Is it possible to create a watchface that contains seconds. According to the programmers guide, onUpdate is only called once every minute for watchfaces and its not possible to create a timer in a watchface.
Well that is kind of a dealbreaker... The original display has no problem updating the seconds but I'm guessing it uses a different thread to do so which is less energy hungry?
The default watch face shows seconds and updates the steps more frequently that one minute. Please give us the ability to create a timer to show seconds or create a second hand and also provide proper guidelines to minimize power usage.
I'll let you in on a little secret: The default watch face does not run on the main processor, but instead runs on a much lower power micro which doesn't have enough memory to run Connect IQ. It honestly doesn't have enough memory to hold the screen buffer; I work with some mad/crazy embedded hackers here at Garmin. All that for a second hand.
We face similar challenges to other smart watches when it comes to balancing functionality and power usage. I think all smart watches have been figuring out how to offer the customize-ability of custom watch faces without killing the battery for the use cases the devices is intended before. We're starting with a conservative approach, but it could evolve over time.
I'll let you in on a little secret: The default watch face does not run on the main processor, but instead runs on a much lower power micro which doesn't have enough memory to run Connect IQ. It honestly doesn't have enough memory to hold the screen buffer; I work with some mad/crazy embedded hackers here at Garmin. All that for a second hand.
We face similar challenges to other smart watches when it comes to balancing functionality and power usage. I think all smart watches have been figuring out how to offer the customize-ability of custom watch faces without killing the battery for the use cases the devices is intended before. We're starting with a conservative approach, but it could evolve over time.
I have been thinking about this quite a bit, and then it hit me that my Garmin Swim watch. What I used to wear as my every day watch before the 920 showed up. Also didn't display the seconds, until you hit a button. Then for a short while it would display the seconds then turn them off. That device also had a screen that would turn off it there was no movement for a certain amount of time. ( Funny that it always seemed to be about the time that it would take me to finish a portion of a task at work, then I would look down at my watch and it would be off. )
So to get back to this thread, it got me thinking that maybe we could poll for the seconds only when say the power/ button was hit, then have a counter count them down for us, and then turn that field off again once a set time was up.
This would; 1. Let us save power by not refreshing every second. 2. When the user asks for seconds we can display them. 3.then after a set time it would again turn the seconds off.
...So to get back to this thread, it got me thinking that maybe we could poll for the seconds only when say the power/ button was hit, then have a counter count them down for us, and then turn that field off again once a set time was up.
This would; 1. Let us save power by not refreshing every second. 2. When the user asks for seconds we can display them. 3.then after a set time it would again turn the seconds off.
I also used my garmin swim as a daily watch before the 920 and think those are great ideas.
Found that in the "Connect IQ User Experience Guide.pdf" file (SDK 0.2.4) :
"Watch faces update at once a minute in low power mode, or once a second when in full power mode. The watch will transition out of low power mode when the user gestures to look at it. A watch face can detect if it is in low power mode or not by getting the system stats from Toybox.System."
