Congratulations on having your PeekSmith device! We hope you will like this tiny piece of magic, and you'll amaze your audience.
What's included?
PeekSmith 3
micro-USB charging cable
We recommend joining our PeekSmith Facebook group for updates and discussing your ideas. It is a welcoming and active community you will love. 🙂
It is one display model available in our shop at the moment. For more information, please check our PeekSmith 3 product page.
We are sharing important tips here - please read this First Steps guide carefully before start using our device.
Always make sure that you upgrade your device to the latest firmware (code running on PeekSmith device). Later in this guide you will find the instructions, but for a quick start, let's begin.
Turning ON and OFF the PeekSmith device
Your PeekSmith might arrive uncharged. We recommend charging it before using it. If you turn on the device, you will see the battery percentage on the screen. When PeekSmith 3 is connected to a charger, you will see a Charging screen with a rough estimate of the time left until the device will be fully charged.
You can turn on the device by pressing and holding the side button. It will vibrate, and display a "PeekSmith Three" screen including the battery level. You have to press and hold the side button for 3 seconds to turn off the device. After the red LED turns on or starts blinking, you can release the button.
Previous models have a small on/off switch. When these devices are on, you should see red LED lighting inside the device. These are also displaying a short message and the battery status. The PeekSmith Two device will do a short vibration.
When you finished using it, don't forget to turn it off. With one charge, the device can work for several hours.
Now the device is ready to connect to a mobile app via Bluetooth or use it as a standalone device to connect to other Bluetooth devices.
The device will arrive with a thin transparent foil on the screen. Feel free to remove it, the screen will look much better. It might be hard to find the edge of it.
First steps as a standalone device (PeekSmith 3 only)
If you long-press the left button for 3 seconds, PeekSmith will display the firmware version. We have released PeekSmith with v1.0.23 firmware, and our latest firmware is v1.5.7. You can update the firmware from the PeekSmith app. There are some conditions the app-based firmware update is not working, for these cases, you can find instructions on our Firmware update page.
If you long press the right button for 3 seconds, PeekSmith will start scanning and connecting to other Bluetooth devices. Make sure the devices are not connected to an application. PeekSmith 3 can connect to
Spotted Dice,
Kinetic Mental Dice,
Insight, and
Pitata Whiteboard.
This is an experimental feature at the moment, and more will come in 2022.
Spotted Dice and Kinetic Mental Dice values should be immediately displayed on the screen after scanning. As you move or roll them, you will see the changes. The moving of a Spotted Dice die is indicated with a green border.
As you read a card with Insight, it will display the name of the card. Both Poker and ESP cards are supported, and from firmware v1.1.44 you can see all three cards latest Inisght devices can read.
Since firmware v1.2.1 you can configure PeekSmith by pressing the left and right buttons on the front at the same time. You will see a menu with the available settings. Pressing the side button will close the menu. Pressing the left button will show you the next setting, and pressing the right button will change the setting.
Available settings:
Card Presentation - PeekSmith can display cards: poker playing cards, ESP cards, color cards. By default it shows their values with text, but you can set it to "Visual", which will display them as a card image, and to "Visual+Text", which will display both a card image and text. If you set it to "Visual+Text" but have 3 cards on the screen, they will be presented visually, as there's no room for text. You will see these cards if you use Insight, or you turn on Smart Text (see below) and send a text like "AH" or "Circle Red".
Dice Presentation - PeekSmith can display colorful dice on its screen, and you can select how the dice values should be displayed. There are two options at the moment: dots and numbers. The default is dots. PeekSmith can also display ESP symbols and colors (designed for Spotted Dice blank dice), this setting will not change their presentation.
Dice Movement Indication - Spotted Dice (and KMD with recent firmware) can report dice movement. PeekSmith 3 shows a green border around the dice when they are moving. This setting is about how the movement should be indicated. The default option is "border", but you can set it to "hidden" (the dots or numbers will be hidden when the dice move), or "switch". With the option "switch" if the dice presentation is dots, PeekSmith 3 will show the dice value with a number while the die is moving, or if dice presentation is numbers, PeekSmith 3 will show the dice value with dots while the die is moving.
Dice Thumper - PeekSmith can work as a thumper, and vibrate the value of the first die on the screen. You will get 1/2/3 short vibrations for 1/2/3, a long vibration for 4, a long and short vibration for 5, and a long and two short vibrations for 6.
Smart Text - (previously Text Recognition) as apps are not yet supporting PeekSmith 3 card displaying capabilities, text recognition can help. This is a very experimental feature and can change a lot in the future. If you turn on this option, PeekSmith 3 will check text messages, and if it is recognizing a text as card value, it will display it as a card (you should set Card Presentation to Visual + Text for the best experience). For example if you send the text "Yellow" to PeekSmith 3, it will display a yellow card. Since firmware v1.2.3 PeekSmith can recognize poker card values (10H, H10, 10♥, ♥10 - 10 of Hearts), and these texts (case insensitive, so yellow, YELLOW and Yellow will work):
white black circle green purple cross red brown waves orange yellow square blue star
Charging Screen - when the device is on and charging, it will display a "Charging..." message, and an estimation until full charge. You might want to use the device while it's on a charger, just set this settings to "Disappear", and it will disappear after a few seconds. When you set it to "Permanent", then it will stay on the screen until you remove the device from the charger.
