halkyon/docs/adr/0030-halkyon-train.md

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# ADR 0030: Halkyon Train, what it does and where its data comes from
- **Status:** decided 27–28 Oct 2026, by the developer (D1–D46 below). The shell (D12)
is built; recording (D13–D28) is built on Android, iOS waiting for a Mac; Health
Connect (D29–D31) is built; the Loop's setup and keeping (7a, D34–D36) and its
daily data (7b, D37, D38), its sessions (7c, D39) and its firmware (D10, D40) are
built, and its live heart rate (7d, D41); intervals (D42, D43) are built: the plans
(8a), the service running them (8b) and the laps a workout keeps (8c); routes (D44,
D45) are being built.
- **Numbering:** 0025 is held by the federation draft (stashed), 0026–0029 by the .NET
rewrite on the local branch `rewrite-dotnet`, abandoned on 27 Oct; Train takes the next
free number so that neither is ever read as this one.
- **Followed by:** [ADR 0031](0031-the-apps-icons.md) (the apps' icons, Train's among them).
- **Relates to:** ADR 0014 (halkyon_base, which Train's server includes like every other),
ADR 0016 (one account across an operator's services; Train is one of them).
## Context
Train is the third of Halkyon's apps after Learn and Todo, so far only named. On 27 Oct
the developer asked for it to "encompass advanced features for running and cycling", to
connect to a Polar Loop, and for rowing machines' APIs to be looked into (WaterRower,
Kettler, Christopeit, BH Fitness, Tunturi), the Christopeit WP 5000 in detail. For running
they asked for "GPS tracking, automatic stop (*at least* the functionality of e.g.
F-Droid's OpenTracks)", HIIT, music in tandem with the pace, and planning tracks as on
Strava. What was found, 27 Oct:
- **Open Bluetooth profiles carry most of it.** Heart rate (`0x180D`, measurement `0x2A37`
with RR intervals, hence HRV), running speed and cadence (`0x1814`), cycling speed,
cadence and power, and the Fitness Machine Service (FTMS, `0x1826`; Rower Data
`0x2AD1`, Indoor Bike Data, Treadmill Data; resistance set through its control point).
Any strap, footpod, power meter, smart trainer or FTMS rower works without a vendor's
account or SDK, on every platform with Bluetooth LE. Pixels have no ANT+ radio, so on
GrapheneOS Train is Bluetooth LE only.
- **The Polar Loop** (Sept 2025, no screen, no GPS) is no Bluetooth standard: it speaks
Polar's own protocol, and doesn't broadcast its heart rate as a `0x180D` sensor (Polar:
it "cannot be used as a heart rate sensor for other devices"). Polar's BLE SDK
(Android and iOS, its own permissive licence, source-available) covers it: first-time
setup from one's own app (`doFirstTimeUse()`, no Polar account named anywhere), live
HR, acceleration, PPI, skin temperature and PPG, and the export of sleep, sessions,
daily activity, 24/7 HR and PPI and Nightly Recharge. It pairs with one peer only;
re-pairing needs a factory reset. Firmware updates fetch from Polar (a check sending
the device's UUID, firmware version and hardware code, no health data). Polar's cloud
(AccessLink, OAuth) gives much the same through Polar Flow, free for now and revocable.
- **Rowing machines**: none of the five brands publishes an API. WaterRower documents
its S4/S5 monitor's USB serial protocol and its ComModule speaks FTMS; BH's current
i.Concept range speaks FTMS; Kettler's Coach 2 very probably, Christopeit's and
Tunturi's unconfirmed. Concept2's PM5 is documented and speaks FTMS. Older machines on
Classic Bluetooth (SPP) are reachable neither on iOS nor well from Flutter.
- **The Christopeit WP 5000** (manual of 6 Nov 2025): Bluetooth 4.0, a built-in Bluetooth
heart-rate receiver, water with a 16-level magnetic brake the console moves itself (its
12 programmes change it), mains-powered. Its manual names Kinomap, picked by brand, not
as a generic FTMS device; an owner reports (mid-2025) that neither a Garmin's FTMS
rowing profile nor EXR could pair. Christopeit's own app, Christopeit Connect (Vescape,
`com.vescape.christopeit`), supports it, declares no data collected (App Store), and
writes workouts to Health Connect or Apple Health. Whether the console speaks FTMS is
unknown until it is scanned.
- **Health Connect** is part of Android since 14, so GrapheneOS has it without Google Play;
data stays on the device and each app is granted each type. Gadgetbridge (Garmin,
Huawei, Colmi rings, Amazfit and others, no account) and Christopeit Connect write to
it; OpenTracks writes sessions, distance, speed and routes there, but no heart rate.
- **OpenTracks** is Apache-2.0, so its logic may be taken into Train (AGPL) with its
notice; the open projects talking to rowers and trainers (qdomyos-zwift,
OpenRowingMonitor, pirowflo) are GPL, references for the protocols only.
- **Music by tempo**: Spotify closed its tempo data (audio features) to new apps on 27 Nov
2024; Qobuz grants its API to commercial partners only and refuses open-source
integrations. Another Android app's title can be read from its media session and its
tempo looked up (Deezer's `bpm`, often missing; AcousticBrainz, frozen since 2022), but
only shown, never chosen by. Jellyfin's API is open but has no tempo field.
## Decisions (27 Oct 2026, the developer's)
- **D1 What Train does**: running and cycling with "advanced features", rowing machines,
the Polar Loop. For running at least what OpenTracks does (GPS tracking, pausing by
itself), structured intervals (HIIT), music matching the pace, and planning routes as
on Strava.
- **D2 In this order** (recommended): recording first (GPS, auto-pause, a heart-rate
strap), then intervals, then route planning, then music. Recording is what everything
else builds on; route planning is the largest piece (maps and a router); music needs
the intervals' targets to follow.
- **D3 Train takes over the Polar Loop** through Polar's BLE SDK, with no Polar Flow and no
Polar account (recommended, over AccessLink, Polar's cloud, as the main way in): the
SDK gives nearly all AccessLink would, on the device and without Polar in between. Since
the Loop pairs with one peer, the band is Train's alone; the phone holding it syncs it,
and other devices see its data through Train's server, as the SDK runs on Android and
iOS only.
- **D4 Music comes from Jellyfin, with Train as the player** (recommended, over reading
what Spotify or Qobuz play, which the developer judged "a rather stale feature"): Train
chooses the next track by the cadence or pace an interval asks for, may speed a track
up or slow it down a few per cent, and downloads the chosen tracks before a run for
playing offline. Each track's tempo is worked out by Train from its audio, once, and
kept (Jellyfin has no tempo field; its MusicTags plugin only passes on a BPM tag files
already have). A metronome at the target cadence works where no library is set.
- **D5 Devices connect to phones only, through `flutter_reactive_ble`** (BSD-3, Android
and iOS, Philips Hue's; recommended once the desktop was out, over `universal_ble`,
BSD-3 on every platform but younger and less used, and over `flutter_blue_plus`, whose
own licence asks a fee for commercial use, which an AGPL app can't pass on): "I find it
exceedingly unlikely one owns or purchases a fitness band or smartwatch without
intending or even owning a smartphone", and "the open license is also of paramount
importance". Train talks to its own small interface (scan, connect, subscribe, write),
the profiles' parsers are pure Dart, tested on recorded frames, so another library can
take its place behind it.
- **D6 Health Connect both ways** (recommended): Train writes its workouts there (the
session with its type, route, heart rate, distance, speed and calories), off until the
person turns it on, its own store staying the source of truth; and reads from there
other apps' workout sessions (their heart rate, distance, power) and the person's weight
and resting heart rate, each source turned on by itself. Sources Train can't speak to
(Garmin and Colmi through Gadgetbridge, the WP 5000 through Christopeit Connect) come
in so; Train tells its own records by their origin and takes a session another app
wrote of a workout it recorded itself for the same one. Through the `health` package
(MIT, CARP's, Android and iOS; recommended was a Kotlin channel of our own): it has no
types for power or cadence, which Train therefore neither writes nor reads there, but
records from the sensors directly; they can be added upstream or by a channel of our
own when a source needs them.
