Friday, January 26, 2018

BSX sensor hacking part 2, macros

The previous post described how to start the BSX sensor without the app and of course without a BSX Athletics internet presence(for when they shut down the servers).
The following guide augments the ease with which to do so via the NRF connect macro capability and we will go over the code to turn the sensor off (to conserve battery for example).  Using the macro will let you start your sensor in just a few seconds and very few button clicks.

This assumes you have downloaded and installed the NRF app, sensor is powered on but not flashing leds.

I have both the start and stop macro which are just xml files containing the code and characteristic to write to. Download both, save and place them as noted below

Place the xml files into the following folder structure:

 

Next, start NRF connect and connect to the Insight

 

Notice the Red button on the bottom right, press it and the macro choices will pop up.

 
You will want to press the add macro to install the 2 macros we just downloaded.
So press and a file navigation window will appear. 

 
Press the file chooser in the Left upper corner, a list of file browsers will appear, then find the macros one at a time (they will be in the macro folder as above)

Choose one, hit ok and it is now added.  Repeat for the BSX off macro as well.

To start the sensor in the future, just take the unit off the cradle (or whack it a few times), open NRF connect, connect to Insight, open the macro screen again by clicking on the lower red button:

Then click the play button next to the macro:
 

You can then disconnect, back out of the app to kill it.

To stop the sensor, open the app again, reconnect, choose the stop macro and you are done. 

If you want to manually turn off the sensor the code is 040000.

11 comments:

  1. part 1 missing please update thanks

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  2. Replies
    1. thanks so much, and thanks for the muscle articles you do

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  3. Your "Bsx Off" file is named "BSX Start" (in the xml metadata). Not a big deal to update, and it doesn't impact anything other than being a bit confusing when loaded the "off" file, but saw a duplicate "start" macro in the nRF app.

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  4. Hi Bruce, struggling to get this to work tbh. I've got the macros into NRF and I had to change the access codes to 0402 in the XML files and when I run the macros I can see that it says Write 0x040200 so I know that's worked. When I hit the play symbol I get a blue tick so it looks like it's trying to do something but the device doesn't go to flashing red LEDs. Am I missing something? I had it going with the flashing red LEDs before I installed the macros.

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  5. Further update - I can now get it started with the direct write of 040200 as per the first blog post and the "stop" macro does work, it's just the start macro which doesn't get it going.

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  6. The only difference I can see between the 2 macros are in the write commands where stop has a value of 040000 and start has 040100

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  7. I have not messed with my macros in a while but I recall there being different macros for different firmware versions. I never use the off since if you put it in the charger it goes off. Do you need the new macro or did you successfully modify it?

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  8. Well I had to use the 0402 version to get it to turn on without using a macro so once I did download the macros I saw that they contained 0401 so I edited them both so they contain 0402. TBH I can get it going and I can turn it off so that's all I really need to do. Now I just have to decide if I even want or need to use it again :-)

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    Replies
    1. If you have the "motivation" try an incremental ramp to failure with the sensor on the RF. Perhaps 10w per min or 30w/3min stages. You should see a slope change at the MLSS

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  9. hello, i need to buy a BSX gen2. Does anyone here have this device?

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