Getting real-time data from Charge 5?

[kikiSDelivery]

Hi!

Is there a way to retrieve real-time health data like heart rate from Charge 5 (and send it to another platform/app for a research project)? 

These are my current findings:

1. Fitbit SDK does not support the Charge series so Device API can't be used with Charge 5

2. Web API can be used to get data of a user with a Charge 5, but the data won't be real-time

But I want to check if any of my findings is wrong and if it is possible to achieve this.

[Gondwana · Accepted solution]

I think your findings are right. The closest you'll be able to get is via the Web API with up to 20-minute lag due to sync frequency.

[kikiSDelivery]

Thank you so much Peter!

I have one follow-up question:

I read in another post of how to stream real time data to another platform. (Your answer there is also super helpful! Thank you!) I assume the recommended architecture you mentioned there can be done with any model that's supported by the SDK (i.e. Ionic, Versa, Sense). I'm wondering if there is one model more suitable than others for this purpose?

[Gondwana]

All Fitbit SDK watches are broadly equivalent.

Only Sense (and Ionic?) can provide orientation and gyro data, but that's probably not going to be of use to you unless you're analysing motion in detail.

Versa Lite is harder to develop for, because it can't be connected to the development environment using WiFi (which it lacks).

This badly-written code repo may help you.

[kikiSDelivery]

I see. Thank you so much for the answer and the repo! They help a lot!