Screen Brightness - you can set the brightness level to save battery, or if the screen is too bright (in a theatre, a bright screen can be spotted by a spectator). This will be the brightness when you turn on the device, and while apps can override it, it will be the brighness level again when you disconnect the app.
Screen Mirroring - when you turn on this feature, the screen will be mirrored vertically. In some situation you can get a better peek of the screen from a mirror (like when you are standing, and PeekSmith is in a card box). By default it would be hard to read, but this feature makes the screen readable. You can see some examples of using a mirror on our Photos page.
Autoscan at Startup - if you turn this feature on, it will start a scan after you turn the device on - it is equvivalent to press the right button for a long time after turning on the device.
Magnet Sensor event - PeekSmith 3 has a magnet sensor, and it can report if a magnet is near to it, or just moved away. You can assign actions to these events. If you set it to Vibrate, PeekSmith will vibrate for both events. If you set it to Clear Screen, it will clear the screen.
Side Button press - you can assign an action side button press. It will work if the device is in standalone mode, not connected to an app. The actions are the same as for magnet events, it can vibrate or it can clear the screen. If you have read the card value came from Inisght, or the dice values, you can clear the screen with this feature.
Left Button press - same as the side button press, but for the front left button.
Right Button press - same as the side button press, but for the front right button.
If you would like to disconnect the devices, just turn off and on PeekSmith.
First steps with the PeekSmith app
You should install the PeekSmith application. Go to The App page and follow the instructions.
Start the app, and go to Settings. You will see different sections, in the first one, the "PeekSmith Device", you should see a "Select PeekSmith" title and a "List devices" button. Press the button, and your PeekSmith device should be listed there. Tap on the device name, and the device should connect. The PeekSmith device will display a "Welcome" message.
If your PeekSmith 3 device is not listed, please check these:
Make sure Bluetooth is ON on your phone.
Phones have a limit on the number of devices they can connect to. If you have more than 6 devices (a band, earphones, etc.) connected to your phone, try disconnecting them if you cannot connect to the watch. Modern phones are usually can connect to 10-16 devices at a time.
Allow the app to use Bluetooth and/or Location Services.
On Android, make sure the GPS is ON. While we are not tracking you, this is somehow a must-have for Bluetooth communication, too.
On Android, Bluetooth has some bugs. You should try restarting the phone if you have any connection problems.
You should not connect to PeekSmith 3 from your Bluetooth Settings, but the app will set up the connection.
Now you should see a green button with the "Details..." text, press it, and now you can test your device.
There are different ways you can use your PeekSmith device now:
Your assistant can use the PeekSmith app and can send you messages with it. The phone should be in the Bluetooth standard 10 meters / 11 yards range to be able to communicate with the device.
You can use Web Polling to retrieve data from other apps. For example, Inject 2 and WikiTest are popular magic apps, you can use them with PeekSmith by going to "Display Web Data" in the PeekSmith app, turning on the "Read data from URL", and selecting your "Data source".
The PeekSmith app can also watch any custom web URLs, so if a developer sets up a web URL, you can set it in the "Display Web Data" section, by selecting the "custom" data source.
There's a growing number of applications that can work with the device. We are listing them on the Compatibility page. You should consult the app's instructions about how to use it.
On Android, you can set up catching mobile phone notifications as well (iOS doesn't allow you to catch notifications because of privacy reasons). Any magic app that can send a notification can be used this with the PeekSmith device, just go to the Notifications section in the PeekSmith app, and turn on catching the notifications. You can test this feature by sending an email yourself or asking someone to text you / send you a chat message.
Charging the device
You can charge the device with the Micro-USB port. Any Micro-USB charging cable should work, you can buy them in an electronics store. You can plug your device into your computer's USB port, or a wall charger.
It is about 1-2 hours to charge your device to 100%.
There are two important notes:
Don't let the device totally discharge, as the battery can be damaged (it is true for any LiPo battery). At least charge it every 2-3 months, even if you are not using it.
Some chargers are not providing the 5V constantly, but trying to detect if a device is plugged. If they were designed for mobile phones with 1A/2A charging, they might not detect PeekSmith's 100 mA need, and won't charge.
Troubleshooting
For first-time users, some tips to know:
The PeekSmith app should be in the front to work. You should not lock the screen, or switch to another app. There's an option in Other Settings: "Turn OFF screen when covered". If you enable it, the app will turn off the screen if it detects something in front of your screen (like your pocket). You can use it instead of locking the screen.
The PeekSmith device (and typically any other Bluetooth device) can connect only to one application. If the device is ON, connected to the PeekSmith app, then other compatible apps won't be able to list and connect to it.
Further advice
PeekSmith is an electronic device that can work in normal room conditions. While we have designed it to be as massive as possible, the screen can break or some water can cause damage to the electronics.
