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?

    • @[email protected]
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      15 hours ago

      I use openscale and a Beuer BF700 (I think that’s the model #, it’s a model listed in the github wiki) and it works great, although I had to do the initial setup on their proprietary app to get the profiles to work right, and the scale had to be imported/was a bit hard to find. The wiki includes instructions for modifying a scale to add an arduino and the necessary bits to DIY one if you’re at all technically inclined.

      I recommend it, but YMMV if you try to use a newer scale. If I ever have more time I would like to try to extend the drivers to support more scales, because openscale is very good software.

  • @billbasher
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    14 hours ago

    I don’t have any options for you but make sure you get one that doesn’t use battery when not in use. It’s really annoying replacing those little coin batteries all the time even though you only use it like .001% of the time

  • @[email protected]
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    7 hours ago

    OpenScale works great and kind of does what you want. If you have an old Android phone laying around you can have it persistently connected to a cheap Bluetooth scale. Functional, but at a much have higher power cost than an ESP32 solution. Automated database exports to a local file (on the android device) and Syncthing can move your data around for analysis.

    The good folks over at Gadgetbridge might have a solution too, although their list of supported scales looks pretty short.

    You might also look into making a project like rmfakecloud to trick your Fitbit device into pushing data to a local server.

    Not sure about home assistant though, I’ve never used it.

  • @baatliwala
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    129 hours ago

    Wait what I thought this was satire at first

  • Possibly linux
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    78 hours ago

    Can you just get a normal scale? I just have a mechanical one from the last century

    • @thirdBreakfastOP
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      96 hours ago

      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.

  • @[email protected]
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    37 hours ago

    I’ve had a withings scale for like 5 or 6 years, use trendweight.com for a graph, I haven’t had any problems with it besides replacing the batteries every year or so

    • @thirdBreakfastOP
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      16 hours ago

      I’m starting to think my commitment to the Apple ecosystem and my desire for self-hosting are at odds.

  • @passiveaggressivesonar
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    27 hours ago

    Where’s that meme about tech enthusiasts and tech employees with a printer gun, where does this guy fall

  • @[email protected]
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    911 hours ago

    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?

    • @thirdBreakfastOP
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      25 hours ago

      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.

    • Joelk111
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      49 hours ago

      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.

      • @[email protected]
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        7 hours ago

        I suppose that makes sense, honestly I just go with “more/less than last time” lol. If I went more in depth with it I’d probably use a pen and paper.

        • Joelk111
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          17 hours ago

          I don’t keep track of my weight so I could be wrong here, but more/less than last time wouldn’t be very helpful as your weight can vary by the day. You need a trend over weeks to really see what’s going on. I definitely wouldn’t use pen/paper as it’s just too much data to organize and graph, but excel would be a reasonable alternative.

        • Joelk111
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          37 hours ago

          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.

          • Possibly linux
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            06 hours ago

            Who would do such a thing? It must absolutely terrible to manually flip a switch.

            • Joelk111
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              26 hours ago

              I don’t know what you want man. I like automating stuff so I don’t have to worry about remembering as much.

    • @original2
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      29 hours ago

      Body fat tracking etc

  • @[email protected]
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    716 hours ago

    Not local, but I’ve been using my withings scale for at least 5 years, and I sync the weights with its home assistant automation from the withings api, then plot the data on a custom health dashboard I made.

    I’d love a local alternative, but regardless I haven’t had any problems with my setup.

  • @[email protected]
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    2522 hours ago

    If you can find an old working Wii Fit Balance Board you can use it as a very accurate Bluetooth scale.

    • @peregus
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      25 hours ago

      Did you do that?
      If yes, could you share some info about it?

    • @[email protected]
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      312 hours ago

      It’s interesting how old console tech comes back around to be useful for other stuff. I’ve used a couple Xbox Kinects to do 3D scanning and with an augmented reality sand box.

  • @[email protected]
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    22 hours ago

    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.

    • @socialmedia
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      14 hours ago

      What if the shotgun makes a noise you don’t recognize? Hit it with the toaster?

      • @[email protected]
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        411 hours ago

        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?)

    • @k4j8
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      11 day ago

      I do similar with a shortcut on my phone to a [NocoDB Form].

    • @[email protected]
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      11 day ago

      Same here but with Apple Health. You can even build some Shortcut to log the weight via Siri if you like to.

  • fmstrat
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    151 day ago

    I zoomed in on the screen because I just assumed this was a meme.

    • @deafboy
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      210 hours ago

      I use miscale 1 with gadgetbridge. Homeassistant has also autodiscivered it, but I’m hessitant to pair it with 2 different devices so no idea if it actually works.

    • @[email protected]
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      212 hours ago

      This is what I use. Replaced my old Fitbit Aria 2. I weighed in on both scales for about a month, and it was consistently 0.15 kg below, which is good. The body fat measurement was a bit more off, and it varies almost nothing over long periods of time, but I don’t really trust those measurements anyway.

      I believe you can set up the scale in GadgetBridge as well, but I have not tried to do that.