- **D7 Train's data is sealed, always** (recommended): the payloads of its rows (sessions,
routes, every series, what is imported) are ADR 0017's sealed content under the
person's data key, as ADR 0019 seals a private studyset, so the instance syncs what it
can't read; imported data syncs as Train's own does. Health data is a special category
of the GDPR (Art. 9), and nothing on the server needs to read it. The instance still
sees that a row exists, its size, and when it changed; what Train works out (training
load, zones, records) is worked out on the device; a route shared later is a copy made
readable on purpose, as publishing is in Learn.
- **D8 The WP 5000 is an FTMS rower, reached by Train's FTMS client and nothing of its
own** (found on the developer's machine, 27 Oct, with nRF Connect): its console
(`MRK-950R-8021`) advertises the Fitness Machine service, with its service data saying
"rower, available" (`0x1826`, `01 10 00`), and offers Fitness Machine Feature, Status,
Training Status, the Control Point (write, indicate), Rower Data (notify) and Supported
Resistance Level Range. Its features: cadence, total distance, pace, resistance level,
stroke count, energy, heart rate, elapsed time, power, and setting a resistance target.
A frame while rowing: 25 strokes a minute, 6 strokes, 18 m, pace 439 s, 100 W,
resistance 1, 1 kcal, heart rate 0 (no strap), 17 s. The forum's report that Garmin and
EXR couldn't pair isn't explained by the machine as it is now (an older firmware, or a
console already connected elsewhere, which most allow one of, may be). Its other
services (`0xFFF0`, `0xF100`, `0xAE00`, and one whose UUID spells "YULU" and "MERACH",
presumably the console's maker's own protocol, which Kinomap and Christopeit Connect
may use) are left alone; Health Connect and working out a protocol aren't needed.
- **D9 No WaterRower USB driver for now** (recommended): it would serve S4 monitors
without the ComModule, on Android only (iOS allows no USB serial device outside Apple's
accessory programme), through an OTG cable during the workout, as a second transport
beside Bluetooth, with no WaterRower at hand to test on; a WaterRower with the
ComModule speaks FTMS. Its protocol is published, so a driver can be added behind
Train's sensor interface once someone asks for it with one at hand.
- **D10 The Loop's firmware: from Polar directly by default, or through the instance**
(the developer's choice, after option 1 alone was recommended for phones always on a
VPN; over updating never). Polar's SDK checks with Polar's Firmware Management API
(sending a UUID made from the band's ID, its firmware version, its hardware code and
a fixed client name, no health data) and flashes either what it fetched or a file on
the phone (`updateFirmware(identifier, firmwareUrl)` takes `file://`, read in its
source, 27 Oct); the band's settings are backed up over Bluetooth into the phone's
memory and written back, never sent anywhere. So:
- **Directly** (the default): the phone asks Polar and fetches the file. Polar learns
the phone's address, a VPN's exit if one is always on (on GrapheneOS with "Block
connections without VPN").
- **Through the instance** (a setting): the phone sends the band's UUID, firmware
version and hardware code to Train's server, which asks Polar, fetches the file once
for every band of that hardware and hands it to the phone, which flashes it from a
file. Polar learns the instance's address, which on a small instance points at its
operator nearly as well as a home's does.
Train says both where the setting is, and names what Polar learns where it offers an
update. An update never starts by itself: Train first syncs what is on the band and
deletes it there, says the band is erased and set up again, and asks.
- **D11 Maps and routes** (recommended, after looking at how open apps do it; 27 Oct):
- **The map widget is `flutter_map`** (BSD-3, Fleaflet's; the developer's choice, over
`maplibre`, BSD-3 and rendering vector tiles natively but at 0.3): drawing tracks,
heart rate's colours and waypoints over the map is ordinary Flutter. Vector tiles
come through `vector_map_tiles` and its PMTiles plugin, tested on the developer's
phone with a region's file before route planning is built; should it stutter,
`maplibre` takes the map screens' place.
- **The map's source is the instance's, one of three** (an operator's setting): a PMTiles
file of its region as a sidecar (recommended, seen by no one else); OpenFreeMap (no
key, no contract; the default without a sidecar); or a provider of the operator's
choice with its address and key (MapTiler, JawgMaps and the European others), whose
key is then readable by anyone using the app. OpenStreetMap's own tile servers forbid
such use. The app names the source in use and what it sees.
- **The router is BRouter, as a sidecar** (MIT; recommended over GraphHopper, which needs
gigabytes to import a country, and Valhalla, with fewer sport profiles): its own image,
128–512 MB, the 5°×5° segments of the operator's region downloaded from BRouter's
project (built from OSM with elevation) and refreshed monthly, its profiles text files
a running one can be written for. As LanguageTool: no site of its own, reached by
Train's server only, for people signed in, limited, no waypoint kept or logged. A
route saved is Train's data, sealed (D7). Searching for places (geocoding) is
decided when planning is built; until then a route is planned by tapping the map.
- **Offline**: recording, following a route (synced beforehand with BRouter's turn
hints), noticing a detour and guiding back to the route, music. Maps offline along a
route (a corridor of a few kilometres downloaded with it), whole regions optional:
a phone with CoMaps holds them already. Planning, rerouting and searching need the
instance; BRouter on Android (its app, or its engine inside Train) may come later,
never on iOS (no Java).
- **With CoMaps** (Apache-2.0, OSM's data; read in its source at `63a53413`, 27 Oct, by
an agent, nothing tried on a device): its maps (MWM, its own format, in its private
storage) can't be read by another app, so the apps work together instead:
1. a route planned in Train goes to CoMaps as GPX (VIEW or SEND, a new list each;
tracks, routes, waypoints, elevation, times, colours kept; no GeoJSON), to be
seen there offline;
2. turn hints come from Train, which announces them with the workout's own, since
CoMaps navigates along no imported track (its issue #251, open);
3. optional: a route to a point is handed to CoMaps (`cm://route?sll=…&saddr=…&dll=…
&daddr=…&type=pedestrian|bicycle`), which builds it offline and the person starts;
on Android, Train may read along through CoMaps' navigation provider (since mid
2026; a runtime permission the person grants), for the route and what is left;
4. tracks and routes from CoMaps reach Train as GPX when the person shares them.
Train builds the `cm://` links itself: Organic Maps' API library and `om://` don't
reach CoMaps on Android. On iOS (`iphone/Maps/CoMaps.plist`, `DeepLinkHandler.swift`,
read 28 Oct): GPX, KML and KMZ open in CoMaps (1, 4), `cm://route` works with one
point between start and finish (3), its `backurl` leads back to Train; picking a
point (`crosshair`) is "not supported on iOS", and iOS has no navigation provider.
- **D12 Train's shell is Todo's** (recommended, 27 Oct; the icon the developer's choice,
the rest taken without objection on 28 Oct):
- **a server of its own**, `apps/train/` with `halkyon_train_server`, `_client`,
`_flutter`, including halkyon_base (`trainBase()`), its own register when it runs
alone and a member of the instance's where the operator names one (ADR 0016); over
Train's endpoints in Learn's server, whose deploys, migrations and failures would
then be Train's, and which an operator couldn't run Train without;
- **synced with `serverpod_offline_sync`** (ADR 0001), its rows sealed (D7), since
recording happens offline;
- **ports of its own in development**, 8180–8191 where Learn and Todo share
8080–8091, so that Train runs beside Learn's server as a member of its register;
- **Android and iOS** record; **Linux, macOS and Windows** show and plan (D5); no web,
as for Learn and Todo, whose keys (ADR 0017) need libsodium natively;
- **Halkyon Train**, `app.halkyon.train`, in English and German alike;
- **its icon is Lucide's `bike`**, in the family of [ADR 0031](0031-the-apps-icons.md)
("activity" and "heart-pulse" look like basic health apps, "a defibrillator or ADAC
health application"; "this is more about training"; Lucide has no runner);
- **deployed once recording works** and the developer wants to use it, not as an
empty shell first.
