Get Ready For Smartstraps - Warm Up Your 3D Printer!

Many of you have read about smartstraps on our Kickstarter page and contacted us for more details. Today we are releasing mechanical and electrical designs so you can start working on the next generation of straps: Straps that expand the functionality of Pebble Time and Pebble Time Steel.

The smartstrap connector is situated on the back of your new favorite watch. Smartstraps can extend below the watch to reach that connector while Pebble Time is worn. In the 3D files we are releasing today, you will find a generic connector that can work with most straps. Of course, you can also design completely new straps if your project calls for one!

The smartstrap connector has four contacts: two for ground, one for power in/out and a one-wire serial bus. The power contact is bi-directional and can be used to power your accessory, or for the strap to provide power to the watch. The amount of power you can draw to power your accessory must not exceed 20 mA, and of course it will impact the battery life of the Pebble.

For more information on how to electrically connect the smartstrap connector to an external accessory, please refer to our dedicated smartstrap page.

The APIs to interact with smartstraps are not part of the developer preview. They will be available publicly several months after we start shipping Pebble Time, as it is lower priority than shipping the main OS. You can however expect that there to be APIs that read and write on the port, as well as some standard control protocol to detect when a smartstrap is attached and even automatically launch an app.

We will have an early access program to the smartstraps APIs for developers interested in them. Just drop your email into this form and we will contact you when we are ready to share them. Until then you can also exchange ideas and discuss smartstraps in the forums.