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Frankenstein's revenge; Mike's MIB Date Command Redux

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bucko170

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: Frankenstein's revenge; Mike's MIB Date Command Redux

Post26 May 2010, 21:31

I finished making and installed the green crystal on the second watch that Jeff kindly completed for me. I left the watches a little 'raw' so that I could wear them regularly without getting paranoid.

The photo doesn't do the green display justice, in the flesh it has a lovely deep green colour - looks better in green than the blue IMHO.

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Re: : Frankenstein's revenge; Mike's MIB Date Command Redux

Post26 May 2010, 22:52

:-D
Last edited by J Thomas on 30 Mar 2011, 06:52, edited 1 time in total.
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: Frankenstein's revenge; Mike's MIB Date Command Redux

Post08 Aug 2010, 02:34

:-D
Last edited by J Thomas on 30 Mar 2011, 06:52, edited 1 time in total.
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clockace

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: Frankenstein's revenge; Mike's MIB Date Command Redux

Post08 Aug 2010, 04:06

hey jeff, that orange color is really cool. how does it look outside? does the bright az sun wash it out? i have an empty date/II case just laying on my bench. may need to make up one of those. aloha from maui. :-D :-D peter
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Re: : Frankenstein's revenge; Mike's MIB Date Command Redux

Post08 Aug 2010, 04:19

:-D
Last edited by J Thomas on 30 Mar 2011, 06:53, edited 1 time in total.
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: Frankenstein's revenge; Mike's MIB Date Command Redux

Post08 Aug 2010, 04:30

Anyway, here's a not too carefully taken image of Mike's MIB watch with an orange OLED and orange acrylic crystal.

Awesome work Jeff! You're part watch repairman and part artist!
It looks better than I hoped - and if the pictures don't do it justice as you say, now I'm really excited to get my hands on it! :-D :-D
Thank you again for the superb work!

My 11yr old son's favorite color is orange. He liked wearing the nixie watches because of their display color... until he saw LEDluvr's watch today. I nearly had to pry it out of his hands. Of course, now he wants one for his birthday Wink


Your son has good taste! Tell you what, as much as I like this watch I'll trade it for the boring old watch you use for an avatar. :-P ;-)

And a special THANK YOU to Bruce for the reed switches and milling the crystals! This latest Frankenstien's Creation couldn't of happened without your help. :-D

-- Mike
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: Frankenstein's revenge; Mike's MIB Date Command Redux

Post08 Aug 2010, 11:03

Yes, I can do more crystals, any color. If I can start with 3/32 stock, that saves a lot of time; otherwise, I have to start with 1/8, and mill it down to proper thickness. This also involves a re-polishing step, to remove the machining marks. These latest ones are also being done on a pantograph, instead of CNC. A friend has a Deckel GK-10 3D machine, and, for a suitable bribe, allows me some limited time on it [I actually used one of these when I was working in the tool-and-die shop; I did all the engraving on any injection mold that needed lettering or logos on the finished part, so I'm reasonably confident I'm getting best-performance results]. Dimensions can be so tightly controlled that the finished parts fit the cases better than the original glass [sort of what you'd expect from parts coming off an $18K tool]. AND, if I can get a suitable laser-cut lettering template made, we take the final step...the HAMILTON logo on the crystal. I have someone looking into that in LA, so, unfortunately, it's out of my direct control, and I can't be certain of the time frame...but, it WILL happen [so, don't go gluing these in with really permanent adhesives; when the time comes, if anyone wants, they can return a crystal to me and get it back logo'd...for a reasonable charge, I hope...sorta depends on the whims of the pantograph guy, too]. So, for the immediate future, I'm not going to say any more about that until I actually have the logo template in my hands...
I'm happy the parts I've made so far are getting such positive reviews...
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: Frankenstein's revenge; Mike's MIB Date Command Redux

Post26 Aug 2010, 18:33

:-D
Last edited by J Thomas on 30 Mar 2011, 06:53, edited 1 time in total.
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: Frankenstein's revenge; Mike's MIB Date Command Redux

Post27 Aug 2010, 00:54

Coool...... thanks Jeff.
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: Frankenstein's revenge; Mike's MIB Date Command Redux

Post01 Sep 2010, 00:01

:-D
Last edited by J Thomas on 30 Mar 2011, 06:53, edited 1 time in total.
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: Frankenstein's revenge; Mike's MIB Date Command Redux

Post01 Sep 2010, 01:12

Jeff,

Nice find.

