I’ve had a fitbit wifi bathroom scale for a while. Getting the data out got suddenly more difficult when Google bought them, and I didn’t love giving that data to google. It’s finally died, and I’m looking at replacement options.
In a perfect world, I could just go to a store and buy a “HomeAssistant Ready” scale. If I can’t have that, I’d like a scale that is on my local network and exposes the last x weigh-ins as an API on the device, then I could write something to poll it.
I haven’t seen anything like those, but have turned up:
- a project to decode the bluetooth transmissions of a number of scales (after you build an ESP32 device for it)
- the Withings cloud based scale, but with a well documented API
Any other good options?
I’m using the Xiaomi “Mi Body competition 2” together with https://github.com/lolouk44/hassio-addons/tree/master/mi-scale and am reasonably satisfied with it.
I use Tasker to log my weight to a Google Sheets spreadsheet, and just use a dumb scale.
The only piece of technology in my house is a toaster from 1982, and I keep a loaded shotgun next to it just in case it makes a noise I don’t recognize.
What if the shotgun makes a noise you don’t recognize? Hit it with the toaster?
I am SCP-426, your toaster.
The only technology in my house is me, and I keep a loaded shotgun next to me in case I make a noise I don’t recognize.
(Am I doing this right?)
Can you just get a normal scale? I just have a mechanical one from the last century
I mean, yes, I could. But I’m committed to the #selfhosted life where I spend hours building unnecessarily complicated systems to make my life easier in small ways.
It just feels like a very dark reality
If you can find an old working Wii Fit Balance Board you can use it as a very accurate Bluetooth scale.
Did you do that?
If yes, could you share some info about it?Looks like a few folks have
https://github.com/schellingb/WiiBalanceScale
https://github.com/aelveborn/Wii-Scale
Going to have to try this out myself!
Wait what I thought this was satire at first
you can’t even poke fun at selfhosted people anymore because someone WILL 100% spend 48 hours straight 3d printing and programming a toothbrush
edit: you have to be kidding me https://kuenzi.dev/toothbrush/That would be a fun thread. What’s the most unnecessary self hosted thing you’ve seen someone host or host
I have a withings and I really like it. Their privacy policy made me feel better about allowing my info on the cloud. You can run it offline (it sends weight via Bluetooth to the app but won’t show 7-day trend an scale screen without wifi). I don’t mind that, so I leave it disconnected. I don’t use a home assistant though so I can’t speak to that part.
I have the withings watch also, so I use the app as my catch all health tracker which works well. it’s nice to have everything together. Can’t speak to any others but I’d recommend withings.
I also have been using a Withings scale for the past 4 years and it has been great. I also got it primarily because of the privacy policy.
I went from Fitbit to Withings, that Fitbit scale was nothing but pain. Every time my battery started getting low it would disconnect from Wi-Fi and I have to re pair it. It was inconsistent, If you pick it up and move it a foot to the left you get a completely different reading than if you just leave it where it sits. Because of the messed up fluctuations, It constantly identified the wrong person in the house.
Had the Withings scale for 4 years now and it’s just been fine.
I can’t help, I wish I could, but I’m curious. Why a smart scale? Why not just any dumb scale from Bed Bath and Beyond?
I like data, I like tech, I like investing large amounts of time and energy to self-host things that muggles would not bother with.
I’d guess automatic history tracking. Step on it every morning and it’ll automatically save your weight to Home Assistant or whatever so you can see if you’re gaining/losing over time.
Can’t you just use a notebook for that?
Sure, and I could also turn on/off my lights with a switch instead of having them come on when I get home, and turn off when I leave.
Who would do such a thing? It must absolutely terrible to manually flip a switch.
I don’t know what you want man. I like automating stuff so I don’t have to worry about remembering as much.