Offer dual time zone on Fitbit devices

[mauser416]

I travel out of the country quite a bit.  My old watch offered a dual time zone feature which allowed me to see the local time but also allowed me to monitor time at home.  This made it easy for me to determine when I could call home.  I currently have Charge 2 and am looking at Ionic.  It would be nice to have this feature or at lest an app which provides this functionality.  I thought the apple watch could do

Moderator Edit: Clarified subject and updated label

[FlyFrosty]

I just released version 1... It is a digital clock called Dual Time.

[Zgrrl]

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Excellent FlyFrosty, downloaded now!

[Jfly32]

How do I download??


Sent from my iPhone

[FlyFrosty]

On the androids, you open the FitBit App.  Select your Ionic in the top right corner.  Select the device on the new page. Select the Clock Faces icon on the next screen then ALL CLOCKS.  The clocks are broken out by category.  Select View All next to either Digital or All Clocks.  Scroll until you find it (Nope...no freaking search function).

Special deal to the first person to find a bug...Half price off of the next version. (Yes.  Half of free is free).

[mauser416]

Thank you FlyFrosty.

Installed it on the Ionic and changed font color but the font color does not change.  Set the secondary time without problem but when I changed the secondary time I lost the indication of the primary time's zone.

I like it and appreciate you doing all of the work.

[mauser416]

I spoke too soon.  The previous issues were probably as a result of phone induced syncing problems.  Font is blue as selected and primary time zone is being indicated.

Thank you very much.

[mauser416]

I guess not.  The font reverted back to maroon and the primary time zone indication has disappeared again.

[bkarpy]

Sounds like it’s not an option for blaze on iOS 😞

[FlyFrosty]

Hmm.

I have to use the time zone from your phone/connected device (the fitbit
function does not include this information). So, that part I get. I was
debating on if I should save this info to the watch or not. It sounds like
I might need to (when I get home).

I'm not too sure about the color issue. I've got mine on blue and will let
it ride for a bit.

If you don't mind sharing, are you an iPhone or Android?

[FlyFrosty]

bkarpy,

Sorry...Only the Ionic and the new Versa accepts apps and clocks from random people like me.

[mauser416]

I am on iPhone 6

[bkarpy]

Grrr.  Thanks for building on new versions of I ever upgrade!

[mauser416]

FlyFrosty

I kept the bluetooth connection and forced a sync with my phone. The font reverted to blue and the zone for the primary time returned.  When I swipe to view today's activity and then return to the clock it once again reverts to maroon and no zone indication.

[FlyFrosty]

OK.  I'm on the road now.  Give me a week, and I will make a new version to store the info on the watch instead of depending on FitBit's synching capabilities.  This should help make the process more transparent. 

[mauser416]

Than you FlyFrosty.  Safe travels.

[AviatorAF]

I currently use the Apple Watch. I want to switch to the Fitbit Iconic. As an airline pilot the requirement to have Dual Time cannot be stressed enough. The only thing that has not allowed me to switch over is the fact that, dual time is not available or dispayed on the current Watch Face. 

I use the Charge 2 and love the functionality that fitbit provied. It does very well as an add on to my Watch. For me to move across a full fleged watch interface by Fitbit will require the availbility of Dual time. Please consider. 

[FlyFrosty]

OK.  Version 2.0 is out and about.  Flame away and I will see what I can fix.  I'm planning on someday making the second time zone selectable by a city search, but that is presently beyond my skills.

[mauser416]

FlyFrosty

I'm back home and downloaded V2.0 last night. 

Both time indications are functioning properly.  The font color was originally set as blue but sometime during the night reverted to maroon.  I kept the Ionic and iPhone 6 paired via bluetooth during the night.  The proper time zone e.g. CDT and GMT, is indicating for both zones.

It would be nice to fix the text color.  My preference would be to include some sort of city indicator e.g. Houston or HOU, with the primary time.  I do not know what how much info is sent with data for time from the phone to the Ionic so this may be a lot of work.  I do not know if Frankfurt is GMT-1 or GMT-2 and is Dubai GMT-2.  The inclusion of the city for the primary time would be very helpful.  Since the secondary time is intentionally set the indication of GMT+/-X is more than sufficient from my perspective.

Thank you very much for creating this app.  I have zero idea of what it took to make this happen but I do appreciate that you've done the work and implemented the fixes.  I at least owe you a beer in Munich or someplace on the road.

[mauser416]

FlyFrosty

Nothing changed overnight so I am inclined to think the previous matter was as a result of something I did or didn't do.  It looks as though the app is working just fine and as requested.  I will fly to a different time zone on Wednesday and see how it goes.

Thank you again

[FlyFrosty]

mauser416

I'm glad to hear it is working.  I've been wearing it and have not noticed any issues yet.  However, I have not yet changed timezones, much less taken it international.  I appreciate the feedback you are giving me.  I almost changed the default color to whatever color you are you using since I cannot find a reason why it changed on you.

I am currently working on my other clockface (Travelers Clockface, where the second time is always zulu), changing it to a 12 or 24 hour clock and streamlining the background images.  Once I get that done, I will try and figure out the city search.  I know where to get the info, I just have no idea how to program it yet.

[mauser416]

FlyFrosty

Returned from my short domestic trip last night.  Primary time zone and font color worked just fine as I crossed time zones and for the duration of the trip. 

The secondary time zone would swap between "Zulu-5 selected" (the setup time) and "GMT selected".  Sometimes I could get it to return to Zulu-5 by syncing.  Other times syncing would not help and I would turn the bluetooth on/off on my phone to get it to revert to Zulu-5.  Sometimes it would remain on Zulu-5 for 10-12 hours other times only for 15 minutes.  At times it would switch to GMT then to Zulu-5 and then back to GMT on its own.  The phone was on, bluetooth enabled and the phone and watch were always with three feet of each other.  During the flights of course the bluetooth was off but the Ionic swapped from Zulu-5 to GMT or vice versa even in the air.

I switched to another clock face and then re-downloaded the dual time zone just in case there was something wrong with the install.  The setup used Zulu-5.  In less than 15 minutes the Ionic switched to GMT and then a couple of hours later back to Zulu-5

[FlyFrosty]

"You're killing me smalls!"

I too am finishing up a trip around the country. I had no problems with the secondary time holding. I actually had issues with the new time taking forever to sync. I would land in Chicago from NY and the tracker would immediately show “CDT” but the time was still New York’s. I could not figure out how to force it to update (sync, power down…).

I’ve put in a plea in for help on the developer’s board, but I fear both of our problems are rooted in FitBit’s ongoing saga with it’s poor syncing. I will keep working the problem.

[mauser416]

Out of curiosity, what is your secondary time setting?  If I select GMT it stays as GMT.  If I select something other than GMT that's when the problem arises.  It's as if the default setting for the secondary is GMT and if the Ionic doesn't sync with something, the iPhone in my case, within some time it reverts to the default.

[Rich_Laue]

[FlyFrosty]

Here is where I am at.  The problem stems from the horrid interface between trackers and mobile devices and is compounded by the error in the FitBit version of the Date() code.  GMT is the default offset, which is why the secondary time reverts.  I am working on converting the code to save your choice to a file to load as a default.  

In the mean time, the clock does work so long as the tracker and phone are talking.  If this is too much of a problem, I noticed that the clockface "Cobblestyle" has a dual time capability.  I have not tested it myself, but they appear to be professional programmers and might have it working consistently.  The face is located near the top of the All Clocks list.  I emailed the developer to see how they were handling the interface, but have not heard back.