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Ask HN: Is there a fitness wristband that is hackable?

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Re: Ask HN: Is there a fitness wristband that is hackable?

#91

Post by aembleton »

darklajid wrote: post #60
aembleton wrote: post #36

Amazfit Pace [1] I just bought one for ~£80 from Gearbest and you can pull the GPX routes from it, and also add routes. You can access all of the files, by plugging a USB lead into the charging dock. It then appears as a USB drive that you can copy files to and from. I've designed my own watch face, as it's just XML and image files and taken GPX data. I'm not sure how or if you can get the heartrate or pedometer data…

No. I bought it when Pebble went down. That thing was buggy forever after, half Chinese most of the time, only allowed sync to a random online service (strava?) and was just.. broken. The worst purchase ever. The display sucks outside. The software is weird (swipe in random directions to find what you want), the companion app miserable. Whatever you buy, this shouldn't be it. A better Pebble would be appreciated ofc.…

If you've still got it, see if you can get an Enlgish ROM. Sounds like you might have been running the Chinese version.

What do you mean by the display sucks outside? Couldn't you see it? Was it night time?

Re: Ask HN: Is there a fitness wristband that is hackable?

#93

Post by lern_too_spel »

knolan wrote: post #66
toyg wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you can easily read and write with your own Swift code running on an iPhone ... after easily paying your Apple Developer Subscription, that is.

No, there is no charge unless you start to put apps on the App Store. https://www.pcworld.com/article/2933052/apple-frees-casual-i...

The app will only run on your phone for 7 days[1] unless you pay Apple an annual fee, which is a non-starter if you want to write an app that you will actually use instead of merely test.

No such restrictions on Android, Windows, or other platforms. Moto Sport 360[2] looks like it will fit OP's requirements.

[1] http://mybyways.com/blog/new-limitations-imposed-on-free-app...

[2] https://www.motorola.ca/products/moto-360-sport#Specificatio...

Re: Ask HN: Is there a fitness wristband that is hackable?

#94

Post by robryk »

Xeoncross wrote: post #48
GrinningFool wrote: post #42

I wonder how practical it is to create "thing" with no exposed face, no wireless, no connectivity . It'd provide continual heart rate and respiration monitoring. A few dedicated buttons that just log when they're pressed - when parsing the data you can map that to whatever meaning you want. Offload csv files via USB, and do with it what you wish. perhaps bluetooth so the would-be hacker could write a phone app to pre…

I would by "thing" with nothing more than: > A few dedicated buttons that just log when they're pressed - when parsing the data you can map that to whatever meaning you want.

Would you mind sharing what would you use such a thing for? Counting events or timestamping them?

Re: Ask HN: Is there a fitness wristband that is hackable?

#95

Post by kybernetikos »

robbles wrote: post #52
JustSomeNobody wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Logitech flow looks interesting. From the 30 seconds I scanned the page about it, it seems the computers need to be on the same network. So this could be as "simple" as running tcp client on each machine. When the current active machine notices that the mouse left the edge of the current screen it disables the keyboard and mouse on current machine, sends a notification to the other computer and enables keyboard and m…

Synergy ( https://symless.com/synergy ) does exactly this, cross platform, and really effectively. You don't need to write your own using a Logitech driver - it works with any standard keyboard / mouse.

If you turn off the master computer or it crashes when the keyboard and mouse are controlling the other one, you're stuck. I would assume that this is not the case with Logitech Flow, since the keyboard and mouse genuinely do connect to both.

Incidentally, 13 years ago, I used to use something very like what you're describing, back then it was called Win2VNC and X2VNC

But the point I'm making is nothing to do with the seamless desktop thing, it's that the ability to switch input between different devices is something I'd like to be able to write code to control in all kinds of situations (time based, in response to events, etc), not just when the official software thinks I should or when I press the physical buttons on the device.

Re: Ask HN: Is there a fitness wristband that is hackable?

#97

Post by trisimix »

guzik wrote: post #96

Some time ago we've developed a nice hackable platform for geeks: https://www.aidlab.com/developer - it's based on wearable called Aidlab. With our free SDK (that has Python, Unity, iOS and Android bindings), you are able to do with your data whatever you want.

Is it not a watch?

Re: Ask HN: Is there a fitness wristband that is hackable?

#98

Post by mhluongo »

yjftsjthsd-h wrote: post #74
sliverstorm wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't SDK licensing pretty normal, outside of open source?

> outside of open source Yes? By definition, if it's not open source, then you're looking at a proprietary license of some sort.

That's not by definition at all- a work can be open source with a "proprietary license of some sort", or closed source, with source that's liberally licensed- but never published.

Re: Ask HN: Is there a fitness wristband that is hackable?

#99

Post by Psilidae »

theli0nheart wrote: post #50

Pretty much any Garmin device does exactly what you're looking for. All of the activity data on my fēnix 5 / VA HR is visible when I plug in via USB. The data is encoded in the FIT file format, which has a public SDK [1] (you do need to accept a license agreement to view it, though, if that matters). There are wrappers for most languages and if you want to just translate the data to CSV, there are pre-made tools to d…

I'm not sure if this is a question about Garmin or ANT+, but assuming a device is Bluetooth enabled, is there documentation for the Bluetooth API? I really want to find a nice smart fitness thing, but no one makes apps for my phone, so I figure I'd need to make one myself.
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