## Recording (28 Oct 2026, the developer's)
- **D13 Positions are recorded by Train's own platform code** (recommended, over the
`geolocator` package and paid background-tracking packages): on Android a foreground
service of its own, as Learn's Pomodoro timer has, reading `LocationManager`'s GPS
provider as OpenTracks does and appending every fix to a recording file in the app's
folder, which the app follows while open and takes in when it opens again; on iOS
CoreLocation with background location; both behind one interface (`TrackRecorder`),
faked in tests. So a recording goes on with the app swiped away, and nothing of Google
Play services is in the app: `geolocator`'s Android part depends on Play services'
location library even where its `forceLocationManager` keeps it from being used, a
non-free library that F-Droid's main repository refuses, and its positions arrive in
Dart, which a swipe ends. The strap and the rower join the same service later.
- **D14 A workout and its series are kept apart** (recommended, over one row holding
every sample and over sealed GPX or FIT files in the instance's storage): `workout`
(type, start, end, name, notes, totals; changed when edited, the last writer winning, as
a studyset's payload) and `workout_series` (a chunk of one series, positions, heart rate,
strokes, pauses, of up to 10 minutes; written once as the workout is saved, never
changed, deleted with its workout, as Learn's review log), every payload sealed (D7)
and nothing readable in a column, not the type nor the start. Editing a workout touches
one small row, two devices never conflict over samples, and every source is one more
kind of series. A chunk's payload is JSON as every payload, each column (time,
latitude, longitude, altitude, accuracy, …) a list of whole-number differences from the
value before, gzipped before it is sealed, since sealed bytes compress no more. The
recording file is the device's own and never synced. UUID v7 ids carry their creation
time, which the sync engine's change times tell anyway (D7's list).
- **D15 Sealing: the envelope moves into halkyon_app, Train holds its key itself**
(recommended, over moving all of Learn's key management and over a copy of the
envelope in Train): Learn's `PayloadEnvelope` (a payload sealed for its table, row and
column; readable payloads signed by the account; what doesn't open `Locked`) moves
unchanged into halkyon_app, Learn importing it from there; Train has one key per person
in a synced `content_key` row, its sealed ID saying it is the person's, and a device
without the account's keys writes nothing, as in Learn. Learn's tree (private or
readable studysets, their records, rewrites) stays Learn's. Publishing a workout later
doesn't change it (asked by the developer): a published workout is a readable copy made
on the device (D7), which may leave out the heart rate or the first and last few hundred
metres, as Strava's privacy zones do, the sealed workout staying as it is; the envelope
can sign the copy with the account's key.
- **D16 Auto-pause by each activity's best signal, never discarding samples**
(recommended, over GPS alone and over manual pauses only): a pause, automatic or by
hand, is a marker in a series of its own, and moving time, pace and the totals leave
paused stretches out, so a misjudged pause is corrected from the data afterwards.
Running and walking stop with the phone's step detector (Android's step sensor, iOS's
pedometer; its permission asked for, GPS alone without it), confirmed by GPS; cycling
by GPS speed, paused below 3 km/h for 5 s and going on above 5 km/h; rowing by the
rower's stroke rate, no stroke for 5 s. On by default for running and cycling, the
thresholds adjustable once Train has settings.
- **D17 Running, walking, hiking, cycling and indoor rowing first, in this order of
parts** (recommended): 5a the envelope moved, Train's key holder, the two models and
their migration, the chunk codec and the first synced repository; 5b recording on
Android (the service, the file taken in after a swipe, the recording screen,
auto-pause, saving); 5c the workouts and a workout's page with its track on a map
(D11's `flutter_map` and the instance's tile source brought forward from route
planning, the developer's choice: a run without its track looks unfinished), totals,
splits and charts; 5d recording on iOS; 5e the heart-rate strap; 5f the WP 5000 over
FTMS, from frames recorded with nRF Connect. Health Connect (D6) and the Loop (D3)
follow recording. Each type maps onto one of Health Connect's exercise types, and is a
name in the sealed payload, so new ones need no migration.
- **D18 The recording file is text, one sample a line, appended** (recommended, over
fixed-size binary records, smaller only while recording, as a saved workout is
delta-coded JSON anyway, and over samples handed straight to Dart, lost when Android
stops the Flutter engine while the service runs, against D13): each line a sample with
its kind (a position, a heart rate, a step, a pause's start or end) and its time,
flushed every few seconds. A line cut short is dropped as it is read; an unfinished
file the app finds when it next opens is offered to be saved up to its last sample or
thrown away. It lies in the person's folder, in the app's private storage, unsealed,
as their local database does, until it is saved as a workout and sealed (D7).
- **D19 Permissions asked when first needed, never background location**
(recommended, over background location, which would let a recording start with Train
closed and go on after Android killed its process, but asks to be allowed all the time
on a settings page of its own since Android 11 and a declaration on Google Play, more
than Train's privacy fits; OpenTracks does without it too): precise location and, on
Android 13 and later, notifications as an activity with GPS first starts, not at
install or first launch (refused notifications hide the recording's notification and
leave it running); physical activity only as running, walking or hiking first starts
with auto-pause on, for the step detector (D16), auto-pause falling back to GPS speed
for that workout where it is refused. The service is a foreground service of the types
`location` and `health`, started from the app while it is open, which keeps its access
to location with the screen off; a process Android kills leaves its file (D18) to be
found when Train next opens.
- **D20 Every fix is kept with its accuracy, and filtered as it is read**
(recommended, over dropping imprecise fixes in the service, which keeps the series
smaller and the reading simpler but can't be undone for the workouts recorded under a
threshold that proves wrong): the file and the saved series hold each fix the phone
delivered with the accuracy it reported; distance, pace, splits and the track drawn
leave out the fixes less accurate than a threshold, 20 m to start with (as OpenTracks'
default), adjustable once Train has settings. A better filter later (smoothing, a
Kalman filter) reads old workouts anew, as nothing was thrown away. An hour at a fix a
second is 3,600 fixes, tens of kilobytes delta-coded and gzipped.
- **D21 The recording screen** (proposed, the developer's): home's Record button opens a
sheet of the activities, the last one recorded chosen, with auto-pause's switch as D16
sets it; Start asks the permissions (D19). Until the first fix precise enough the
screen says it waits for GPS, showing the accuracy, while it records already, the time
from Start. Recording, it shows the moving time, the distance and the pace now (min/km
running, walking and hiking, km/h cycling; rowing time alone until 5f; heart rate once
a strap is there, 5e), an automatic pause told apart from one by hand, no map until 5c.
Stop is a long press, so that no pocket ends a run (over a tap and a confirmation,
quicker and easier to hit by mistake), then Save or Discard, Discard asked again. The
notification shows time and distance with Pause or Resume and opens the app; stopping
only in the app, so that no stray touch on the lock screen ends a workout. A recording
found cut off as Train opens (D18) is offered to be saved up to its last sample or
discarded.
Built on 28 Oct with three choices of the implementation's, for the developer to look
at: rowing indoors isn't offered yet, as a foreground service on Android 14 and later
needs a type its permissions allow and rowing without the rower has none (5f's
Bluetooth gives it `connectedDevice`); on foot without the step detector auto-pause
goes by GPS speed below 2 km/h for 5 s, going on above 3 km/h (D16 names only the
bike's thresholds); and Stop's hint shows above the button for three seconds rather
than in a snack bar, which would cover the button it speaks of. The service holds a
partial wake lock while it records (at most 12 hours), so that its clock and file run
with the screen off where no GPS fix wakes the processor.
- **D22 OpenFreeMap first, the PMTiles sidecar with route planning** (recommended, over
the sidecar now, which no one else ever sees the areas viewed through but needs Train's
server and the sidecar deployed on learn.halkyon.eu before anything else of Train is
ready, and a region chosen, gigabytes on the server's disk; and over a source fixed in
the app, which skips D11's operator's setting and would be undone): Train's server names
the instance's map source, as its operator sets it, OpenFreeMap where nothing is set
(D11), so 5c needs no deploy; a workout's page names the source drawing it and what it
sees (the device's address and the area viewed, not the track). The sidecar comes when
route planning gives Train's server a reason to run on the instance: the region's
PMTiles file served as ordinary tiles (D23).
