Smartwatch and libre sensor

Jaylee said:

Fancy a bit of history? An old post of mine with what was the first stand alone designated wrist reader & alarm.
(Which transmitted to the phone.)
Then for some reason the support & updates on the devices stopped, making this bit of kit running on an “xDrip light” redundant..

Post in thread 'Libre + MM1 + smartwatch + xdrip'

Aug 10, 2022

pampy87 said:

Hi,

My 6.5Y old daughter with D1 Is going to School and we are wondering if there Is any smartwatch on the market which connects with Miao Miao and sends results to xdrip without any phone? It would be convenient for her to wear only a smartwatch instead of phone. All the smartwatches I've found needs a phone to connect with and to send data to xdrip. Thank you in advance!

Click to expand...

Hi @pampy87 welcome to the forum.

@ANTJE is correct my Watlaa one is a standalone watch. But needs a Bluetooth bridge to scan & constantly send data to a stripped back xDrip on the watch’s firmware...

• Jaylee

Edit to link the topic.

Click to expand...

Yes and a saw only yesterday xdrip4ios removed watlaa support

Id love nothing more than to leave the phone at home…. And actually can for short periods as I have alerts on the pump

I think we will start to see better watch support in the coming years

Jaylee said:

Hi @Melgar .

The L2 became a full on CGM on release. Prior to that the Libre MKI was a flash monitor that needed NFC scanning.. Though there where a couple of 3rd party Bluetooth “bridges” in the L1 era that could constantly NFC scan & send readings to 3rd party developed apps like Diabox or Glimp?

However with the Libre 2 & the plus (15 day sensor.) it still needs to be NFC scanned on initial start up to initiate BT pairing with the device reading it.. Each sensor has a unique code.



My only gripe is watch battery life. The tech as it stands right now works fantastic for me..
I rarely pull my phone out of my pocket. & only use the alarms on the watch as a discreet buzz.
I don’t even pull my wallet anymore with “tap & pay.”

Click to expand...

Similar here I actually have cellular on my watch, so I do try when possible to go phone less

searley said:

As far as I’m aware the only real direct to watch option is Dexcom g7 and Apple Watch, I never had the chance to test as I was on the g6 now I’m no longer in Dexcom


The big issue for watches is battery life, many of which only last 18 or so hours without disabling features, you then add repeated connection to a bg sensor, and the fact the app can not be suspended to save power, you quickly get a watch that spend half it life on the charger

Also if you are in the UK, smart watches and driving are in a slight legal gray area.. in legal terms they are considered a mobile device, and using one can have the same legal actions as using a mobile phone

In fact there is an oddity in the law, that means it could be ‘more legal’ to use the phone, because you CAN legally operate a mobile phone if it’s in a cradle…. Many phones have always on displays which there are ways to show the bg there, or on the lock screen, or even a widget on the Home Screen

There are also ways that you can get the voice assistant to read your bg or to open the libre app

So the ‘to use whilst driving’ is not a valid reason for a watch, I do however always wear a smartwatch, and I can always find several ways to display my bg on them…. So get a smartwatch if you want one, and it’s certainly easier at home as my phone stays in 1 place, and I can easily see my bg

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Thanks Searley,
I didn't realise there was a legal issue with the smart watch. However, I wear it on my wrist (obviously!) with the face on the "open hand" side so when driving all I have to do is slightly twist my wrist to point the face at my face and that movement alone seems to be enough to wake the watch up and my BG reading is there, I just have to briefly look at it.

Dave

I've a garmin vivoactive 5 that links to my librelink app via a watch face and a widget I downloaded via the garmin connect iq app. It was slightly fiddly to set up but there were clear instructions and it works brilliantly. I use my watch all the time now to monitor my levels.

I am finding the thread very informative but I am still confused (not unusual).
I have two ""needs".

(1) Have an "always on" display on an Android smart phone so that I can connect the phone to USB for power then mount it in a cradle in the car so I can read my BG whilst driving.
For example make LibreLink always on.

(2) Have a smart watch linked to my phone so that when cycling I can have an always on display on my wrist.

[Noting that if (1) is met then the alternative could be to mount my phone on the handlebars.
Also if (2) is met I could mount my smart watch on the dashboard of the car.]

Is this possible (even easy)?

Apps on a phone that are always on are not uncommon.
I have a speedometer App, a satnav App, and Google Maps will do this when navigating, for example.

Oh, and battery life on a smart watch - can you charge the watch via USB whilst you are using it?
This would be straightforward in my proposed scenarios.

DaveR28 said:

Thanks Searley,
I didn't realise there was a legal issue with the smart watch. However, I wear it on my wrist (obviously!) with the face on the "open hand" side so when driving all I have to do is slightly twist my wrist to point the face at my face and that movement alone seems to be enough to wake the watch up and my BG reading is there, I just have to briefly look at it.

Dave

Click to expand...

yes, for driving the term 'mobile phone' is less used, and more commonly the term 'mobile device' is used

this encompasses most things that are 'hand held' and can communicate and or connect to the internet etc..

the connection to the internet can either be via its own sim, or by connection to another device..

as such the 'mobile device' tag can cover many things like most common sat navs, phones, smartwatches, mp3 players and many more.. and even if you remove the sim or disable the connection it still counts as a mobile device

currently the law states 'hand held' so use in a cradle/mount is accepted as is hands free via voice assistant, this puts smart watches in an odd position, as you could argue its not hand held, and yet its not mounted to the vehicle.. looking would be ok -- touching/using would not.

now many journals and news articles state that even mounted you can not touch the device, currently though the law actually reads 'hand held' so I think there is lots of scare stories to try and stop any usage

the law does also state that even these devices, when used legally, if you have an accident whilst using you could well still be prosecuted for dangerous driving, so for me I choose a phone with always on display and have in a cradle

LittleGreyCat said:

(1) Have an "always on" display on an Android smart phone so that I can connect the phone to USB for power then mount it in a cradle in the car so I can read my BG whilst driving.
For example make LibreLink always on.

Is this possible (even easy)?

Click to expand...

My phone does not have "Always On Display", but instead I have an free app called 'Screen Alive' which can change the length of time that the screen stays on and so I can leave any app running.

It also has a widget to enable/disable this override. So my normal screen timeout is 10 minutes, but when I want it to stay on longer, I click the widget to change the timeout to 1 hour and then switch to the app I want to see. (Only downside is that I sometimes forget to disable screen alive to set the timeout back to 10 minutes)

LittleGreyCat said:

(2) Have a smart watch linked to my phone so that when cycling I can have an always on display on my wrist.

Is this possible (even easy)?

Click to expand...

I am not aware of any way to do this using just the official LibreLink app.
It can be done, on some watches using third party apps, for example XDrip, Juggluco or GlucoDataHandler.
The latter does not read directly from the libre sensor, but can read from LibreLinkUP (which obviously requires an always on internet connection). It can also read from XDrip and juggluco both of which read values directly from the sensor.

The way I got this working on my (fairly cheap) watch could certainly not be described as 'easy', but I know that there are other ways of getting this to work on other (more expensive) watches which could well be much easier.

LittleGreyCat said:

Oh, and battery life on a smart watch - can you charge the watch via USB whilst you are using it?

Click to expand...

I suspect this may depend on your watch. I can use my watch, but can't wear it while it is charging as the charging point is on the bottom/back of the watch. When I attach the charger the screen briefly wakes up and display the battery percentage, but then after a while the watch switches to the 'always on display' which shows my glucose values.