Can I get Accelerometer data from my fitbit charge3?

[MnSun]

Fitbit SDK does not support fitbit charge 3, so I cannot build any application for the Charge 3 using the SDK. If I really want to collect accelerometer data on fitbit, so what can I do?

Can I get Accelerometer data from my fitbit charge3?

[Gondwana · Accepted solution]

No. You can only use the Web API with Charge 3, and accelerometer data isn't synced.

Your only option is to get a Fitbit OS device (Ionic or Versa).

[MnSun]

so if I use fitbit versa, can I get accelerometer and gyroscope data?

[Gondwana]

Yes. See here and here.

[MnSun]

I want to extract accelerometer and gyrosocpe data from fitbit through the API in a CSV file. I don't know whether I can do this with Fitbit Versa. Thanks.

[Gondwana]

It could be done, but it wouldn't be trivial. You'd need to write a watch app or clockface that gathered the data in real time. It would need to run continuously, or there would be gaps in the data.

Every so often, your app/clockface would need to flush the data to a file on the watch (because on-device memory is limited).

Then you'd need to send the data to a companion app. The companion could convert it into CSV and send it to a web server or equivalent.

Before spending any money, do some calculations so you know whether you can handle the amount of data generated.

[MnSun]

Thank you very much

[MnSun]

Do you have any source code ? If you have, would you mind sharing it with me?

[Gondwana]

I don't have any source code that would be useful. I wrote this, which shares some minor similarities with what you're trying to do. It collects multiple data points (all activity levels and HR) in real time, caches them in memory for a while, and appends them to storage every so often. You'd be better off cutting code that exactly meets your requirements.

[MnSun]

Sorry to disturb you, could you help me with this?

I have encountered difficulties in this step.“Then you'd need to send the data to a companion app. The companion could convert it into CSV and send it to a web server or equivalent.”

1. Does the companion app refer to the fitbit app (Android, iPhone) or something else？ 

2. How to send it to a web server or equivalent?

Thank you very much. 

[Gondwana]

1. Companion app is something you write that runs within the fitbit app on android/iphone; see here.

2. Use fetch().

[MnSun]

Where can I find the file on my phone? 

[Gondwana]

Which file? Have you read the file transfer documentation?

[MnSun]

I have read all file transfer documentation, but I still cannot find the solution. 

Could I use fetch() on companion and post the file(acceleometer data from fitbit device)  to firebase? 

Thank you

[Gondwana]

I haven't used firebase, but I know other Fitbit developers have done so. I think you're on the right track!

An unfortunate constraint is that companion code is very limited in file handling. Even though you get sent a 'file' from the watch, it's actually received as a chunk of data in memory. You can't directly save it to a file on the companion (eg, phone), but you could indeed use fetch() to send it elsewhere.

[MnSun]

Hi Catplace,

How to keep Fitbit app running and collecting the data in real time, so the app has to run continuously.

However, when I open it and a few minutes later, it would shut down and back to main page. 

Thank you. 

[Gondwana]

On-device apps can't run apps in the background, so your app would need to run continuously. To minimise the need to switch away from your app, it would be best to make it a clockface. Even so, it will be killed whenever the user switches to settings, today, etc.

If your app is being killed even though the user isn't opening another app, it could be because of appTimeoutEnabled, which you can change.

Your app isn't killed just because the screen goes off, but you won't get ontick() in that situation.

[MnSun]

Hi Catplace,

if my fitbit device is far away from my phone(companion app), then the companion app will be unloaded, even if I use wake-interval, it will not reconnect. So, I may lose a lot of data.

Could you give me some help?

Thank you very much

[weusthofm]

Hello,

I've a versa3, and would like to extract the accelerometer data from the watch. I've tried via the examples of fitbit, and What you suggested. Even via github examples i tried to read accelerometer data. Whatever I try, I get no accelerometer data from versa3. I get heartbeat, barometer. It looks like that the data does not come available on the watch.  Every eventlistener or reading returns nothing, empty. Although the device has an accelerometer according check on app. How can I extract in the correct way the accelerometer data and show it on the display as timestamp, x y and z data. I program via visual studio and check via the fitbit simulator and on versa3. All the permissions are approved. Permission for accelerometer, and heartrate is permitted in the package.json. like to hear a solution to read the data. We need this for experiments with elderly people.  

[Gondwana]

Could you please post the relevant bits of your code? Fitbit's accelerometer sample code (in the documentation) works for me.

Note that the sim doesn't have an accelerometer. I even tried bashing my monitor to make it move.😉