- **D23 `flutter_map` 8 with `vector_map_tiles` 9's beta** (recommended; 28 Oct): D11's
combination doesn't exist as released, as `vector_map_tiles`' stable line (8) needs
`flutter_map` 7 and its PMTiles plugin (1.5.0, October 2024) `vector_map_tiles` 8,
while the 9 line, beta since November 2024 (beta.13 on 1 September 2026), is where its
maintainer works and needs `flutter_map` 8. Over the stable line, all three packages
of 2024 and held there until 9 is out, and over `maplibre` (0.3.7), native and smooth
but drawing tracks and their colours as its layers rather than Flutter's widgets, the
reason for D11's choice. The beta is pinned exactly and moves to 9.0.0 once released;
the sidecar serves the region's PMTiles file as ordinary vector tiles with Protomaps'
`pmtiles serve` (go-pmtiles, BSD-3-Clause) instead of the app reading it, so the app
holds nothing of PMTiles'.
- **D24 The workouts and a workout's page** (the developer's; 28 Oct): home lists
the workouts newest first under their months, each with its activity's icon, its name
(else the time of day's and the activity's, "Morning run"), its day and start, distance,
moving time and pace (km/h cycling); one this device can't open shows locked; Record
stays. A workout's page: the map on its upper part, the track in cobalt, its pauses
gaps rather than straight jumps, start and end marked, the source's credit on it, fit
to the track (heart rate's colours with the strap, 5e); its totals (distance, moving
time, pace or speed, the whole time, the elevation gained, counting climbs above 3 m
of the fixes precise enough, as GPS's altitude is noisy); its splits, per kilometre on
foot, per 5 km cycling; charts of pace or speed and of elevation over the distance,
drawn by the app's own small painter (over `fl_chart`, MIT, larger than two lines
need and one more dependency to follow); under the map, which source draws it and what
that sees, with its page where the operator names one (D22). Its name and notes are
edited; deleting asks first and offers an undo, as Learn's deletions do. Without GPS no
map and no splits.
Built so (28 Oct), with choices of mine for the developer to look at: the day's parts
start at 5, 12, 17 and 22 on the device's clock; locked workouts come last under no
month, as when they were is sealed too; the map stays fixed above the page as it
scrolls, pans and zooms but doesn't turn, and folds the source's credit into
flutter_map's attribution button, the credit being wider than a phone; start green,
end cerise, the track cobalt in either theme (the map's colours are the source's);
the charts show their lowest and highest value beside them and nothing else; where
the instance can't be asked for its map source, the page says so and shows the rest;
the elevation counts a climb once it passes 3 m above where it last turned, so a
steady climb's last metres short of the next 3 are not counted (a 20 m hill reads as
18 or 19 m): the simple filter, to be compared with recorded runs.
- **D25 iOS recording waits for a Mac** (the developer's; 28 Oct): 5e and 5f come before
5d, which moves to the end of step 5. iOS's side (CoreLocation with background
location, the pedometer, a Live Activity for the notification) needs Xcode, which runs
on macOS alone, and this machine has none; written unbuilt it would look done and not
compile, and CI's runner has no Xcode either. The heart-rate strap and the WP 5000 are
built and tested on Android here meanwhile.
- **D26 The recorder service talks to the strap itself** (recommended, the developer's;
28 Oct; over `flutter_reactive_ble` for finding the strap beside it, two stacks touching
one strap for one screen's sake, and over D5's Dart alone, whose heart rate would stop
where a swipe stops the Flutter engine, D18, while GPS records on): Android's own
Bluetooth API in Kotlin, as OpenTracks has it, connects during a recording and writes
the `h` lines, so heart rate is recorded as long as positions are; finding and choosing
a strap goes through the recorder's channel too, so Train has one Bluetooth stack and
no Bluetooth package. This revises D5: its open licence holds, as nothing third-party
is left, and the platform's API sits behind `RecorderPlatform` as the library would
have behind Train's own interface. The profiles' parsers (Heart Rate Measurement now,
FTMS's Rower Data in 5f) are Kotlin, tested on the JVM on recorded frames, and iOS (5d)
needs them again in Swift.
- **D27 The strap, from choosing it to the workout's page** (the developer's; 28 Oct): the
Record sheet's *Heart rate* row names the strap or "No strap" and opens a sheet that
looks for devices advertising the Heart Rate Service (0x180D), the nearest first;
the one chosen is remembered on the device, in the person's folder (`strap.json`, its
address and name, never synced: each phone finds it anew), *Forget strap* letting it
go. Nearby devices are asked for as the sheet first looks (D19), declared never to
locate (Android 12 on; before, scanning needs location). No bonding: the service
connects by address. A remembered strap records with every workout unless switched
off on the sheet for one; the recording doesn't wait for it. The recording screen
shows the heart rate ("–" while connecting), and "Strap lost" where GPS's state shows
while it is gone; the notification stays time and distance, as a rate changing each
second would repost it each second. A lost strap is asked for again in the background
for as long as the recording runs; the minutes without it stay a gap. Only the rate is
kept (`h` lines), not the R-R intervals, until something uses them. The workout's
page: the heart's average and highest rate while moving among the totals, each
split's average, and its chart over the distance (over the moving time without a
track). The track is coloured by heart-rate zones once Train's settings hold the
person's maximum rate, as colouring by each workout's own range paints an easy run
as red as a race.
Built so (28 Oct), with choices of mine for the developer to look at: the file gains
`strap <time> connecting|connected|lost` lines (the format's version stays 1, as a
reader before skipped lines it didn't know); a rate older than 5 s shows as "–"; the
first attempt connects directly, falling back on Android's background connection
once it fails and after every loss; a sighting stronger than −65 dBm is "close by";
the heart-rate chart averages the rates of each stretch (as the pace chart's
stretches, or 10 s, at least, over the time). Not yet tried with a real strap.
- **D28 The rower, from choosing it to the workout's page** (the developer's; 28 Oct): with
indoor rowing chosen, the Record sheet's *Rowing machine* row opens a sheet as the
strap's, looking for the Fitness Machine Service (0x1826) and listing the machines
whose advertisement says "rower"; the one chosen is remembered in the person's folder
(`rower.json`). Indoor rowing is offered again, Start asking for a rower. Train reads
Rower Data and takes no control of the console (its resistance through the Control
Point waits for a reason, as training plans); a console held by another app (one
connection at a time) is said so. The foreground service gets the `connectedDevice`
type, which nearby devices allow. Each frame becomes a line `r <time> <stroke rate>
<strokes> <metres> <watts>` and a `rowing` series; the console's running totals count
from its first frame, and its own heart rate is kept only without a strap.
Auto-pause: no new stroke for 5 s pauses (D16), the next one goes on, on by default.
The recording screen: moving time, metres, the split per 500 m of the last 30 s,
the stroke rate, watts, the heart rate with a strap. The list shows the split per
500 m; the page: distance, moving time, the average split, stroke rate and watts,
the highest watts, strokes, heart rate; splits per 500 m with their split, stroke rate
and watts; charts of the split, the stroke rate and watts over the distance; no map.
Written from FTMS 1.0 and D8's frame, checked on the developer's machine later (an
nRF Connect log of Rower Data and Fitness Machine Status, or a first row).
Built so (28 Oct), with choices of mine for the developer to look at: a machine whose
advertisement carries no Fitness Machine data is listed too, as it can't tell, and only
one that says it is something else is left out; a console reset to zero mid-row counts
on from there; metres rowed while paused count for nothing, as GPS's do (D16); the
strap's sheet and the rower's are one sheet, the same "close by" (−65 dBm); the
strap and the rower share one connection class (`NotifyLink.kt`), and a row asks for
nearby devices as it starts, as a run asks for location, since Android needs it for
the service's type; Fitness Machine Status (the console's own pause and reset) is
not read yet, the strokes deciding the pause; the notification shows a row's
distance in kilometres, as the others'. Not yet tried on the WP 5000.
