Teardown of the Microsoft Band

https://www.sparkfun.com/news/1681

by schappim • 12 years ago

76 23 12 years ago

I just got one of these and like a lot so far.

The only Achilles heel for this is getting the data out and doing some real analysis of what your sleep cycles are, how your fitness levels trend, etc.

Hopefully in the near future, they will come out with something, but thus far, the data you see is quite limited.

lazyjeff3• 12 years ago

I managed to extract the raw minute-by-minute data from the Band using some hacky tricks. I was thinking of posting a howto, but trying to check if it runs into problems with the CFAA/DMCA. Might post something tomorrow after making sure it's legally sound.

at-fates-hands2• 12 years ago

Nicely done. I'll keep my eyes peeled or you can IM me when you get it up somewhere.

Looking forward to it.

schappim• 12 years ago

do it!

hayksaakian• 12 years ago

I would upvote it

lhl2• 12 years ago

I'm curious whether you decoded the binary protocol/blob or have just been poking at the API (where just about everything is pretty convenient JSON). I've done the latter but haven't broken out my Ubertooth yet for the former.

Re: DMCA - there's a reverse engineering carve-out for interoperability. While I guess MS could abuse either CFAA/DMCA to slap down RE, it seems like it'd be a pretty bad PR move.

userbinator• 12 years ago

For comparison, the Nike+ FuelBand teardown: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xdajSS_cOU

(Warning: very lengthy and detailed, contains some humour.)

tdicola• 12 years ago

Interesting to see a Cortex-M4 on board, certainly no way it's running Windows. Maybe they have some simple RTOS?

kabdib2• 12 years ago

Not really an RTOS. I hear it's more an "event loop and some interrupt handlers," much like the firmware in the Kinect.

(We went through a "we need an RTOS" phase on the Kinect. Eventually we ditched the thread stuff we wrote, which made things a lot simpler -- if you don't absolutely have to have threads and can get away with computing stuff in a main loop, then do that. Threads introduce all kinds of synchronization and inconsistent execution time nonsense that you should avoid if you can).

reddiric• 12 years ago

I think of a time slicer as an rtos - a simple one :)

Marcus10110• 12 years ago

fascinating. I assume that was the first kinect. Was the vision processing separated from the USB interface in different chips? Sounds like a fun project.

pjc50• 12 years ago

I did wonder about this, but it seems that CE requires the non-Thumb instruction set and therefore at least a Cortex A series processor.

I'm not sure why anyone would use WinCE for something without a GUI, even within Microsoft.

MrBuddyCasino• 12 years ago

Also interesting they used the K series, and not the L one for ultra low power. Its not like they need a lot of MIPS for what they do.

Animats2• 12 years ago

Do not remove the Loyalty Bracelet.

http://www.yuwanmei.com/products#4

blinduck• 12 years ago

Wow, is this site an actual business or some kind of parody?

Animats2• 12 years ago

That site is run by The Onion, which, for a few weeks, claimed to have been bought out by Yu Wan Mei Salvage Fisheries and Polymer Injection Corporation.

Any time is Fish Time!

didgeoridoo• 12 years ago

Anyone else have trouble not automatically translating "LiPo" battery as "Lithium/Polonium" in their heads?

That would be a bad battery.

minthd• 12 years ago

It seems like some components are missing, for example the gps and and microphone.

rasz_pl• 12 years ago

-failed to remove qrcode sticker from big chip?

-failed to identify gyro/accelerometer/compass chips

ifixit they are not, but its a good start

Teardown of the Microsoft Band

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