This wiki is the archive of the Make Open Data camps and hackathons that the Opendata.ch community has run since 2011. Current events and projects are on opendata.ch, questions go to the forum.

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Trying to open proprietary medical sensors and connect them to the Internet.

Connecting a personal medical sensor device to the Internet enables storing measurements over time (compared to a single measurement displayed on the device display). A connected sensor is thus more valuable than a stand-alone device. Connected sensors do exist, but are often quite expensive. On the other hand, Bluetooth modules and Bluetooth enabled Smartphones are readily available and can act as a cheap gateway to the Internet.

[Oct 2012] “voodoo” interface, oscilloscope measurement:

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[Nov 2012] intercepting the i2c bus:

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[Nov 2012] talking to the EEPROM (i2c multi master setup):

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  • Open the medical sensor device housing [DONE]
  • Find a way to intercept data sent to LCD display [DONE]
  • Detect signals sent to LCD display with multimeter [DONE]
  • Detect signals sent to LCD with oscilloscope [DONE Oct 2012]
  • Attach wires to LCD display, to do the measurement with an Arduino [DONE Oct 2012]
  • Decode communication protocol between device and LCD display [FAILED Oct 2012]
  • Attach wires to i2c test points SCL and SDA [DONE Nov 2012]
  • Decode signals sent over i2c when storing measurements with protocol sniffer [DONE Nov 2012]
  • Read values with Arduino via i2c from EEPROM [DONE Nov 2012]
  • Setup Bluetooth module to send measurements from Arduino [DONE]
  • Receive measurements sent via Bluetooth with (Windows) Laptop [DONE]
  • Receive measurements sent via Bluetooth with Android [DONE]
  • Make measurements available on the Internet [TODO]
  • Plan B: use OCR (e.g. this Google API) to read med device display with Android camera [TODO]
  • Integrate parts, add portable battery [TODO]
  • Repackage device [TODO]
  • Screwdriver
  • Multimeter
  • Soldering Iron
  • A Physics Lab… [post event note ;)]
  • Oscilloscope [Oct 2012]
  • Logic Analyzer [Nov 2012]
  • project/openmedsensor.txt
  • Last modified: 2026/09/26 09:16
  • by opendata.ch