## After recording (28 Oct 2026, the developer's)
- **D29 Health Connect next, the Loop after it** (recommended, the developer's; over the
Loop first, and over neither before the intervals): Health Connect is the smaller
piece and serves every workout Train records already; writing gives them to every
other app on the phone, reading brings what Train can't speak to itself (Gadgetbridge's
watches and rings, Christopeit Connect's rows), and the Loop's sessions can later go
there the same way. The Loop needs Polar's SDK, its first-time setup and D10's
firmware, and new kinds of data (daily activity, sleep, 24/7 heart rate, Nightly
Recharge) with synced models of their own; it is tried only with the band at hand.
The intervals (D2) need neither.
- **D30 Health Connect through Kotlin of our own** (recommended, the developer's; revises
D6's `health` package, as D26 revised D5): `androidx.health.connect:connect-client`
(Apache-2.0, AndroidX, no Play services) behind a channel of Train's, as the strap's.
The `health` package (13.3.2) lacks power, cadence, elevation gained, distance and
speed as records of their own, ties no heart rate to its session, has no changes API
(so each read would be a whole window read again) and sets no client record ID (so a
workout written again would be a second copy, not a replacement). Our own gets every
record type, the changes API, Train's workout ID as the client record ID (written
again replaces, deleted deletes) and each record's origin. Its logic is tested on the
JVM, the Dart side on a fake platform; Apple Health needs Swift of its own later,
as iOS waits for a Mac anyway (D25).
- **D31 Health Connect, from turning it on to the workouts** (the developer's; 28 Oct):
- *Turning it on*: a *Health Connect* row in the account sheet (Train has no settings
yet) opens a screen with two switches, both off: *Write my workouts* and *Read from
other apps*. They are this phone's, as Health Connect is, kept per person in their
folder (`health_connect.json`, with what was written and the changes token), not
synced. Each permission is asked as its switch is turned on. Built into Android from
14; below, the row says it needs the Health Connect app. `connect-client` 1.1.0, the
stable one. The rationale Health Connect asks for is a short screen of Train's,
linked from the system's permission dialog.
- *Writing*: every workout of the person this phone holds, synced and earlier ones too;
Train's workout ID is the record's client ID and a counter its version, so an edit
replaces and a deletion deletes; imported ones are never written back. As a workout
is saved, edited or deleted, and as the app opens (what a sync brought). The session
(type, name, notes, its pauses as pause segments), its route with altitude and
accuracy, heart rate, speed and the rower's watts as samples, distance and elevation
gained as totals. No calories (no weight, no energy model yet); stroke rate has no
type there.
- *Reading*: the screen lists each app that wrote workouts there (Gadgetbridge,
Christopeit Connect), each with its own switch, off, new ones appearing as they
write; Train's permissions are per type, the filtering by app its own. As the app
opens and comes to the front, through the changes token; nothing in the background.
Turning it on asks for the history too, so older than 30 days comes in; refused, the
last 30 days only. Each session becomes a workout of Train's own store (D7: sealed,
synced), named by its app, with the samples Health Connect holds for it (heart rate,
distance, power). Another app's route asks consent per session, so none comes by
itself: an imported workout's page offers *Bring in the track*. An imported one's
name and notes can be edited, and it can be deleted, remembered on this phone so it
doesn't come back. Doubles: a session mostly overlapping one of Train's own of the
same kind isn't added; where Train's has no heart rate, the other's is added to it,
otherwise it is left out. Weight and resting heart rate wait for what uses them
(calories, zones), with the synced model they need.
- No migration: an imported workout is a workout, its origin one more field of the
sealed, versioned payload.
Writing built so (28 Oct), with choices of mine for the developer to look at: turning
writing off leaves what was written there; a session's title is the workout's name
only where the person gave one (Health Connect names it by the app otherwise); the
route is the track as the page draws it (the precise fixes while moving), the speed
a sample at each of its fixes after a piece's first; steps aren't written, as Train
keeps none (the step detector only decides auto-pause); a workout is written again
only where its payload's fingerprint changed; a write Health Connect refuses later
(the permission taken back there) turns writing off and the screen says so; Android
names only the apps the manifest lists (Gadgetbridge, Christopeit Connect,
OpenTracks), any other shows by its package; the rationale opens only while someone
is signed in. Train needs Android 8 (API 26) now, as `connect-client` 1.1.0 does.
Not yet tried on a phone.
Reading built so (28 Oct), with choices of mine for the developer to look at: a
session another app deletes there stays in Train (Train's store is what counts); a
treadmill's run is a run and a stationary bike's ride a ride, any other kind stays out;
a double is the same kind overlapping for at least half the shorter of the two, and a
session doubling one brought in from another app is left out too (two apps writing
the same row); a ride's power isn't kept, having no series of its own yet (only the
rower's has); an app turned off later keeps what it brought; a route location
without its accuracy counts as precise; *Bring in the track* shows on every imported
workout without one but rows, as whether a route is there isn't kept. Reading runs as
the app opens and comes to the front, and an app turned on brings its earlier
sessions at once. Not yet tried on a phone.
## The Polar Loop (28 Oct 2026, the developer's)
- **D32 The band's own days first** (recommended, the developer's; over its live heart
rate first, and over its setup and sessions alone): 7a setting up and keeping the band
(first-time use from Train, its battery, its clock, its firmware as D10 has it); 7b its
daily data (steps, active time, calories, 24/7 heart rate, sleep, Nightly Recharge,
skin temperature), new synced, sealed models and a first screen of days and nights; 7c
its training sessions as workouts; 7d the Loop as live heart rate in a recording
without a strap. All-day tracking is what the Loop is for, and its memory must be read
regularly or it fills; a strap gives better heart rate in a workout than the wrist.
Through Polar's BLE SDK (8.3.0, its notice kept; from JitPack), which covers the Loop
with the Polar 360. Its licence isn't permissive, as this said first: D36.
- **D33 The body's figures in a sealed, synced profile** (recommended, the developer's;
over this phone alone, and over keeping them nowhere): one synced model, `profile`,
its payload sealed under the person's key as a workout's (D7), holding what the Loop's
first-time use needs (sex as Polar's formulas take it, birth date, height, weight,
resting and highest heart rate, VO2max, training background, typical day, sleep goal),
each optional; a *Your body* screen edits them, the band's setup asks only for what is
missing and offers Polar's defaults (60, 220 less the age, its VO2max table) to the
band alone, a blank staying blank in Train; a change reaches the band at its next
connection. The same figures serve calories and heart-rate zones later (D31), on every
device of the person's. Weight is one current value for now.
- **D34 Setting up and keeping the Loop** (the developer's; 28 Oct): `profile` one row
per person, its fields as D33's (sex female or male, birth date, height in cm, weight
in kg, resting and highest heart rate, VO2max, Polar's six training backgrounds, typical
day sitting, standing or moving, sleep goal 5 to 11 h), each optional, edited on *Your
body* from the account sheet. A *Polar Loop* row there (Android) opens the band's
screen; *Set up a Loop* opens a sheet looking for Loops nearby, nearest first; the one
chosen is connected through Polar's SDK (Android's pairing dialog may show; nearby
devices asked first where not granted), set up with the profile (a short form asks
for what is missing, Polar's defaults offered to the band alone), its clock set, and
remembered in the person's folder (`loop.json`, not synced: one phone holds it, D3).
The band's screen: its name, battery and charging, firmware version, connected or when
last seen; *Set up again*; *Let the band go* (a factory reset after asking, the only way
to pair it elsewhere). The SDK connects while Train is open and the band in reach, each
connection setting its clock and sending what changed in the profile; background
syncing is decided with 7b. Firmware moves after 7b, as D10 syncs the band before an
update erases it. A Kotlin class of `MainActivity`'s on `app.halkyon.train/loop`, the
SDK at 8.3.0 from JitPack (a repository for Polar's package alone, its checksums
verified), Polar's notice in the licence list.
