5 ms·

Is there any brand of wrist sensor that doesn't require you to upload your data to their servers by any chance? I love the fitbit sensor, but I wish I could op

Is there any brand of wrist sensor that doesn't require you to upload your data to their servers by any chance? I love the fitbit sensor, but I wish I could opt out of the server side of the things

jannes 6y ago
Try Apple Watch. You can disable the iCloud backup of Health data: https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/back-up-your-health-data-iph11f1eb698/ios https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/back-up-your-health-d...
- 52-6F-62 6y ago
  That's what I do. It'll sync with my phone locally over bluetooth once I'm back in range, but that's it.
0xWTF 6y ago
There's an SDK that can be used to pull the data from a Garmin to a server you control.
bluGill 6y ago
pine64. Of course their smart watch currently is a dev kit and doesn't do anything at all unless you write software to do something. Some good progress is being made - expect a first release "soon" where the watch will do something - though probably not something very smart. Still today if you don't want to write all the code yourself you shouldn't bother.
ysleepy 6y ago
There are alternative apps for the Mi Band that work purely on-device. Mi Band Master is one of them. The setup is a bit more involved with newer bands, but a one-time thing. Works really well.
dublinben 6y ago
There's a fantastic piece of free software for Android called Gadgetbridge[0] that allows you to use many of these "smart watches" without the first party app or servers. It supports Pebble, Mi Band, Amazfit Bip and HPlus and more. [0] https://gadgetbridge.org/ https://gadgetbridge.org/
Avalaxy 6y ago
The most bizarre thing about fitbit is that I can't even view my data on my phone when I don't have an internet connection... The data is literally synced to my phone over bluetooth and THEN transmitted to the cloud. But for whatever inexplicable reason you can only view it after uploading it... Very annoying, when hiking you often don't have an internet connection.
DoingIsLearning 6y ago
Most of the older Polar HR sensors didn't use cloud services but they typical worked with an auxiliary chest strap (it wasn't just wrist strap), they were mostly for monitoring your performance during physical activity not necessarily for the 24H wellness type of use-case that people usually look for these days. If you are into DIY, you don't necessarily need to be a DSP guru, there already quite a few 'good enough' IC's, like the MAX30102 (Maxim) for HR and oximetry, it doesnt need any major analogue considerations you just need to implement the communication side (I2C)to extract data.
jschwartzi 6y ago
Garmin doesn't require you to upload any data to their servers to get basic heart rate and other information. You can choose to upload your data to get more detailed information but the basic statistics are available without creating an account.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
izacus 6y ago
Samsung Galaxy Watch / Samsung Gear series and Apple Watch can both sync data only to the phone without uploading it to cloud.
propogandist 6y ago
Mi Band. $25, weeks of battery life and data can be extracted locally. They've tried to make usage of 3rd party apps harder with the latest version though (color display). It can still be done though; the old versions are excellent (Mi Band 3)

Is there any brand of wrist sensor that doesn't require you to upload your data to their servers by any chance? I love the fitbit sensor, but I wish I could opt out of the server side of the things

jannes 6y ago

Try Apple Watch. You can disable the iCloud backup of Health data: https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/back-up-your-health-data-iph11f1eb698/ios https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/back-up-your-health-d...

52-6F-62 6y ago
That's what I do. It'll sync with my phone locally over bluetooth once I'm back in range, but that's it.

0xWTF 6y ago

There's an SDK that can be used to pull the data from a Garmin to a server you control.

bluGill 6y ago

pine64. Of course their smart watch currently is a dev kit and doesn't do anything at all unless you write software to do something. Some good progress is being made - expect a first release "soon" where the watch will do something - though probably not something very smart. Still today if you don't want to write all the code yourself you shouldn't bother.

ysleepy 6y ago

There are alternative apps for the Mi Band that work purely on-device. Mi Band Master is one of them. The setup is a bit more involved with newer bands, but a one-time thing. Works really well.

dublinben 6y ago

There's a fantastic piece of free software for Android called Gadgetbridge[0] that allows you to use many of these "smart watches" without the first party app or servers. It supports Pebble, Mi Band, Amazfit Bip and HPlus and more. [0] https://gadgetbridge.org/ https://gadgetbridge.org/

Avalaxy 6y ago

The most bizarre thing about fitbit is that I can't even view my data on my phone when I don't have an internet connection... The data is literally synced to my phone over bluetooth and THEN transmitted to the cloud. But for whatever inexplicable reason you can only view it after uploading it... Very annoying, when hiking you often don't have an internet connection.

DoingIsLearning 6y ago

Most of the older Polar HR sensors didn't use cloud services but they typical worked with an auxiliary chest strap (it wasn't just wrist strap), they were mostly for monitoring your performance during physical activity not necessarily for the 24H wellness type of use-case that people usually look for these days. If you are into DIY, you don't necessarily need to be a DSP guru, there already quite a few 'good enough' IC's, like the MAX30102 (Maxim) for HR and oximetry, it doesnt need any major analogue considerations you just need to implement the communication side (I2C)to extract data.

jschwartzi 6y ago

Garmin doesn't require you to upload any data to their servers to get basic heart rate and other information. You can choose to upload your data to get more detailed information but the basic statistics are available without creating an account.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

izacus 6y ago

Samsung Galaxy Watch / Samsung Gear series and Apple Watch can both sync data only to the phone without uploading it to cloud.

propogandist 6y ago

Mi Band. $25, weeks of battery life and data can be extracted locally. They've tried to make usage of 3rd party apps harder with the latest version though (color display). It can still be done though; the old versions are excellent (Mi Band 3)