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SQFMI

1,162 orders since Nov 16, 2017

New York, NY, United States of America

Ships from United States of America.

Custom Work Available

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Overall Rating:

Review Breakdown

5
5 4
17 3
10 2
3 1
2

Average Ratings

Product: (4.08)

Documentation: (3.65)

Shipping: (3.86)

Communication: (3.97)

All Reviews

Michael | March 7, 2021

a fun way to get back into C++

For Watchy

Shipping from Hong Kong took nearly two months to reach Canada, but that's fairly standard these days. I bought two watch kits and initially thought they were defective because the screens did not work properly when I first connected everything. It turns out that they are just shipping with buggy firmware - installing one of the examples from the Watchy website fixed the issues. Everything works great now and I am very happy to have something to play with.
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Response from SQFMI | March 7, 2021
Thank you for your support! :D

Savio | Feb. 26, 2021

Awesome product, took very long to arrive

For Watchy

The product is awesome! No question on that. It only took very long to arrive. I believe it took that long because it came from Hong Kong, I ordered other products from other places such as Latin America and Europe and it arrived way faster.
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Response from SQFMI | March 7, 2021
Thank you for your support!

Owen | Feb. 22, 2021

Such a cool piece of kit

For Watchy

Love this thing. It will not only provide me with many evenings of tinkering and learnings but it also just looks great. I allllmost don't want to put a case on it. Almost. Handwashing can be precarious.
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Response from SQFMI | March 7, 2021
Thank you for your support :)

James | Feb. 18, 2021

I threw it away

For Watchy

Seemed pretty unusable so, I just threw it into the garbage. Apparently, I need to type at least 100 characters so, the rest of this is just filler.
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Response from SQFMI | Feb. 18, 2021
Sorry to hear that :( Don't forget to recycle the lithium battery 🔋

Brad | Feb. 17, 2021

Had to beg for shipment, broken unit received, had to cancel

For Watchy

Item was ordered and I’d heard nothing beyond my invoice email, when I reached out about shipping status I got a reply that said they would now ship shortly. Once received I noticed the connector for the display cable was broken, reached out and was told I would be shipped a replacement board but after over a week of no status I reached out again and was told it would be shipping soon. After another period of no contact or status updates I reached out once more requesting cancellation of the order.
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Response from SQFMI | Feb. 18, 2021
Hi Brad,

The last day to ship for your order was Jan 26 and the package was delivered on Jan 25. We apologize that the product got damaged during shipment and have refunded your order. We're unable to provide you with a replacement immediately since we're currently out of stock.

Thank you for your order,
SQFMI

Thomas | Feb. 13, 2021

Makes a lot of fun

For Watchy

Successfully created my own watch faces already:
https://github.com/mistablinky/Analog-for-Watchy
https://github.com/mistablinky/Line-for-Watchy
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Response from SQFMI | Feb. 18, 2021
Thank you for your support! Love what you created and shared it on our gallery! https://watchy.sqfmi.com/watchfaces/

Bill | Feb. 13, 2021

Terrific fun, great construction, I'm gonna buy another

For Watchy

Watchy is just what I hoped it would be - functional right away (minimum assembly required; pay attention to the details!) and endlessly adaptable and customizable. I love e-paper displays, and Watchy's is crisp and clean. I had a couple of questions and I received very fast responses to them. Everything has been great both hardware and software. And the price is amazing - get a Watchy!
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Response from SQFMI | Feb. 18, 2021
Thank you for your support! :D

Bc | Feb. 10, 2021

product is iffy for actual daily use, but a fun project.

For Watchy

Directions were reasonably good but not particularly detailed; product was 'as advertised' and clearly a project, but has a number of significant limitations. battery life is abysmal for daily use, requiring charging more than once a day. arduino libraries and related documentation was pretty poor; if i wasn't familiar already I could not have made it work at all.

i wish the product had a bit different design (the way the battery sits under board makes it subject to wear/tear) and/or a case; battery cable got in the way a number of times during initial assembly.

fun project, learned a bit- but not something i'd wear for any period of time.
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Response from SQFMI | Feb. 18, 2021
Thank you for your support! Check out our website for latest documentation and firmware updates!