- **D35 A changed profile reaches the band when the person says** (recommended, the
developer's; 28 Oct; over sending it at each connection, as D34 had it, and over only
at setup): in Polar's SDK 8.3.0 only the first-time use writes the body's figures
(`/U/0/S/PHYSDATA.BPB`), and it writes a new user identifier each time too
(`/U/0/USERID.BPB`, made from the time); no public call writes the figures alone. What
a new identifier does to what the band holds isn't known until it is tried on a real
Loop, so the band's screen offers *Send to the band* once the profile differs from
what the band was set up with, and that runs the first-time use again; should it
prove harmless, sending can become automatic.
- **D36 Polar's SDK under its own licence, in the one build** (the developer's; 28 Oct;
over a second Android flavour with the SDK alone, a protocol of Train's own worked
out from the band's traffic, and setting the Loop aside): D32 called the SDK's
licence permissive, wrongly. `Polar_SDK_License.txt` (its 8.3.0 tag) is Polar's
*Software Development Kit Limited License Agreement*: the object code may be
distributed only together with an app and only to move data between Polar's devices
and it (3.1); Polar may end it with 90 days' notice (10.2); neither Polar's name nor
its products' may be used in marketing, nor any association implied, without its
written consent (4.4); Finnish law. Train's Android app links it all the same, under
an added permission of section 7 of the AGPL for that library
(`apps/train/halkyon_train_flutter/LICENSE-polar-exception.md`; `LICENSE.md` names it);
F-Droid's main repository would refuse Train so, and a listing of Train in the
project's own repository is to declare `NonFreeDep`. Its sources on GitHub are under
the same agreement, so a protocol of Train's own couldn't be written from them.
Polar's licence and the notices of what the SDK bundles
(`ThirdPartySoftwareListing.txt`) are in the licence list, on Android.
7a built so (28 Oct), with choices of mine for the developer to look at: the band's
defaults for a VO2max not given are the middle of the Moderate class of Polar's
fitness tables (its manuals', after Shvartz and Reibold 1990), by sex and five-year
age rows from 20 to 65, the first row below 20 and the last above 65, since Polar
publishes no default of its own; a height above Polar's 240 cm goes to the band as
240 (Your body takes up to 250); the setup asks for sex, birth date, height, weight,
training background, typical day and sleep goal where the profile lacks them, each
needed, on a page over the sheet, and keeps the answers in Your body; Loops are found
by a name beginning *Polar Loop*; the SDK is made only once a person's app opens on
Android, reconnects by itself while the band is remembered, and never asks for its
telemetry feature; the clock is set as each connection is ready (and with each
setup), a failure only logged; *Let the band go* keeps the band where it isn't in
reach and says so; a band chosen that doesn't connect within 60 s, or refuses, isn't
remembered and the search goes on. The SDK's files are pinned by SHA-256 in Gradle's
`verification-metadata.xml` as JitPack served them on 28 Oct, every other group
trusted as before. Not yet tried with a Loop.
- **D37 The Loop's days and nights** (recommended, the developer's; 28 Oct): what Polar's
SDK reads of each day (its summary: steps, distance, calories of activity, training
and rest, time in each activity class; its 24/7 heart rate; its sleep with phases,
cycles, rating and skin temperature; Nightly Recharge; skin temperature) kept as
Train's own models, as workouts are (over the band's raw files sealed as they come,
which other devices could read only with Polar's protobuf definitions, under Polar's
licence, and over summaries alone): one sealed, synced `day` per date (summary,
Nightly Recharge, skin temperature), one `night` per sleep (its phases), and the day's
heart rate in chunks (`day_series`, as a workout's series), each versioned JSON,
gzipped and sealed. The band is read while Train is open and also in the background
(over only while open): a WorkManager job every few hours connects and reads the days
since the last read into a plain file of the person's folder (app-private, as
`recording.txt`), which the app seals and syncs as it opens, since only the Dart side
holds the person's key. Train deletes nothing on the band (over deleting the days
kept), whose memory is taken to roll over by itself until a real band shows. Home
gains *Days*: each day's steps and active time with the night before's sleep and
Nightly Recharge, a day's page its heart rate as a chart, the night's phases and its
skin temperature. Steps, sleep and heart rate to Health Connect wait (D31 writes
workouts). D35 stays: the SDK's low-level `writeFile` could write the figures alone
(`PHYSDATA.BPB`) without a new user identifier, to be weighed once a real band shows
what a new identifier does.
- **D38 What the band holds is deleted once Train keeps it** (recommended, the
developer's; 28 Oct; revises D37's third point, over deleting a day once it is in the
phone's file, and over never deleting): Polar's own sync guideline (the SDK's
`documentation/SyncImplementationGuideline.md`, 8.3.0) asks apps to remove what they
synced, as soon as possible, to free the device's memory and not lose data, sensors
such as the Polar 360 holding less than watches; D37 had assumed the band's memory
rolls over by itself. So once the app has sealed a day (yesterday or earlier) into
the person's database, the next read deletes it on the band, type by type (activity,
daily summary, 24/7 samples, sleep and its score, Nightly Recharge, skin temperature
and skin contact); the background job reads into the file alone and deletes only
what the app confirmed kept; today is never deleted. Each read is framed by the
SDK's sync start and stop calls, its calls to the band one after the other, as the
guideline asks. The VO2max defaults of 7a are Polar's table too: the SDK's
`documentation/FirstTimeUse.md` gives the same tables, without saying which class
to take.
7b built so (28 Oct), with choices of mine for the developer to look at: home has two
tabs, *Workouts* and *Days*, on every device, *Days* saying where days come from
while there are none; the first read of a band goes four weeks back, later ones from
the day after those kept; the band is read as each connection is ready, at most every
half hour, and when the person pulls the list; a later read replaces what it brought
of a date (its summary, Recharge, skin temperature, heart rate, night) and keeps the
rest, and rewrites nothing unchanged; a day's heart rate goes in chunks by the three
hours each measurement began in, every row's ID made from the person and the date
(`https://halkyon.app/train/day/<person>/<date>`, `…/night/…`, `…/heart/<index>`); a
row that doesn't open on a device is left out of *Days*, as its date is sealed with
it; what is kept goes up to the day before the latest read's (`keptUntil`, in
`loop.json` with the last read's time), kept over a new setup of the same band and
forgotten for another; the background job runs every four hours while the battery
isn't low and the open app doesn't hold the band, and reads from the same day until
the app has kept what it wrote, so the file can hold a day more than once, the last
line winning; the app moves the file aside before reading it and deletes it once
sealed, so lines written meanwhile wait; the schedule is the phone's, for the last
person whose app opened with a band, and *Let the band go* stops it. Polar's
NONREM12 and NONREM3 are shown as light and deep sleep; the chart draws each 24/7
measurement's mean at its start; a night's times show in the phone's time zone. Not
yet tried with a Loop: whether the SDK's deletion includes its `until` day, and
whether the job connects to the band in the background, are for a real band.
- **D39 The Loop's training sessions are workouts** (recommended, the developer's; 28
Oct): the band records a session by itself when it detects one (at least ten minutes
of raised heart rate and movement, saved as *Other indoor* unless the person picks a
sport; Polar's manual, *Automatic training detection*), which Polar's SDK reads from
the band (`PolarTrainingSessionApi`: a summary with start, duration, sport,
calories, distance and ascent, and samples at an interval: heart rate, and speed,
distance and cadence where the band had them). Each becomes a sealed, synced
workout, its heart rate its series, its origin *Polar Loop* with the band's
reference of the session, as Health Connect's imports are (D31), so there is one
list and one page, written to Health Connect with the rest (over a model of its own
under *Days*). Train gains an activity *Other workout* for what it doesn't know,
which the person can change on the workout's page; Polar's running (sport 1),
cycling (2) and other outdoor (16, as *Other*) are the IDs the SDK itself names,
every other sport comes as *Other* until a band shows its IDs (over leaving out
what Train doesn't know, most of the band's sessions). A session overlapping a
workout Train recorded for at least half the shorter, whatever the sports, is that
workout's double: the recorded one stays and gains the band's heart rate where it
has none (over keeping both). Sessions are read with the days, by the open app and
the background job, and deleted on the band once sealed by the same rule (D38); one
deleted in Train is remembered, so it isn't brought back.
