External Bluetooth low energy sensors for the Pinetime

[Peter Gamma]

The Pinetime has a build in heart rate sensor.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIo2-djNR48&t=118s

But what is the accuary of it? If it has only one or two green lights, it can deviate arount 10 percent of an ECG heart rate sensor which is the most accurate. External sensors are affordable and of much higher quality. The Polar OH1 for instance has six green lights and ECG accuracy, and costs about 80 USD.

The Stryd is the most accurate foot pod and costs about 300 USD. But the Zwift Runpod when calibrated has the accuracy of a Stryd foot pod, and is about 40 USD. Foot pods are very accurate, more accurate than GPS, and step counting from a foot pod is more accurate than from the wrist.

Why not to choose the most high quality from the beginning, when it is affordable? Both sensors can be paired over Bluetooth low energy. I don t know how to control these sensors from the Pinetime, but here you find software to control these sensors on the Pinephone:


https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?...e+computer

[Peter Gamma]

Daniel Thompson, PineTime developer stated on his youtube channel, that he had no plans to use external BLE sensor with PineTime, but connecting PineTime to BLE peripherals is certainly possible... though it would be a lot of work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIo2-djNR48&t=118s

On a Linux platform, it is easier, either on the Pinephone or for instance on an Android watch running Linux.

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Or on a real Linux watch from Pine64, which I miss.

[danielt]

Daniel Thompson, PineTime developer stated on his youtube channel, that he had no plans to use external BLE sensor with PineTime, but connecting PineTime to BLE peripherals is certainly possible... though it would be a lot of work.

If you adopted one of the zephyr firmwares for PineTime you'd probably have a big head start in getting things working:
https://docs.zephyrproject.org/latest/sa...EADME.html

[Peter Gamma]

I would have a big head start in getting things working with a PineTime running genuine Linux, and the user interface which is available for the PineTime.

[danielt]

I would have a big head start in getting things working with a PineTime running genuine Linux, and the user interface which is available for the PineTime.

True... but then you'd have to charge it every day ;-) .

Also I suspect a regular Linux smartwatch simply wouldn't have stimulated the wide variety of projects that the microcontroller based PineTime has. So, overall, I'm happy with the PineTime that we've got. That doesn't mean I don't have a wishlist but, for now, I'd much rather focus on the current generation device.

[Peter Gamma]

I suppose a PineTime which runs for instance Ubuntu touch would trigger new interesting projects. I currently use Garmin watches with built in optical heart rate sensor and acquire sensor data at maximal sampling rate. This setup can acquire data for about 25 hrs. Garmin watches cannot be used during charging, so I have to use two device alternatively, one aquiring sensor data, the second one is charging.

As far as I know, Garmin watches are Linux based. But these watches are very limited as far as development is concerned. Garmin allows only development in the Connect IQ platform, which is a container running on a Garmin watch. But connect IQ does not allow low level development. It is not possible to build a completely new watch with a new file system. Therefore I miss an alternative to Garmin watches which is open source.

The projects I mentioned here for the Pinephone:

https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?...e+computer

should in theory also run on a Linux watch. There are options available for this, for instance by running Linux on an Android based watch. But what is missing with this setup is a user interface which works for the watch buttons. Who wants to carry around a keyboard and a mouse to control a smart watch?