Kevin | Feb. 10, 2021

Watchy looks sweet on my armbut could use more documentation

For Watchy

The e-ink panel looks good and the circuit board is nice and compact. At first the folded cardboard package looks really good with it's graphics, but the glued in foam block means it can't be recycled. The scripts for converting images to code work well but the code example pages haven't yet been populated with anything. There is a listing of all the libraries used but having pinout info would help in getting a sketch running more easily. The buttons are pretty laggy with the stock sketch, still working on how to speed up the response without draining the battery. Watchy has tons of potential and I am excited to try some things out, it would be nice to have a little more background material to start with.
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Response from SQFMI | Feb. 18, 2021
Thank you for your support! You can actually find the pinout info here: https://watchy.sqfmi.com/docs/hardware#pin-map . We've updated the documentation since launch and have a Discord community, come join us if you have any questions :)

Nicola | Feb. 4, 2021

Great watch, fun platform to develop with!

For Watchy

My order started off on the wrong foot with the parcel being returned, for unknown reasons, by HK post, twice! SQFMI has always been very responsive to my enquires and promptly provided new tracking numbers and updates. Eventually, the 3rd attempt, with a courier, was the lucky one.

The watch looks amazing, the e-ink display gorgeous. I took it out for a spin with the default face and the step-counter seems accurate. Been working on some custom faces and it's really great.

Thanks for an amazing product!
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Response from SQFMI | Feb. 18, 2021
Thank you for your support!

Joel | Feb. 3, 2021

Absolutely Amazing Watch

For Watchy

So I've been looking for an e-ink watch for a long time. I saw the article about Watchy on The Verge and knew I'd found the one I'd been looking for. It took only a few days to get to me from ordering, and opening the packaging and assembling the watch was part of the fun! I had an issue with the display refreshing, but within 10 minutes of posting a question here on Tindie the dev team was there to help me walk through it (just needed a quick driver update!). Now it's proudly sitting on my arm and I get questions about it all the time. Can't wait for the new hardshell case to come out!

Only thing I will note that was a little difficult was in the instructions it was a little hard to tell where to put the battery after you've applied the adhesive. There's a lot of circuitry on the watch itself and I wasn't quite sure what part of the board the battery was to attach to. (I'm still not quite sure now, but it's all working great so no complaints here!). I think a quick YouTube video link for assembly would go a long way to help people know how to assemble it.

Otherwise, I absolutely love this watch and can't wait to work on my own watchfaces. Three cheers for Watchy!
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Response from SQFMI | Feb. 18, 2021
Thank you for your support and feedback! We've now added an assembly video on YouTube :)

Darren | Jan. 29, 2021

no idea where it is?

For Watchy

Tracking info doesn’t exist and no replies to information requests. it’s been over two weeks since i ordered. you guys sure took my money right away without a problem. wtf
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Response from SQFMI | Jan. 30, 2021
Hi Darren,

Your order was shipped on Jan 22 and was delivered on Jan 27.

Thank you for your order,
SQFMI

Yuval | May 19, 2020

great product - created my own dynamic badge for conferences

For Badgy - IoT Badge

Added QR codes, dynamic content etc. very easily.
only problem, is that due to covid-19 there are no conferences to show it off in :-(

George | Nov. 7, 2019

What a useful little device!

For Badgy - IoT Badge

I've seen it on the web and thought this is a great idea. When I got my hands on it I loved it! Construction is good and documentation is amazing. For a first timer with arduino I found it very easy to program it with the provided examples. It takes some effort to resize / crop the images to fit the little screen but other than that is easy to get the device working per your desire.

Because is fragile keep in mind that some kind of case / cover / mount will need to be 3D printed to protect it.

Jack | Oct. 21, 2019

Easy all-in-one solution

For Badgy - IoT Badge

I really like how easy it is to get the badge operational with interactive components like the directional switch and the wifi. I love the OTA update feature for programming from a Chromebook. It seems durable for what it is, but I recommend a case especially protecting the e-ink display. It's great that the e-ink display maintains state without power. I wish I could figure out how to add LEDs to it. I also wish it had a LiPo adapter. Finally, I wish I could figure out how to make the e-ink refresh faster.

Neale | Oct. 21, 2019

Love it

For Badgy - IoT Badge

My new favorite toy. Well constructed, works as advertised, we're now going to see about buying several hundred of them for our event :)

Patrick | Aug. 10, 2019

Nice device, but badly soldered

For Badgy - IoT Badge

Unfortunately the USB connector was not soldered propperly and ripped of after the 3rd usage. :(
You can clearly see that the lead below didn't even melt.

Nicholas | Aug. 1, 2019

Works great

For Badgy - IoT Badge

Really love the badge and the capabilities of it. I've been playing around with some custom code but overall plan to use this as a simple name badge I can update on the fly. My other two cents on this badge are the designer should offer a case or at least the 3d stl files to make a case AND shipping is not from the United States as stated on the Badgy page. My badge came to me from SQFMI in Hong Kong with a customs value of $1.28 USD 8 days after I placed the order.