7c built so (28 Oct), with choices of mine for the developer to look at: a
multisport session is a workout per exercise, each with the band's reference and its
index as its ID; the workout's moving time is the session's length, its distance the
band's sum, its series the heart rate alone (speed and cadence samples are read but
not kept, as Train has no series for them yet, and a band without GPS has no
track); a heart-rate sample of 0 is none; every session the band holds is listed at
each read (they are few, as the kept ones go), those from the read's first day on
read and those up to the day kept deleted; the sessions taken in are remembered in
`loop.json` by ID with their date, forgotten a week after that date is kept, and a
session already kept as a workout (`loop.json` lost) isn't brought again either; a
double is looked for among the workouts Train recorded alone, not those brought in
from Health Connect; *Other workout* can't be recorded on the phone (the record sheet
offers it not), and the edit sheet changes any workout's activity. Polar's training
sessions are protobuf messages of the SDK's, so the app names protobuf-javalite
3.20.0, the SDK's own, for compiling (`compileOnly`), adding nothing to the APK.
Health Connect's writing takes the Loop's workouts as Train's own, its *bring in the
track* stays for Health Connect's. Not yet tried with a Loop: Polar's other sport
IDs, and whether the band keeps samples of a detected session, are for a real band.
- **D40 How D10's firmware updates go** (recommended, the developer's; 28 Oct): Polar's
SDK asks Polar's firmware service (`https://firmware-management.polar.com`, `POST
/api/v1/firmware-update/check` with a client name, the band's UUID made from its ID,
its firmware version and hardware code; read in the SDK's classes, 8.3.0) and gets a
version and a file's address. Train asks once a day, on the day's first connection,
and when the person taps *Check for updates* (over only when asked); an update found
shows on the Loop screen with its version and what Polar learns, and never starts by
itself. Through the instance, Train's server asks Polar for the person and fetches
the file, keeping the latest per hardware and version in memory for a day (over a
folder on disk, which the deploy would need a volume for); it offers this by default,
for the people signed in, and its operator turns it off with
`LOOP_FIRMWARE_RELAY=off` (over off by default, and over always on), the app then
offering the direct way alone. Before an update Train reads and keeps what is on the
band; after it, Train sets the band up again at once with the figures it had and sets
its clock (over asking first), the band getting a new user identifier as with every
setup (D35).
Built so (28 Oct), with choices of mine for the developer to look at: Train's server
has a `firmware` endpoint (`offered`, `check`, `download`, for the people signed in;
`LoopFirmwareRefused` where it is off, a figure isn't plain, a file isn't known or
Polar can't be reached), which names an update only where Polar gives an `https`
file, and keeps a fetched file under its hardware and version until a day after it
was fetched. On the phone, the band's date is the phone's today; a band just set up
is asked as a connection is; where the person chose the instance, Polar is never
asked directly in its place, even when the relay is off or out of reach (the
check fails then, and the screen says so), and the switch shows where the instance
relays or was chosen. An update through the instance asks the relay again, writes
the file into the person's folder (`loop_firmware.zip`), hands it to the SDK as a
`file://` address and deletes it afterwards. A read failing before the update
leaves the band untouched; after the writing, Train connects again, waits up to five
minutes for the band, sets it up with the figures it had (the profile's as they are
where none are known) and sets its clock, and takes the version offered as the
band's until it tells its own. The screen shows each stage the SDK tells while it
writes. Not yet tried with a Loop: whether the version in `/DEVICE.BPB`
(major.minor.patch) is what Polar's service expects, whether the band connects again
by itself after its restart, and whether the SDK takes the relayed file as it takes
the one it fetches.
- **D41 The Loop's live heart rate in a recording (7d)** (recommended, the developer's;
28 Oct): Polar's SDK names live heart rate (beats per minute) among the Loop's and
the Polar 360's features (its `Polar360.md`), with PPI, PPG, acceleration and skin
temperature streams. A recording with a Loop remembered takes its heart rate from
the strap where one is remembered and switched on, and from the Loop where there is
none, or while the strap is lost, so that the gap fills (over the strap alone where
remembered, and over choosing one for each recording): a chest strap reads a workout
more truly than the wrist (D32). The recording service reads the Loop through
Polar's SDK (`startHrStreaming`), which already holds the band's connection, the
SDK moving into a holder the open app and the service share, so that the band stays
connected with the screen off and the app gone (over the service's own connection
to the band's Heart Rate Service, as for a strap, a second client on the SDK's
connection, the two fighting over its notifications). It keeps the heart rate
alone, as `h` lines like the strap's (over pulse-to-pulse intervals too, which
nothing uses yet and which cost battery). The Heart rate row names the source.
Built so (28 Oct), with choices of mine for the developer to look at: Polar's SDK is
one for the app's process (`PolarSdk.kt`), held by the open app's bridge and by a
recording reading a Loop, shut down as the last lets go; the background job (D37)
leaves the band alone while either holds it, and the app opening again during a
recording finds the band connected and is told so rather than connecting anew. The
app doesn't disconnect a band a recording reads. The SDK now asks for `FEATURE_HR`
as well. A recording takes the Loop whenever the person has one set up, the strap's
switch on the Record sheet switching off the strap alone (so a strap left at home
is no gap); the Loop's rate is written only while the strap isn't connected, as
`h` lines, the band's state as `loop <time> connecting|connected|lost` lines (the
file's version stays 1, as `strap` lines did), and a rate read off the skin is
none. The stream is asked for again five seconds after it stops (`LoopHeart.kt`,
tested on the JVM). The screen shows *Strap lost* only while the Loop isn't
sending in its place. A rower's own heart rate is kept only where neither a strap
nor a Loop is there. Not yet tried with a Loop: whether its live rate needs the
band in a mode of its own, and how far the wrist's rate lags a strap's.
- **D42 Interval plans, and who runs them** (recommended, the developer's; 28 Oct): a plan
is a name and a list of steps (warm-up, work, recovery, cool-down) with repeat
blocks; each step ends after a time, after a distance, or with a lap tap, and may
aim at a target: a pace or speed range (from GPS), a heart-rate range in bpm or one
of five zones, and on the rower a split, watts or a stroke rate (over pace and heart
rate alone). The zones are Polar's and most watches': 50–60, 60–70, 70–80, 80–90 and
90–100 % of the profile's highest heart rate, its default from age where unset, as
for the band (over Karvonen's heart-rate reserve, which needs a resting rate). Plans
are Train's synced, sealed `plan` rows, so one made on the desktop reaches the
phone (over the person's folder alone), with an editor and a few templates to start
from (4×4 min, Tabata 8×20/10 s, 10×400 m; over none). The recording service runs
the plan, sent to it as the recording starts: it moves from step to step on its own
moving time and distance, pauses stopping a step's clock, and writes `step` lines
to the recording file, which the app reads (over the open app running it, which
Android may stop with the screen off). Every step change gives a tone, a vibration
and, where the phone has a text-to-speech engine (GrapheneOS ships none; RHVoice or
eSpeak from F-Droid give one), a spoken line naming the step, its length and its
target; a timed step counts its last three seconds down; off target, a short cue at
most every 30 s, switchable per plan (over tones alone, and over no off-target
cues). A step on the rower doesn't set its resistance yet (over setting it through
FTMS's control point): whether the WP 5000 speaks FTMS is still unknown (D8).
Built: the plans, their tab, their editor and the templates (8a, `c167e9b9`); the
service running one (8b). The app sends the run spelled out as the recording
starts, each step with its end, its target (a zone as the heart rates it spans for
the profile's highest rate, 220 less the age where unset, 180 bpm where neither is
given) and its spoken line in the app's language, which the service writes into the
file as a `plan` line with the plan itself; `PlanRunner.kt` moves through the steps
on the moving time and distance, the off-target cues after a step's first 15 s and
from a 30 s window of GPS (or the rower's frames, or the last 5 s of heart rate,
stroke rate or watts); `PlanCues.kt` gives the tone, the vibration and the voice,
ducking music. The recording screen shows the step, what is left of it, its target,
the next step and *Lap*. Not tried on a phone yet: the voice's timing over music,
and how a GPS pace off target feels at 30 s.
