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Molpot | 5 years ago

Has anybody tried to reverse engineer garmin's bluetooth protocols? I often want to buy one of their smartwatches but the idea of having to install proprietary software on my phone kind of puts me off. I'd love to write my own software but I don't have any experience doing bluetooth RE.

discuss

mjsir911|5 years ago

I've actually done extensive work with reverse engineering garmin's bluetooth protocol for setting the time on my vivofit 3 watch without making an account!

It's mostly shambled together stuff but I have a wireshark plugin that works pretty good for the few pieces it supports

https://github.com/mjsir911/GarminBLE

I started this project with no bluetooth experience either, it's definitely been a lot of learning.

Let me know if you are interested in continuing / working on this, might give me a nudge to get back on it.

mormegil|5 years ago

Yeah, they are complicated. Like, seven different protocols for different things. But it is workable. My WIP fork of Gadgetbridge (partially) supporting Garmin Vívomove HR is at https://github.com/mormegil-cz/Gadgetbridge/tree/garmin-wip

barbegal|5 years ago

You can just get the activity files off the watch via USB if that would work for you.

https://support.garmin.com/en-GB/?faq=Ht3ZP52Kju075uKvqTqu99...

Molpot|5 years ago

Thanks but it doesn't, I want a watch to keep track of my swimming training, I'm afraid using USB connectors would make the watch less waterproof.

javispedro|5 years ago

I tried and had some success about 5 years ago on a Fenix 2. Protocol got encrypted afterwards but looks to be still similar (I got the Fenix 3 to "work" at some point). In any case, not an easy task by any means.

The sync protocol mostly just sends all the files to the Garmin server so there is not a lot of logic locally. I no longer have any interest in the topic but if I were to restart, I'd focus on the "Explore" protocol which seems to allow upload/download of waypoints/tracks which is all that I wanted from the device in the first place.

wil421|5 years ago

What phone to do you own that doesn’t require proprietary software? What wearable doesn’t require installing an App on your iPhone or android?

Molpot|5 years ago

I'm currently using a Sony Xperia X running Sailfish OS but I'd like to switch to a Pinephone running Postmarket OS.

hamburglar|5 years ago

And since someone from Garmin is definitely reading this: Dear Garmin: we really want you to use open protocols so we don't have to install garbage software on our phones. I have an old "don't care" iphone that I use for software that I absolutely must install just to use a device. This is inconvenient and means I can only use certain functionality for that device at home. More often, I just pass on devices that need custom mobile software in order to work.

Open your protocols and you'll get lots of nerdy cheerleaders for your devices.

fionaellie|5 years ago

I can barely keep my Vivoactive 4 to maintain a Bluetooth connection with my iPhone. So frustrating, because one of the most useful tools, find my phone, is rarely available due to a broken Bluetooth connection. !!!

pantaloony|5 years ago

IIRC they have a library you can drop in a mobile app to talk to their watches. At least they did a few years ago.