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

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

#1
I'm looking for a wristband/watch/"thing on the arm" with GPS, heart monitor and pedometer(accel+gyro).

I looked at what is on the market, but sending my bio metrics to fitbit or garmin servers is not something I want to do.

Is there a fitness tracker band that is hackable in a sense that I can get the data out of it without proprietary software? I don't mind the firmware being closed source, as long as there is no LTE. I just want to sync and manage my data myself.

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

#2
Don't the Garmin watches still have USB access to the file system?

The old ones did, and even the newest Garmin Edge series cycling computers let you do this. They run (mostly) the same firmware as the (high-end) watches, so I'd be surprised if they don't.

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

#5
A few years back, I played around with TI's EZ430-Chronos: http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/EZ430-Chronos?DCMP=C... It's not sleek like modern fitness bands/watches but is hackable.

TI has more Smart Watch components and reference designs here: http://www.ti.com/solution/smart-watch

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

#8
post #2

Don't the Garmin watches still have USB access to the file system? The old ones did, and even the newest Garmin Edge series cycling computers let you do this. They run (mostly) the same firmware as the (high-end) watches, so I'd be surprised if they don't.

That would be interesting to know. As long as the files are not obfuscated too much that could be a solution (I'd like to avoid having to reverse engineer a binary format).

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

#10
post #2

Don't the Garmin watches still have USB access to the file system? The old ones did, and even the newest Garmin Edge series cycling computers let you do this. They run (mostly) the same firmware as the (high-end) watches, so I'd be surprised if they don't.

Yes. At least my Fenix 3 and Fenix 5X do. You can write apps for it. So it is hackable in that sense.
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