- **D43 What an interval workout keeps** (recommended, the developer's; 28 Oct): the
workout keeps the plan's name and its steps as run, a lap each (when, how long, how
far), sealed in its payload; its page lists each step with its time, distance,
average pace or speed and heart rate, on the rower its split and watts, marked where
it held its target, and shades the charts by step (over laps without targets, and
over no trace of the plan).
Built (8c): the laps are worked out as the recording is saved, from the file's
`step` lines, each step's moving time and distance counted as the workout's are
(a step cut short by Stop is kept as far as it went, one the plan never reached
isn't); the highest heart rate the zones ran with is kept beside them, so that a
zone held is judged on the rates of that day. A step held its target where its
average (its pace, speed or split over its moving time and distance, its heart
rate, stroke rate or watts) lies within it. The charts shade the work steps.
Health Connect gets the session as before, without laps for now.
- **D44 Planning a route** (recommended, the developer's, but the region; 28 Oct):
waypoints are tapped on the map, dragged, the last one undone, the first where the
phone is; searching for places comes later, as a Photon sidecar of its own (Apache-2.0;
over Photon now, Germany's database alone a 7.5 GB download and a few GB of RAM, and
over komoot's public instance, which sees the places searched and promises nothing).
The instance's BRouter and PMTiles sidecars cover **Europe** (the developer's choice,
over Germany alone, recommended for its few GB, and over Germany, Austria and
Switzerland): tens of GB of segments and tiles on the server, refreshed monthly; the
sizes are written into the deploy's notes when it is built. Six profiles: Run, a
profile Train writes (paths, parks and quiet roads first, any surface; BRouter has
none for running), Hike (`hiking-mountain`), Road bike (`fastbike`), Trekking bike
(`trekking`), Gravel (`gravel`) and MTB (`mtb`), the route's activity choosing one by
default (over BRouter's alone, its hiking profile sending runners up steps, and over
one profile an activity). As it is planned, a route shows its line, its distance, its climb and
descent, an elevation profile under the map and the surfaces it runs on as BRouter
tells them (over distance and climb alone, and over loops of a given length, which
BRouter can't make and Train would only guess at).
Built: the `routing` endpoint and the deploy (9a, `ab128550`, `7fcb91c6`); routes
as synced, sealed `route` rows and the planner (9b). A route's payload holds its
name, activity, profile, waypoints and the way planned (points to a micro-degree
and elevations to a decimetre, each delta-coded, its turns, its stretches),
gzipped as a workout's series are, since a planned route has thousands of points.
The server's model is `SavedRoute` on the table `route`, since Flutter's widgets
have a `Route` of their own. Home's fourth tab lists the routes; the planner is the
map above and the route's figures under it: a tap adds a waypoint, one held and
dragged moves it (held first, so that dragging the map never moves one), the
button above the map takes the last off, and the instance plans the way after each
change, an answer to an earlier change dropped once a later one is asked. A new
route starts where the phone is: the recorder's channel asks GPS for its last fix
of the past two minutes or a new one (15 s at most), the location permission asked
first (no package, as recording takes no other); on a device that can't tell it
starts empty. Surfaces are grouped from OpenStreetMap's tags as paved, compacted,
gravel, natural ground and not known. An instance without BRouter says so on the
planner.
- **D45 Following a route** (recommended, the developer's; 28 Oct): the recording
screen keeps its figures first and swipes to a map with the route, the track so far
and the position, north or heading up as tapped, with a route or without (over the
map always above the figures, and over no map). The recording service guides,
offline, as it runs a plan: BRouter's turn hints spoken about 50 m before a turn (on
a bike about 100 m) after the tone, the next turn shown; more than 40 m off the route
for 10 s, a cue and the way back (the direction and distance to the route's nearest
point), told again on rejoining (over cues off route alone, and over rerouting by
itself online). Maps offline along a route on request: *Keep offline* downloads its
corridor, 2 km each side at zooms 10 to 16, on that device alone, until switched
off (over every route's on every phone, and over none yet). Routes go out as GPX
(to CoMaps or anything, with waypoints and turn hints) and come in as GPX shared to
Train or opened in it, snapped to a profile or kept as drawn (over out alone, and
over neither yet).
Built: following in a recording (9c). The Record sheet offers the routes with a
way planned, for an activity with GPS, and a route for an activity chooses it, as a
plan does. The app hands the service the route's points, its turns each with its
line in the app's language ("In 50 metres: Turn left"; BRouter's beelines and
off-route marks aren't turns, and are left out), and the words off the route with
places for the figures, through a file beside the app's (`route.json`), since an
intent carries less than a route's thousands of points. `RouteGuide.kt` places each
fix precise enough on the route (among its next 500 m and last 100 m first, the
whole route where none is near, so that a shortcut or a figure eight finds its
place), none while paused; a turn is told once, 50 m (100 m on a bike) along the
route before it, a tone first and the line 0.4 s after; one passed unseen is
skipped. Off the route: past 40 m for 10 s, a double vibration and the way back
("It lies 80 metres to the north-east", to 10 m, to the nearest point), again
every minute while still off (a runner off for long would otherwise hear it once),
told again once back within 30 m (so that a fix wavering about 40 m doesn't cue
over and over); no turn is told while off. The end is told once within 30 m of it.
The file keeps the route (`route`, its payload) and what following it gave
(`guide … next|turn|off|on|arrived`), so a recording the app comes back to shows it
again. The recording screen shows the next turn with how far it is as the crow
flies (the service places the person, the app only reads its lines), or the way
back; it swipes to a map of the route, the track so far (the fixes precise enough
to count) and the position, which the map follows, zoomed with two fingers alone
so that a swipe goes back to the figures, north up by default and the heading up
(of the last 5 m or more) as tapped. A saved workout doesn't keep which route it
followed yet.
- **D46 Train's server on the instance** (recommended, the developer's; 28 Oct): it
joins learn.halkyon.eu's server, as BRouter needs a server of Train's to ask it
(D11, D22), at **train.halkyon.eu** (over a path on learn.halkyon.eu, which would
carry Learn's name for good); its data in the instance's PostgreSQL as a database of
its own, `halkyon_train`, under a role that can't connect to Learn's (over a second
PostgreSQL, twice the memory and a second backup); a **member of the instance's
register** on Learn's server (ADR 0016: one account a person across the operator's
services, over a register of its own). It is a compose file of its own,
`deploy/compose.train.yaml`, switched on in `.env` as the sidecars are, so nothing
changes on the instance until the operator does (the steps in
`deploy/sidecars/README.md`, *Train*); `redeploy.sh` then builds, dumps, migrates
and waits for it as for Learn's server, and `backup.sh` backs its database up in the
same snapshots. BRouter (v1.7.10, its release checked by SHA-256) runs beside Train's
server alone, on a network without a way out, with no log (it writes the waypoints),
its segments refreshed monthly by a container of its own; Europe's took 3.3 GB on
28 Oct. Whether the server's disk has room is the developer's to check before
switching it on. The map stays OpenFreeMap's: the PMTiles sidecar needs a style for
Protomaps' schema, a step of its own (about 40 GB for Europe, estimated from the
planet's 120 GB). Learn's server signs in to PostgreSQL as its superuser, so it could
read Train's database; a role of its own for it is left for later. restic now forgets
snapshots grouped by host alone, so that the snapshots before Train's dump joined
them aren't kept for good as a group of their own.
## Consequences
- Train's sensors are one pattern: open profiles read by the app itself, on the phone;
the Loop through Polar's SDK, also on the phone.
- The recording runs in an Android foreground service from its first version, so that it
survives the screen going off.
- The Loop can't be used with Polar Flow while Train holds it; going back needs a factory
reset of the band.
- The desktop connects to no device and records nothing; it shows and plans, with what
the phones recorded coming through the server.