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Ralph Yamamoto's Blog Oboo Smart Clock - Very Disappointed
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  • Author Author: ralphjy
  • Date Created: 20 Mar 2019 4:51 AM Date Created
  • Views 1748 views
  • Likes 12 likes
  • Comments 11 comments
  • gesture control
  • oboo smart clock
  • onion omega 2
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Oboo Smart Clock - Very Disappointed

ralphjy
ralphjy
20 Mar 2019

I was very excited to try out my Oboo Smart Clock. I really wanted to demonstrate some of the features to my wife who wondered why I would back a clock on Kickstarter.  Unfortunately, the out-of-the-box experience was not very good.  The instructions included were minimal, which would have been fine if everything had functioned correctly.  They have a browser based app (not a downloadable mobile app as the instructions imply).  The app is not well designed and because the scroll boxes don't scroll - you have to guess what acceptable input is based on the ones that you can see.  And once you have done the basic setup - if you try to use the reconfigure option to fix a setting, it appears to cause the WiFi to disconnect (or maybe it just suppresses the icon).  Initially I had a problem with the battery indicator not working and I also could not change the displayed units from Metric to English.  I managed to find an instruction manual using Google and did a firmware update.  That fixed the problem with changing the units and it also added a calendar card (it initially had a timer card, a music card and a weather card).  There is no traffic card yet.  I assume that will be in an update.

 

image

image

                                                                            Timer Card

                                                                                                                                                                    image

                                                                         Music Card

image

                                                                  Calendar Card

image

                                                                Weather Card

 

 

If the features that are currently available would work reliably I'd be pretty satisfied, but it appears that the firmware is still extremely buggy.  The gesture sensor and the touch buttons don't work consistently and after I had left it on for a few hours, the cards stopped functioning.  I've been reading through the comments on the Kickstarter page and it appears that these are all problems that others have encountered.  Some of them were supposedly fixed by previous software updates.

 

It appears that the Onion team underestimated the amount of effort required for this project and doesn't have the resources to complete it in a reasonable time frame.  The User Manual that I did find is poorly written.

 

I do hope that they can manage to make this clock work the way that they had intended and that these are all firmware and not hardware issues.  What I would really like to see is for them to make the firmware Open Source.  That way, the community could help them make this a better product or at least get all the features working.  I haven't seen any indication as to when the Internet Radio and Home Automation Integration might show up.

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Top Comments

  • shabaz
    shabaz over 6 years ago +7
    Hi Ralph, It's an interesting looking device, it was the first I'd heard of it when you mentioned you received it. The touchless control makes it seem ideal for a different purpose - a kitchen menu browser…
  • dubbie
    dubbie over 6 years ago in reply to shabaz +4
    Shabaz, I think we should always be ready to consider alternative user interfaces, such as your clock. I think it pays to shake things up every now and then. Dubbie
  • ralphjy
    ralphjy over 6 years ago in reply to simsong +1
    It could be that what was provided with the maker edition was documentation of the basic framework, i.e. what combination of scripts and executables are used to make the clock work. Maybe Onion would or…
  • ralphjy
    ralphjy over 6 years ago in reply to peternjohnson

    Have to admit that I haven’t tried the alarm.  I just use it for a clock in my office.  I really should play with it more.  I haven’t even opened it up yet image.  It’s probably a good winter project.  It should be capable of a lot of stuff since it’s basically Linux under the hood.  Too bad Onion hasn’t been able to achieve their Kickstarter design goals.

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  • peternjohnson
    peternjohnson over 6 years ago in reply to ralphjy

    But you cannot trust it to wake you up... There are a whole lot of really nice clocks out there for far less than $85.00!

    Nothing works reliably on it. Even the promotional videos are a lie. vaporware. It is a lost cause, and there are still MANY people that have not even received them yet!

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  • ralphjy
    ralphjy over 6 years ago in reply to peternjohnson

    I still use mine daily as a clock and the time stays synced up well.  No complaints with that, but the other features are still not reliable so I don't use them.  I'm extremely disappointed in the gesture control as that seems to mostly not work.  And I'll need to go back and check the settings because the weather card isn't showing the correct weather even though it used to.

     

    I'm not sure if the features will ever get fixed but I'm still hopeful.  I'll need to check back in with them.  After all this time maybe it's been written off.  I think it would be fun to play around with creating cards but I've been waiting for the gesture control to get fixed.  Maybe it's a hardware problem.

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  • peternjohnson
    peternjohnson over 6 years ago

    I got my two last december, and it seems that nothing has changed since then.

    $164 wasted. I didn't throw them away, but they are shamefully stored in the basement until I do throw them away. How embarrassing.

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  • simsong
    simsong over 6 years ago in reply to ralphjy

    Thanks for the links. That's very helpful.

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