.
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Very cool but I’d have a concern that the cord would be rock solid and not get stuck in the pulled out mode
Rock solid
There are full android 6 watches for very little $60 which are borderline working with the metr app
If you took the backplate off a chosen model and had an extension including the radio and cord mechanism, rooted and hacked to edk8 specifics. it could be an incredible combo
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If they ride even half as nice as they look, I’ll be very happy. I look forward to sharing my approach to making direct drives.
Bluetooth is also 2,4Ghz! 
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Yeah and wifi as well, and many many other communication protocols. Bluetooth uses low energy and short range RF, up to 4.0 it was never stable enough for these application. We shall see and test Bluetooth 5.0 that looks very promising.
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Agreed, this is one example of the kind of issues that could plague the mechanical part of the design. I believe that this one specifically wouldn’t be an issue with extensive testing and iteration.
The idea of ripping a cheap android watch for parts is not a bad idea. Those off-brands are probably very modular. My issue is that space inside one of these watches would likely be limited and fitting the rewinding mechanism inside it would be tough ask. Plus those watches have parts and circuits that this application wouldn’t need. Also the price for making one of these RevWatches would have a lump sum $60 included. Finally, I think it’d be cooler (and cheaper) to just design the watch myself from the ground up.
Making something similar that would integrate with protective gloves would be cool. Not everyone wears a watch, but everyone wears gloves. Right? 
Impressive if you have those skills! I was just refering to taking the backplate off and adding a module which would increase the height probably by almost another 10mm, making it very chunky & yeah the cost
Cool if you go forward on this. The $60 is off-putting From scratch allows you much more options, with Android you have a great platform to provide all the xtra value over the control itself -
- navigation(turn-by-turn)
- telemetry
- calls
- social
- music
And all the rest
I just came across these Android smart glasses:
https://pixkol.com/products/m100-smart-glasses?variant=13956318625850 I thought it might be a good to add telemetry to your remote and still keep everything compact, if you’re willing to overlook the geekiness. Same goes for everyone else working on this stuff @ackmaniac @Wajdi @solidgeek … I forget who else. Maybe there’s a way to adapt them to display on a full-face helmet visor?
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I’m very interested in smart glasses, I’m working on some other projects involving Augmented Reality and I can say for sure AR glasses will be the future.
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So, not to be negative on innovation but your design has some hurdles to overcome.
Unlike a throttle, unless you don’t want brakes you’re going to need a neutral point on your string. And since it’s a string it will have to be under tension. So your hand will have to hold neutral at times you would like to coast or not power the board. You will also limit your hand to a few specific movements while riding. PPM is a very precise input, I think a wrist is just as capable as finger or thumb control but it would take some getting used to.
Quite a few of us also switch remote hands while riding you will lose this ability, at least a quick switch on the fly. What happens in a crash?
I like the watch idea, it’s small and compact. The large RC car remotes work because their cheap and have good signal.
What if instead of a string it cord it was a wire attached to a small throttle potentiometer about the size of a small battery flashlight.
This could either attach to the band or under the watch face. This would slide forward or back instead of trigger style. Just a thought.
I like your idea, it just has some design hurdles to overcome.
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@banjaxxed Great point about Android wear. It’d allow for much more functionality, however, it’s also a much more complicated project and I don’t think I’m that experienced yet. For now, I think I will build my own simple OS that implements the core features outlined above.
@janpom Interesting idea. I know that flex resistor sensors have been used in gloves before (I think Nintendo made a glove called the power glove or something). Having gone down the route of glove projects before, I don’t think I’m willing to touch this project for now. Furthermore, the allure of fitting this remote into a wrist watch is that it is hidden as an everyday object. Let me know if you start making this glove design.
@E1Allen Thanks for the feedback. The ease of holding the reel at a resting position and the discomfort from limited wrist movement could be real problem. @High-roller had a similar point. The control mechanism needs to feel natural. Whether or not it will can only be told when I try it out. The PPM (output) of the watch can be adapted to account for jitters and dead zones in software. As for crash scenarios, I plan to address this buy having the reel act as a deadman’s switch. How well this works out in practically, will once again, need to be tested. Potentiometer is a good idea and I was considering it as well, however, I don’t see an easy way for the potentiometer+wire to retract easy.
General Update: I’ve spent some researching alternatives to bluetooth module I was going to use. Reliability is key and the bluetooth 4.2 module I was considering might not be good enough. 2.4Ghzs RF is proven while bluetooth 5.0 is unproven but has potential. Therefore, I’ve decided to make designs for both. I’d like to compare the BT 5.0 against radio and see if it can perform as well or better. For the radio’s design, I am fortunate people on this forum using radio remotes have open sourced their designs and GreatScott! has made a video on the topic. I’ve decided on parts for both and am designing new schematics: one for BT 5.0 and one for radio. Soon after that, I’ll start on designing PCBs. I’ll continue to post updates on this thread until I’ve reach some major checkpoint.
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There’s a lot of work here, nice job !
But I just can’t imagine not having full freedom to use my hands as I want when I’m riding. It will maybe work at the end and some people maybe gonna use it everyday but I have doubts about this being massively adopted by the community. When I ride, I (and I’m pretty sure a lot of people, if not most of the people) want to be able, at any moment, to :
- Say hello or give the finger to anybody
- Grab my phone in my pocket
- Swap the hand holding the controller
- Sit on my board
- Grab something along the way
- Etc. Or just give the controller to a friend wanting to ride the board when I stop
All those moves seems really complicated to achieve in a simple way without overthinking about the way to do it safely and quickly with your system.
Hope I’m wrong ! And keep the good job going, time will tell 
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