First Steps

Congratulations on having your PeekSmith device! We hope you will like this tiny piece of magic, and you'll amaze your audience.

We recommend joining our PeekSmith Facebook group for updates and discussing your ideas. It is a welcoming and active community you will love. :)

Always make sure that you upgrade your device to the latest firmware (code running on PeekSmith). Later in this guide you will find the intstuctions, but for a quick start, let's begin.

Before using 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 about the time left until the device will be fully charged.

IMPORTANT: please plug in the micro USB charger very gently, don't push it in too much (don't use force), as the charging port can break and get loose inside.

On brand new PeekSmith 3 devices there is a screen protector layer on the screen (if the screen looks scratchy, it's just the protector that is scratched). You should remove it by finding the edge of the layer with your fingernail, and gently peel it off.

Turning ON and OFF the PeekSmith device

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 a 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 you the firmware version. We have released PeekSmith with v1.0.23 firmware, and our latest firmware is v1.5.7. You can upgrade the firmware from the PeekSmith app. You can find detailed 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 will connect to Spotted Dice, Kinetic Mental Dice, Insight (and other PeekSmith devices). 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. Moving of a 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 the three cards Inisght can read.

Since firmware 1.2.1 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, pressing the right button will change the setting.

You can configure:

• 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 you 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 a 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 option "switch" if dice presentation is dots, then PeekSmith 3 will show the dice value with a number while the die is moving, or if dice presentation is numbers, then 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.
• 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".
• We have a video about using PeekSmith with Cognito, you can watch it here: How to use the PeekSmith display with Cognito
• 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 can work with the device. We have tried to list them on the The Device 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 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.

Settings

Let's discuss all the options of the Settings tab. The first block called "PeekSmith Device" is about pairing the device. After tapping on the "Select PeekSmith" button and selecting your device, some options will appear:


When you start your app, it will try to connect to the PeekSmith device you have selected. Also, if the device goes of out the Bluetooth range (about 10m), the app will reconnect when it becomes available, again. With the "Disconnect" button, you can disconnect your device.

Battery level

This shows the battery level in percentage. We recommend charging your device to 100% before your performance.

Brightness level (1-7)

PeekSmith has 7 different brightness levels, you can set it by tapping on this line. 1 is the darkest, good for a stage in a dark theatre. 7 is the brightest, good if you are performing on a beach in a very bright environment. Select the best brightness that is readable for you, but not lights up your environment. You can save a lot of battery if you set brightness to a lower value. We recommend setting it to 5.

Long text scrolling

PeekSmith can display up to 84 characters on its screen (4 rows of 21 characters), however, it can be hard to read the smallest font size during a performance. With the middle font, you will get 22 characters (2 rows of 11 characters). If you would like to read more, you can try using the long text scrolling feature. Turning it on will scroll texts longer than 11 characters.

Scrolling speed (1-10) and Scrolling delay

This belongs to text scrolling, you can customize the scrolling speed and delay in miilisecs.

Enable vibration

If you have a PeekSmith Two, PeekSmith 2B and PeekSmith 3 have a vibration motor. Turning on "Enable vibration" will vibrate the device when the app sends a new message to it. If you are using the device in your pocket, using this feature you will know when you have a new message.

Using Web Polling (WikiTest, Inject, or other sources)

See our list of apps can be integrated with web polling on our Apps & Devices page, at the "WEB-based" section. The idea is that the PeekSmith app checks an URL every X seconds, downloads the text and displays it on the device's screen. Obviously you will need internet connection for this.

These are the steps you should follow to try this feature:

1. In the PeekSmith app's Settings tab, go to the Display Web Data section.
2. Turn on "Enable WEB data polling".
3. Tap the "Manage" button to Manage WEB data sources.
4. Turn off all sources, except the "Test (current time)" source.
5. Tap on "Save and close" at the top right corner of the screen.
6. Tap on the "Start" button of "Start / stop polling". The app will start downloading data from the specified sources, and display it on the device's screen.
7. You should see the actual GMT time on the PeekSmith's screen. It will change every X seconds you have specified at the source.

To work with other sources (like Inject, or WikiTest), go again to Manage, turn off "Test (current time)" source, and turn on the source you would like to use. You can turn on multiple sources, but for a start, you should try with one source only. Sources might need further information from you, like Inject 2 needs your Inject ID, or WikiTest needs your URL you get when you buy the "Pro Tools" in-app purchase in WikiTest. Make sure you turn on polling with the "Start" button.

Most of the sources needs you to set a polling interval. If you set it to 1 second, the app will check the source every seconds. It can be convenient for you, but the web servers of the source might be overloaded. We recommend selecting the interval that is the largest works with your routine. If you need quick updates, as you would like to reveal the information quickly, you should set a low value. If you will reveal the information minutes later, setting a higher value (like 5 seconds) can be okay for you.

We have some videos for a few integrations, please check them:

• Cognito: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48NDgF3SAxY
• Elips: https://www.facebook.com/groups/peeksmith/posts/667215127646306/

For further information, you might need to consult with the developer of the other application.

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 three important notes:

• Please plug in the micro USB charger very gently, don't push it in too much (don't use force), as the charging port can break and get loose inside.
• 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:

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 damages to the electronics.