{"id":5460,"date":"2015-02-09T09:53:07","date_gmt":"2015-02-09T09:53:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/?p=5460"},"modified":"2015-02-09T09:53:40","modified_gmt":"2015-02-09T09:53:40","slug":"just-over-a-week-with-the-fitbit-charge-hr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2015\/02\/just-over-a-week-with-the-fitbit-charge-hr.htm","title":{"rendered":"(Just over) a week with the Fitbit Charge HR"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over\u00a0the last couple of months I’ve attended a couple of British Computer Society (BCS)<\/a> meetings on the “Internet of Everything”. Looking at the\u00a0speaker’s activity band got me thinking about\u00a0“the quantified self”. Just as, when I’m cycling or running, I like to track my activities\u00a0and\u00a0see how I’ve done compared with others, this year I decided to buy\u00a0myself a fitness tracker. I’ve worn pedometers before (when taking part in the Global\u00a0Corporate Challenge<\/a>) but\u00a0with the current\u00a0(and upcoming) range of activity bands\/watches, my device of choice is\u00a0a\u00a0Fitbit Charge HR<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Why the Fitbit Charge HR? Well, I’d seen the Charge\u00a0and it looks good – discrete, but functional – and the additional \u00a320 for heart rate readings sounded interesting (and should lead to more accurate calorie counting). \u00a0There are\u00a0Apple and Microsoft watches on the way but I’ve been burned far to many times buying a first generation product (iPad, Nokia Lumia 800)\u00a0and Fitbit<\/a> have been working in this market for a while now – their trackers are pretty well established.\u00a0I was also seeing some good reviews on the Charge including this one from Michael d’Estries<\/a>\u00a0(@michaeldestries<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Setup<\/h3>\n

The setup was\u00a0simple – the product packaging directed me to a website\u00a0to download and\u00a0install the software on a PC (or Mac in my case), together with a dongle after which\u00a0the\u00a0band updated itself and continued to sync. There’s also an app on my phone that communicates via Bluetooth (I use this for call notifications and synchronisation). I’m not sure what technology the dongle uses (ANT+<\/a> perhaps?) but it’s certainly not the Mac’s built-in Bluetooth stack. \u00a0I also need to work out why, since I paired the band with the app on my phone, the Mac no longer sees it as present but that’s not stopping me from using it so can wait a while.<\/p>\n

Charging<\/h3>\n

Next up was charging the battery. It had some power out of the box but needed charging soon after (unsurprisingly). \u00a0Fitbit’s claimed battery life is 5 days but I’d say it’s nearer to 2-3. Actually, I don’t let it run down that far – I generally\u00a0charge daily – and I started off by charging whilst taking\u00a0a shower, etc. as any steps taken during the period are probably balanced out by\u00a0steps recorded as a result of movement during sleep<\/a>. \u00a0Unfortunately, putting it on charge when I woke (and before it had registered much activity\u00a0confused\u00a0the sleep tracking (it thought I was still asleep!) so I’ve since started to charge it whilst sitting at my desk, working at a PC. \u00a0It really does seems like this would be one device that really would benefit from wireless charging! \u00a0Added to that, the proprietary connector locks on well but I can’t help thinking it’s another way to make money (replacing lost\/broken cables) and micro USB\u00a0would do the job\u00a0just as well?<\/p>\n

Monitoring steps, hear trate and sleep<\/h3>\n

Importantly, the step count seems reasonably accurate. There are some phantom steps when driving\/otherwise moving my wrist but the Charge HR\u00a0basically seems to keep time with walking (goodness knows how as it’s nothing to do with how I swing my arms or not!). \u00a0Incidentally, you can’t delete\/edit the recorded steps\/floors data so it’s worth logging driving as an activity<\/a>\u00a0(take a note of the start and finish times)\u00a0to negate the entries\u00a0as it’s\u00a0somewhat disconcerting to be notified that you reached your step target whilst driving along the motorway! \u00a0Unfortunately, although recording an activity trues up the step count and other metrics,\u00a0any badges earned\u00a0remain on your profile.<\/p>\n

I’ve yet to check the heart rate monitoring\u00a0compared with the Garmin chest band that I wear on my longer bike rides – it seems a little low to me but maybe a bike ride is more exerting than I think! \u00a0And on the subject\u00a0of exertion, I was amused to see that, one evening, after visiting my local pub, the walk back up the hill counted as both active minutes (raised heart rate) and towards the number of\u00a0stairs climbed (due to the elevation)! \u00a0Stair climbing (along with distance walked, when many\u00a0of the steps are around the home\/office) seems a bit of a gimmick but still another metric to compare.\u00a0It’s not 100% accurate, because Fitbit\u00a0measures a flight of stairs as 10′ elevation (based on atmospheric pressure)<\/a> –\u00a0modern homes may be less than this, and commercial buildings more – but\u00a0it’s there or thereabouts.<\/p>\n

Sleep tracking<\/a> is another reason I was interested in\u00a0wearing a band, which is also the\u00a0reason I can’t charge at night (as I do my phones).\u00a0I’m not sure exactly how this works (it\u00a0tracks time in bed, restlessness, and time awake) but I’m pretty sure “time reading a book before going to sleep” gets recorded as sleep (perhaps the low heart rate?), as does “lying in bed being lazy (a lie in)”. As mentioned previously, so does taking off my watch and pugging it in to charge after sleep as the software\u00a0only seems to end the sleep when I’m active – and therefore starting to charge it whilst I’m still in bed\u00a0extends the sleep time!<\/p>\n

Some niggles<\/h3>\n

There are some minor niggles to watch for:<\/p>\n