Another possibility might be to use the "intelligent display modules" made by 4D Systems for a wristwatch module:
http://www.4dsystems.com.au/
http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/produc ... ts_id=8538

On the plus side, these little modules contain an embedded graphics controller that runs a little programming language called 4DGL. The development tools are free and the little 1" OLED display modules are available for only about 50 bucks.

On the minus side, there are a few issues: (1) When I looked at the programming language definition, it didn't appear that there is a built-in clock. I could be wrong. You can drive the display from a microcontroller over a serial interface but that's way beyond my capabilities (I'm a software guy). (2) You'd need to figure out way to power down the main processor when not in use to get decent battery life.

So it's a non-trivial problem. Apparently, there have been some attempts to use these for wristwatch applications with mixed results (battery life issues):
https://sites.google.com/site/arduinowatch/mosaic-watch

I was hoping that there was an off-the-shelf product that integrated the processor and display so that it could be transformed into into a watch module simply through software. Is that too much to ask?

-abe.
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: Frankenstein's revenge; Mike's MIB Date Command Redux

Post03 Sep 2010, 21:23

OK these wouldn't have "true to life" colors but I wonder if either of these would fit a P3 case. I have a couple P3s that I am considering "Frankensteining." Didn't know that was a verb did ya? :-D

NEW DIESEL DIGITAL OLED 2 ANIMATED LEATHER WATCH DZ7086

RARE NEW FOSSIL LEATHER WATCH OLED Digital JR9464 W/TIN
- Shaun
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Re: : Frankenstein's revenge; Mike's MIB Date Command Redux

Post03 Sep 2010, 23:47

Bad Juju wrote:OK these wouldn't have "true to life" colors but I wonder if either of these would fit a P3 case. I have a couple P3s that I am considering "Frankensteining." Didn't know that was a verb did ya? :-D

NEW DIESEL DIGITAL OLED 2 ANIMATED LEATHER WATCH DZ7086

RARE NEW FOSSIL LEATHER WATCH OLED Digital JR9464 W/TIN
Looks like their displays would be obstructed by the Pulsar case, at very least. Then again, who needs the North and South Poles - too freakin cold! :eek: :lol: If the time display is center, it might be do-able. Clear sapphire glass from a Pulsar Classic will fit P2 and P3 cases......
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: Frankenstein's revenge; Mike's MIB Date Command Redux

Post04 Sep 2010, 01:20

I like this Fossil one as-is. I wonder if they make it with a black band? Hhhmm.......

http://cgi.ebay.com/RARE-NEW-FOSSIL-LEA ... 545wt_1133
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: Frankenstein's revenge; Mike's MIB Date Command Redux

Post04 Sep 2010, 02:43

Hmm, the new Pod Nano is just a bit over 1.5" square by maybe 1/4" thick. I wonder how big the module is:
http://www.apple.com/ipodnano/specs.html

I don't know what you'd do about the touch screen. Still, it shows that you can put the functionality of a decent mp3 player and PDA into a watch and still get decent battery life.

The "think different" award goes to whoever can figure out how to cram an iPod into a Pulsar case.

-abe.
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: Frankenstein's revenge; Mike's MIB Date Command Redux

Post14 Sep 2010, 23:30

The module in my blue Frankenstein OLED conversion stopped working, this wasn't that much of a surprise as it was the one that I had destroyed trying to do the conversion for myself, It seemed a shame to have all the necessary parts and not to put them to use so I asked Jeff if he could help me out and he kindly agreed to do so. The replacement donor module that I sent him was out of a APUS 'Beta' watch, Jeff managed to do the conversion for me (many thanks Jeff) but he did experience some difficulties with this module as unbeknown to me it is different to the previous one that I sent him which came from the Kenneth Cole OLED, the 'Apus' module is slightly larger which meant the Pulsar case had to be enlarged some more in order to accommodate the donor module it also has a reset feature, when both buttons are held in at the same time it resets to default, Jeff also experienced problems with the alarm feature.
As the conversion is a quite popular thing to do I thought it would be helpful to update the forum with this information.
I would also like to give a big thanks to Jeff for all his help with this watch.
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