explaingit

marcorr/s3ntry

Analysis updated 2026-05-18

40Audience · developerComplexity · 4/5Setup · hard

TLDR

Custom smartwatch firmware for a specific ESP32-S3 hardware board, with multiple watchfaces, iPhone notifications, a music player, a Game Boy emulator, and productivity tools.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((S3NTRY))
    What it is
      Custom firmware
      Waveshare ESP32-S3 board
      Hobbyist project
    Features
      Four watchfaces
      iPhone BLE notifications
      Music player
      Game Boy emulator
      PC trackpad and keyboard
    Productivity
      Alarms and timers
      Stopwatch
      Todo list with Reminders sync
    Hardware
      AMOLED display
      MicroSD storage
      10 hour battery claim

Code map

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What do people build with it?

USE CASE 1

Flash this firmware onto a Waveshare ESP32-S3 Touch AMOLED board to build your own custom smartwatch instead of buying one.

USE CASE 2

Get iPhone notifications, media controls, and Reminders sync on a DIY smartwatch you built yourself.

USE CASE 3

Play Game Boy ROMs and MP3 or WAV music files stored on a microSD card directly from your wrist.

USE CASE 4

Use the watch as a wireless trackpad and keyboard for a paired PC or Mac.

What is it built with?

ESP32-S3BLEAMOLEDmicroSD

How does it compare?

marcorr/s3ntrycortex-ai-quant/crypto-arbitrage-bot-automated-tradingdemonixis/openxr-osx
Stars404040
LanguagePythonC++
Setup difficultyhardhardhard
Complexity4/53/55/5
Audiencedevelopergeneraldeveloper

Figures from each repo's GitHub metadata at analysis time.

How do you get it running?

Difficulty · hard Time to first run · 1h+

Requires the specific Waveshare ESP32-S3 Touch AMOLED 2.06-inch board and firmware flashing tools.

In plain English

S3NTRY is custom smartwatch firmware, meaning the low level software that runs directly on a specific piece of hardware, in this case the Waveshare ESP32-S3 Touch AMOLED 2.06 inch development board. Instead of buying a finished commercial smartwatch, you flash this software onto the hardware board yourself to turn it into a fully working smartwatch. The firmware packs in a surprising number of features. It includes four distinct watchfaces, each with its own visual style: a circuit board look with animated signal traces and a small tap based game, a bold headline style layout with scrolling data, a dense terminal style screen showing lots of live system data at once, and an astronomical view that cycles between a clock, moon phases, a solar system view of all nine planets, and a night sky of stars and constellations. All four themes can be recolored using four shared color schemes from the settings menu. The watch connects to an iPhone over Bluetooth to receive notifications, keeps a history of the last 20 of them, and lets you mute specific apps. It can control music playback on the paired iPhone, or play MP3 and WAV files directly from a microSD card using its own built in player with shuffle and repeat. It can also act as a wireless trackpad and keyboard for a paired computer, and it includes a Game Boy emulator that plays original Game Boy ROM files from the SD card, complete with save states. Productivity features round it out: alarms, countdown timers, a stopwatch, and a to do list that can hold up to 500 items, syncs with iPhone Reminders, and saves to the SD card so it survives reboots. The README claims 10 or more hours of battery life with Bluetooth active and notifications on, achieved by automatically sleeping the display and waking when the wrist is raised. This is a project for hardware hobbyists who are comfortable flashing custom firmware onto a specific microcontroller board, not a ready made consumer product.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
I have a Waveshare ESP32-S3 Touch AMOLED 2.06 inch board. Walk me through flashing the S3NTRY firmware onto it.
Prompt 2
Explain how the iPhone notification feature (ANCS) works in this firmware and what BLE pairing steps I need on my phone.
Prompt 3
Help me understand the SD card folder layout this firmware expects for music files and Game Boy ROMs.
Prompt 4
I want to build something similar to S3NTRY's Guitar Hero style mini-game on a watchface. What ESP32-S3 graphics APIs should I look into?

Frequently asked questions

What is s3ntry?

Custom smartwatch firmware for a specific ESP32-S3 hardware board, with multiple watchfaces, iPhone notifications, a music player, a Game Boy emulator, and productivity tools.

How hard is s3ntry to set up?

Setup difficulty is rated hard, with roughly 1h+ to a first successful run.

Who is s3ntry for?

Mainly developer.

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