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I would like to know best alternatives to an Arduino or Raspberry Pi that has to satisfy the following specifications:

  1. Has BLE (Bluetooth low energy).
  2. Small size (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kenburns/tinyduino-the-tiny-arduino-compatible-platform-w-s).
  3. Accelerometer for counting steps like a fitness tracker.
  4. Affordable price.
  5. Battery.
  6. OPTIONAL: 802.11 b/g/n wireless

What I'm looking is something like this:

The main idea is to build a small device that will be carried by a patient all the day for tracking his movement and this can connect to internet or smartphone to store his evolution. The device will then upload information via BLE/Wi-Fi to a REST API.

I know that this is what smart bands and smartwatches does, but they only send data onto their own app (fitbit, jawbone, nokia, xiaomi, tomtom, garmin, motiv, moov, misfit, garmin). I would like to pair them with my own application but that's not possible because they don't provide an API or something else to use it.

Also I've take a look at android devices. They almost fit perfect, but not for size and battery duration.

So basically I'm looking for something like a Nordic nRF51 paired with accelerometer and a battery for perfoming activity monitoring.

What devices are available for this?

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    In what way is this different from your question hardwarerecs.stackexchange.com/questions/8351/…
    – Mawg says reinstate Monica
    Nov 9, 2017 at 22:07
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    I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it not about the Internet of Things, is too broad, is a hardware recommendation request, and is a duplicate of hardwarerecs.stackexchange.com/questions/8351/…
    – Chris Stratton
    Nov 9, 2017 at 23:41
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    @Mawg As I said on the other question, here I ask for specific Arduino/Raspberry smaller device. On the other one I ask for general devices that has bluetooth.
    – Lechucico
    Nov 10, 2017 at 8:26
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    Look at TI/Energia Launchpad and SimpleLink line. CC3220 or MPS432. Should be some Bluetooth options in there somewhere.
    – K.Nicholas
    Nov 12, 2017 at 14:48
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    You should focus on using off-the-shelf devices to do a trial and demonstrate your idea has value. Time spent on making prototype hardware is wasted at this stage. Once you need 1000s of devices is the time to find someone to design a custom product for you.
    – Sean Houlihane
    Nov 12, 2017 at 21:13

2 Answers 2

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Building your own device for this use case really is the wrong approach.

The industrial design to build something that will survive day to day use and be comfortable to wear with a useable battery life is likely to take longer than the study you want to run.

Just buy an off the shelf fitness tracker. There are plenty that have open BLE interfaces.

But if you REALLY have to build something yourself then you need to be looking at something like a Nordic nRF51 paired with an accelerometer. e.g. http://promotion.motsai.com/

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    I've looked at garming, fitbit, moov, nokia, jawbone, xiaomi, misfit, tomtom, motiv... all of them have good battery (like 6 months) for just 30-60€ more or less. Quite nice, but they don't have an API or sdk for making an app that connects via bluetooth to the device. They just offer a "webapi". Then you have to pair that fitness tracker with an smartphone with their app, this is uploaded to their servers and then you can use that webapi to get the information... I want to to create my own app for connecting to that device, and they don't offer that.
    – Lechucico
    Nov 10, 2017 at 8:57
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    Don't look at the brand name versions, they are all looking to tie you to their platform, look at places like alibaba where the smaller producers buy their hardware
    – hardillb
    Nov 10, 2017 at 8:59
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    Or look at a partnership with one of the big names. Given that you are looking for the data, building the device is the wrong approach
    – hardillb
    Nov 10, 2017 at 9:00
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    Okey, I got it. Can you show me an example if it's no bother?
    – Lechucico
    Nov 10, 2017 at 9:00
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    Just search for "ble fitness tracker" on alibaba there are 1000s of them
    – hardillb
    Nov 10, 2017 at 9:17
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Look at TI/Energia Launchpad and SimpleLink line. CC3220 or MPS432. There are Bluetooth options and a pretty good set of software.

Link to Texas Instruments CC3220S-LAUNCHXL site. This board has a built in temperature sensor and accelerometer, so it's fun to play with.

SimpleLink™ Wi-Fi® CC3220S Wireless Microcontroller LaunchPad™ Development Kit

Link to Engeria site about Texas Instruments MSP432P401R Launchpad.

Guide to MSP432P40 LaunchPad (MSP-EXP432P401R)

Both these products work with the multiple IDE's and for those just messing around they also work with Energia "Sketches". Energia Sketches are a C++ framework that handles everything for you and you just add code into an initialize method and a working loop. Lot's of example code floating around.

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    It's so big, no one will be able to handle it on the pocket..
    – Lechucico
    Nov 14, 2017 at 8:39
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    Indeed. You're probably looking for something more like the Onion Omega.
    – K.Nicholas
    Nov 14, 2017 at 18:20
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    I don't see an accelerometer or something else on Onion Omega for tracking activity.
    – Lechucico
    Nov 14, 2017 at 21:08
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    @KarlNicholas - no, the Onion Omega makes absolutely no sense in this application. It's a wifi router chip that typically runs Linux and has no power management capabilities whatsoever, so won't last long on battery.
    – Chris Stratton
    Nov 18, 2017 at 2:13
  • Much as I love it (and have just ordered the Pro), it doesn't have BLE and I prefer to run it on mains power. A great little device, though, which I would choose over a Pi any day of the week.
    – Mawg says reinstate Monica
    Jan 11, 2019 at 11:40

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