I will probably buy another one of these for my wife in the near future.

Dominic | July 18, 2019

Cool product - fast shipping

For Badgy - IoT Badge

It is indeed more than a little misleading that this seller says they ship from the USA when they indeed ship from Hong Kong. With that said the item actually showed up in a few days. All the documentation on the the badgy github. I only wish there were more examples to play with.

good product!

Brad | July 16, 2019

DOA. Doesn't power up off battery power

For Badgy - IoT Badge

Received unit and installed a fresh battery. Does not power on. Googled and came across the plethora of power issues folks have had with these where they work over USB only. Tried USB, and it powered up. Useless for me if it doesn't run off battery though, so into the junk drawer it goes. Sad, looked like a cool little badge.
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Response from SQFMI | July 19, 2019
Hi Brad,

Sorry to hear about your bad experience. As discussed, you must use a LIR2450 rechargeable coin cell with Badgy for it to work. Regular coin cells (CR2450, CR2032, etc.) are under voltage and not rechargeable.

Peter | May 20, 2019

Badgy is a great all-in-one deal

For Badgy - IoT Badge

If you're comfortable with the Arduino IDE and you want an all-in-one solution for e-ink with Wifi, Badgy is the nicest looking, cheapest and most fully featured product you'll find.

I've programmed Arduinos of various kinds for pet projects, so getting to grips with Badgy was pretty easy. There's no comprehensive guide or documentation for Badgy so you'll want to examine the examples in the Badgy GitHub repository, and it won't hurt looking at the Adafruit GFX docs and ESP8266 Arduino examples. It can also help if you know some server-side programming language basics so you can aggregate and prepare data from several sources on your server and deliver one concise JSON response instead of wading through an extensive REST API on Badgy if you don't need crazy interactivity with your data.

All in all I'm very happy with Badgy and I've already bought more after I determined that this is a good platform and I've got a number of ideas for it.

Shogo | May 10, 2019

A very good product.

For Badgy - IoT Badge

I think I will have a lot of fun with this product.
If you know how to use the Arduino IDE, I think you will have no problems. Just following the instructions on github and running the example works just fine.

Shipment to Japan worked just fine.

Justus | Feb. 28, 2019

Quick shipping, good quality

For NSynth Super Semi-Assembled - Google's ML Synth

Initially the board was shipped with wrong voltage regulators.
I received a mail and later a new replacement board.

The board is made really well and all the documentation can be found on github.
You should check for the extra parts first.
The encoders for example where only available on mouser/digikey/farnell.

Justin | Jan. 13, 2019

Time saver

For NSynth Super Semi-Assembled - Google's ML Synth

This board did the trick. I'm not great at soldering so having the smaller components already assembled was a great help. The one issue to be aware of is a software issue and not hardware related:
https://github.com/googlecreativelab/open-nsynth-super/issues/32
Other than that, don't forget to solder the jumpers on the oled.

Kevin | Oct. 23, 2018

Inaccurate shipping information but great product

For Badgy - IoT Badge

The Badgy itself seems to be really nicely designed, there's plenty of example code on their github repo and it was quite easy to get started.

My only issue was with the Badgy being shipped from Hong Kong, rather than the USA as was stated in the listing. This meant that I got charged about an extra $13 in customs fees, since here in Sweden there's no tax exemption for small items from there any more.

I sent a message to Squaro to point this out and suggest that they update their listing but never got any reply.

Steven | Oct. 23, 2018

Works fine, but I'd hold off until they fix the battery

For Badgy - IoT Badge

The only documentation is really with the examples, so it's lucky they work fine. (There's no real hand-holding here.) But you do have to read through the source to figure out how to upload sketches to the device etc.

However, you can't run if off battery, which is the primary reason for buying it, so wait until this issue is fixed: https://github.com/sqfmi/badgy/issues/20

Jean-Philippe | Aug. 30, 2018

A very Good Product

For Badgy - IoT Badge

Badgy is VERY good !
- It's not so expensive
- I'm so happy to receive a piece of hardware that works out of the box without underground skills
- All the samples works, it's easy to create it's own code and upload it a modern way :-)
- There is large / small font, graphics works, ...

What could be improved ?
- Battery life (Arduino sucks at that): 2 HTTP request / day = 30day for 150mAh. There is a connector for a real battery creator should provide a board with battery 1500mAh instead of coin cell (without soldering)
- A 3DPrint case (I made one)
- A front LED
- Don't know if the button wake up the deep sleep (I don't think)

The result in few hours:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/7Jupc3YJT8ts3xFy8

Dave | Aug. 28, 2018

What a great package for the price

For Badgy - IoT Badge

E-Ink, ESP8266, low power, OTA, documentation all packaged together for a great price. Shipping to Canada was reasonable and arrived fast. Go for it!

