SDK for Instinct ? The watch is rugged.. would like to create some Widgets! The watch is more rugged than many of your expensive watches!

I would like to create some widgets for the Instinct, and share them for free. I write code in C, C++, Java, PHP, Python, Perl, Ruby, and Go. The Instinct is a rugged watch, the GPS is fast to get a lock. I would like to write some custom widgets and apps. I would like to write a Tidal widget, News widget, A widget that displays iNAV telemetry data from my model aircraft (I am halfway there because I can display it on a smartphone.. I just need to open a connection to the Garmin Instinct and stream the data from my phone.) I also would like to stream data from devices that I have built.

An SDK would be useful. Much easier than downloading a firmware update, loading it up in QEMU and the proper processor virtualization, and reverse engineering it.

I fully realize the Instinct is currently not compatible with Connect IQ. It doesn't need to be. I won't mind creating a new image with my additional widgets and apps and just flashing my watch with the new image.

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7979820 over 3 years ago in reply to 7294096 +9

I'll post it when I have a "Hello World" app ready. Right now I'm still in the reverse engineering stage. This weekend it's going to be perfect for flying model aircraft, I won't…
trux over 3 years ago +1

All available SDKs are listed at https://developer.garmin.com/, though for the access to most of them you'd need to become a corporate partner of Garmin and pay license fees, and none of them would allow…
7979820 over 3 years ago in reply to trux +1

I was going to return the watch because of the lack of an Open SDK. I wore the Instinct when I went flying r/c aircraft at my club's airfield. The field is located ona dairy farm, next to a river inlet…

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0 trux over 3 years ago

All available SDKs are listed at https://developer.garmin.com/, though for the access to most of them you'd need to become a corporate partner of Garmin and pay license fees, and none of them would allow you to write widgets for the Instinct, anyway. For doing that, you best apply for a job at Garmin, since I strongly doubt they would release any API or SDK for that purpose

0 7979820 over 3 years ago in reply to trux

ok. Plan B time. I'll DL the image and see what I can do. updating widgets from a datastream is easy stuff.

I bought the watch because it was rugged. And was tested to withstand a water depth of 323ft. I don't need all the features found in google wear os.

It appears Garmin lost touch with their customers. I think an SDK built on Open Source code should be open and free.

no license fees. If anything more apps and more widgets = more gadget sales.

0 tmk2 over 3 years ago in reply to 7979820

7979820 said:
It appears Garmin lost touch with their customers.

Sales numbers tell a totally different story.

0 kidney_thief over 3 years ago in reply to 7979820

Yeah, I'm pretty bummed how Garmin locked up all our data. They limited all their oauth apis etc. I suppose it's just a part of corporate warfare against china.

0 7979820 over 3 years ago in reply to trux

I was going to return the watch because of the lack of an Open SDK. I wore the Instinct when I went flying r/c aircraft at my club's airfield. The field is located ona dairy farm, next to a river inlet, river, and the coastline is only 1 mile out. Anyway after flying I decided to go for a hike into a wooded area where one of my large sailplanes crashed earlier this year. I enabled the Instinct's BackTrack feature. No phone on me, I left that in my Wrangler. Anyway I hiked out about three miles. During my search I went at least 500ft off the trail. The TrackBack breadcrumbs came in handy.

The fact the watch is more rugged than basically anything else out there and the TrackBack feature worked extremely well, I changed my mind about returning it. I may just buy the cheapest Garmin device that the instinct can connect to and with my HackRF SDR and some clever software tools I may be able to reverse engineer the protocol used for the watch to connect to the device and how to upload data to to the device.

If Garmin wants to take the world market by storm, they should open up the SDK, release it for all product. Most of the code is based on opensource software anyway.

0 Fedde over 3 years ago

Agreed, open source would be so cool, many users here with alot of ideas and opinions regarding software, so much that could be done

0 7294096 over 3 years ago

I do wish that there was an SDK for the Instinch, but there is not, even adding some widgets would be nice. But honestly they reserve that feature for the Fenix which is the one that is able to do that. Even tough having and Open Source SDK would be awesome.

0 7979820 over 3 years ago in reply to 7294096

The Instinct Tactical watch is more rugged. I already captured communication over bluetooth between my watch and phone as well as the sync protocol in action. I used a HackRF HR to capture the data. I'm pretty confident I would be able to emulate a Garmin Device setup. A custom widget page would be used to display the data.

Right now everything I need I can just push as a notification, I'll post the garmin protocol info I found on GitHub just as a nudge to get motivate Garmin to go Open Source. This is isn't rocket science. bluetooth communication is pretty easy to hack.

0 7294096 over 3 years ago in reply to 7979820

Please send the Github Link.

0 7979820 over 3 years ago in reply to 7294096

I'll post it when I have a "Hello World" app ready. Right now I'm still in the reverse engineering stage. This weekend it's going to be perfect for flying model aircraft, I won't be working on it this week. One the weather turns.. then the GARMIN Instinct Open SDK will be one of my winter projects.