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Teardown of the Microsoft Band

76 points| schappim | 11 years ago |sparkfun.com

23 comments

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[+] at-fates-hands|11 years ago|reply
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.

[+] lazyjeff|11 years ago|reply
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.
[+] didgeoridoo|11 years ago|reply
Anyone else have trouble not automatically translating "LiPo" battery as "Lithium/Polonium" in their heads?

That would be a bad battery.

[+] tdicola|11 years ago|reply
Interesting to see a Cortex-M4 on board, certainly no way it's running Windows. Maybe they have some simple RTOS?
[+] kabdib|11 years ago|reply
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).

[+] pjc50|11 years ago|reply
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|11 years ago|reply
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.
[+] rasz_pl|11 years ago|reply
-failed to remove qrcode sticker from big chip?

-failed to identify gyro/accelerometer/compass chips

ifixit they are not, but its a good start

[+] minthd|11 years ago|reply
It seems like some components are missing, for example the gps and and microphone.