Jack | Aug. 28, 2018

Great Product With Potential

For Badgy - IoT Badge

Received my 2 Badgy’s with fast shipping, being a Github illiterate newbie I am having a bit of a struggle to understand the best place to start. Hopefully I will work it out as I have some good projects I want to use them on. Will buy more as they are very compact and suited to what I want to do :-)

Michael | Aug. 23, 2018

Great board, just one hiccup to be aware of

For NSynth Super Semi-Assembled - Google's ML Synth

First I have to say that I thought the board looked great. Which meant something to me because I went with a translucent case. The seller was also very prompt and helpful when replying to my questions. For the price and to have the surface mounted parts already attached, this made it a good value to me. The only thing to be aware of is knowing that if you use this board, you will most likely need the fix documented at https://github.com/googlecreativelab/open-nsynth-super/issues/32 It's easy to apply, so I would still recommend this board if it ever comes in stock again.

Marco | Aug. 11, 2018

Awesome product, awesome team

For Badgy - IoT Badge

This is my first review on Tindie, for this product I have to write something. I bought a number of things from tindie, but this badge is one of the coolest. When I received it had some issue, but after contacting the team, they were able to help me out. The respond was super fast and were able to help be out.

I just have to highlight that communications with them were great and fast. I would definitely buy from them again.

Thank you,

Adrian | Aug. 11, 2018

Have an USB-to-serial adapter ready!

For Badgy - IoT Badge

First time I work with e-ink display and ESP8266 deep-sleep. The "hourlyQuote" example application (github.com/sqfmi/badgytree/master/examples) nicely demonstrates Badgy's capabilities. Shipment was fast and email support by the developers responsive.

The github examples supplied by SQFMI include binaries. They compiled well on Arduino IDE, but on Eclipse (I use sloeber 4.2) some 3rd party libraries kicked up syntax errors.

The USB-interface provides power for operation without LiIon and for LiIon chaging, but lacks USB upload capability. The developers suggest OTA upload and support it in their example applications. For OTA upload you will have to use a separate WiFi device with browser (e.g. PC or mobile) in order to configure your access point's IP and password into the ESP8266's EEPROM. Only during this configuration process the ESP8266 acts as the AP (SSID "BADGY-AP") and HTML server vis-a-vis the PC's or mobile's browser. When configured, Badgy is a station on your access point and will automatically connect based on IP and password stored in ESP's EEPROM.

OTA is much faster than USB upload. However when developing your own application or modifying the examples, you will sooner or later either forget to include the OTA support code in the application or a bug will block the application (it happened to me during the first hour of tinkering with the hourlyQuote's code ;-). In both cases you will have to fall back on wire-based serial (FTDI) upload to restore OTA capability. So you better have an FTDI (USB to serial) converter ready right from the start. Connecting RX, TX, 0 and GND is sufficient if you supply power via USB or LiIon. Upgrading the USB interface with an on-board USB-powered (!) FTDI (e.g. using the ubiquitous CH340) would be nice.

Geoff | Aug. 9, 2018

Badgy is a great product!

For Badgy - IoT Badge

Badgy is great fun.
This is my first play with e-paper, I am very impressed by the contrast on Badgy.
Like all the ESP## OTA updates is a fantastic way to upload new sketches!!!!
The only question I have, and I know it doesn't really matter, but which ESP8266 board in the Arduino IDE is the best selection ?
Keep up the good work
Regards
Geoff


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Response from SQFMI | Aug. 9, 2018
Thank you Geoff!

You can use the "NodeMCU 1.0 (ESP-12E Module)" board selection. Let us know if you have any other questions, and check out our GitHub for documentation and more code samples :)

Jose | July 30, 2018

Badgy IoT Badge

For Badgy - IoT Badge

The badge arrived much earlier than anticipated which was great. The description and actual documentation could be well improved. I have a little coding experience so already this is a challenge for me. Anyone who gets the badge and the documentation doesn't provide a good starting point. Connect it to power, then turn the switch to "On", then press the joystick up and hold until the Badge prompts you to connect it to a wifi source. Overall a great badge and I look forward to tinkering with it.
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Response from SQFMI | Aug. 8, 2018
Thank you for your support and feedback! We'll continue to improve/update our documentation and code samples for Badgy!
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