First, we should learn how to connect Samsung Galaxy Watch with Tizen Studio & Galaxy Watch Designer. Later we can develop & run our apps. The documentations written by Samsung is not just bad but also not just easy to understand and do. At worst, the software and firmware have bugs. After reading this guide, your watch development projects will become smooth like working with Arduino projects. As prerequisites, we need a laptop (or any computer) which has Wi-Fi, JDK 8 installed and configured, Google Chrome browser, Tizen Studio & Galaxy Watch Designer installed. The Tizen Studio IDE total installation will be of around 7 GB if you install the components for Samsung Smart TV too.
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Installation of the IDE
Galaxy Watch Designer is a newer, easy software which will deliver the least pain. It is great for only designing the watch faces. In Galaxy Watch Designer, the designed watch face gets installed on the watch during the run. On Tizen Studio, you can use the watch as live display as you modify the design. Installing both Galaxy Watch Designer and Tizen Studio is required for practical life.
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Download the Tizen Studio installer. Install it. It is open-source software. On a standard Windows computer, Tizen Studio will get installed at C:\tizen-studio. Inside the C:\tizen-studio\package-manager directory, you’ll get the package manager. Only for Galaxy Watch, install everything for the latest version of wearable. Also, be sure to install the Samsung Certificate Extension and the Samsung Wearable Extension under “Extras”. Tizen Studio has different tutorials to work with. We are not going into those details.
How to launch Tizen Studio? Inside the C:\tizen-studio\ide directory, double-click the application file named eclipse. If you double-click the application file named TizenStudio, nothing will happen!
Proceed to Connect Galaxy Watch with Laptop
Your Windows 10 laptop can work as Wi-Fi hotspot. Go to the settings on (Windows 10) and change the password to 00000000 (eight zeros) for easily typing from the watch. You can keep the connection of the laptop with any Wi-Fi-based modem – it will not disturb your setup. Keep the “Mobile Hotspot” window open on Windows 10. You’ll get a lot of useful information here.
On your Galaxy Watch, go to Settings > Gear info, and switch on the debugging mode. Next, go to Settings > Connections, and switch off Bluetooth. From Settings > Connections, switch on the Wi-Fi to “Always”. Now, scan Wi-Fi networks from your watch and connect to your laptop. Probably you’ll get some prompt on your watch. Tick mark something lie “Always trust” option and allow. If you tap the connected hotspot’s name on the watch (that connection is with your laptop), you’ll get the IP address. Now, open the “Mobile Hotspot” window on the laptop (it is part of Windows 10). You’ll get the name of the connected device and the IP. The IP can change after any disconnection. If you can not read the full name of the connected device (that is your watch), hover the mouse over the name to see the full name.
Now, open Tizen Studio IDE. Find Tizen Device Manager window and add your watch by entering the name and IP.
In the first attempt, the connection will ask for user confirmation. Tap to accept. In the Device Manager, the device will be shown in the device list. You have to click on the “Connection” pane to make in ON. If you pass this step, the waterfall of running processes on the watch will start to scroll. If the above step fails, reboot the watch, turn OFF and ON all the Wi-Fi connections of the laptop, freshly try. Remember that IP probably will change.
Install the Certificates
After you established the Wi-Fi connection with watch and laptop, you can turn ON the Bluetooth of the watch and connect with your smartphone. It is a bug which forces to keep the Bluetooth OFF to initiate the initial connection to prevent a security breach.
On Tizen Studio, you need to go to Tools > Certificate Manager and click the “+” to create a new certificate. A set of Tizen certificate required for the emulator to work, while Samsung certificate required to run on the actual watch (and distribute). Keep the backup Author certificate on a commonplace like Desktop. Configuring Galaxy Watch Designer is far easier, you can choose that Author certificate for faster work.
All Done!
You will discover the next steps quite easily from the official guides to actually “see” your developed thing on your watch from Tizen Studio & Galaxy Watch Designer. The official documents I had to read are these :
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 | # https://developer.tizen.org/development/tizen-studio/download/prerequisites https://developer.tizen.org/development/training/native-application/application-development-process/running-applications https://developer.samsung.com/galaxy-watch/develop/testing-your-app-on-gear https://developer.tizen.org/development/training/web-application/getting-started/creating-your-first-tizen-wearable-web-watch-application https://developer.samsung.com/galaxy-watch/design/watch-designer/gear-watch-getting/connect file:///C:/Program%20Files/Galaxy%20Watch%20Designer/[GWD]Guidelines%20on%20Connecting%20a%20Watch%20device%20to%20GWD.pdf https://developer.tizen.org/ko/development/training/native-application/getting-started/creating-your-first-tizen-wearable-native-watch-application?langredirect=1#target # |
Conclusion
The pathetically written English documentations by Samsung is seriously halting development with Tizen OS. They missed steps and at worst provided too many alternative ways. Many of the developers halt in mid-way and seek help on StackOverflow like Q&A sites. Get used with connecting your watch and transferring/testing using the samples.
Galaxy Watch Designer does not need even a single line of coding. It is not extremely difficult to understand how to code in C++ (or HTML, CSS) on the Tizen Studio IDE.
