Developing the Industrial Internet of Things

Course 2

Product Teardown

FITBIT CHARGE 3(Main Control Unit)

(I have chosen to see video of tear down and analyse it. Video link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGT78xR5mPg)
by

Keval Vora

09/06/2020

Introduction and Problem Solved by the Device

In todays world of abundance, only scarcity for a human being is life span which can be
elongated by a healthier life style. Fitbit cares for your health and provides solutions which in
past were employed as Fitness trainer, health and nutrition analyst, dieticians etc... Fitbit Charge
3 is an advanced fitness tracker that uses 24/7 heart rate & insights about your body, your
fitness and everything in between. Fitbit helps you track yourself, set fitness goals for yourself
and act accordingly by adjusting workout and sleep cycles, monitoring your breathing cycles to
meet your goals. It’s like a trainer for you 24X7.It has 15+ goal-based exercises to suggest as
per goals you set and also help tracking female health. Additionally, it has 7 days of battery life
and features like Fitbit pay to help you on the go[1]. The product was released in 2013 and still
on the shelves through 2020. It sported many improvements over traditional trackers for
domestic use, and it added many features that were selling points for power-users. It uses low
power communication Bluetooth to provide extensive battery life with highly efficient
communication. It has added Nordic semiconductor nRF800 to enable Fitbit pay NFC feature.
The Fitbit Charge 3 fulfils the niche of the higher end Domestic use fitness tracker, and it has
done so for the last 7 years. It continues to be a highly-reviewed and successful product for
Fitbit.

The “Fitbit Charge 3’s” Predecessors

The healthcare industry has observed tremendous turbulences with involvement of technology
and introduction to IoT. Reaches of Medical Science has advanced in leaps and bounds after
IoT was introduced and after the advent of VLSI and Embedded Systems , these changes began
rolling around in day to day life of humans where primitive trackers tracked basic activities
which advanced to calory taken and GPS tracking with miniaturisation and finally when cloud
systems witnessed widespread adoption, Systems like Fitbit Charge 3 saw great potential and
were launched changing the perspective of health tracking ever. Advanced feature like goal
setting, personalised recommendation on exercise, food etc... began being the competitive edge
for best-selling products [2].

Fitbit Charge 3’s Market

The Fitbit Charge 3 is essentially for those that are into keeping active and want to keep on top
of their exercise, but aren’t so much into working out that they’d consider themselves fitness
fanatics. Take for instance, if you're an avid runner looking for a running watch. The Charge 3
just isn’t for you. It’s better suited to someone looking to track their daily step count, and a bit
of exercise every few days, without the need for all the bells and whistles that something like
the Fitbit Ionic will offer you.

[1] Fitbit Charge 3 product description page, https://www.fitbit.com/us/products/trackers/charge3?sku=409RGGY

[2] https://www.techradar.com/in/reviews/fitbit-charge-3
Regulatory Information

Basic Working of Fitbit

Fig1. Working of Fitbit Microcontroller

The fitness tracking firm Fitbit says it sold something over 21 million fitness watches last year. To get an idea
of how fitness watches work their magic, we tore down one of the more popular fitness watches, the Fitbit
Charge.
The Charge tracks steps, distance, calories burned, floors climbed and active minutes, monitors sleep, and has
caller ID that can read out incoming calls when your phone is nearby. The watch also syncs with Bluetooth and
comes with a charging cable. It’s said to have a battery life of seven to ten days – considered good for smart
watches like this — and can monitor sleep patterns. The watch works in conjunction with a smart phone app
that reads out all these factors and adds niceties such as badges for making progress toward a fitness goal.

charge minus plastic case

The watch internals with case removed look like this. Visible here are the vibration motor, OLED display, and
Bluetooth antenna, as well as the C-shaped metal brace and clips holding the PCB in place.

An examination of the Charge internals begins with prying off the watch’s plastic housing to reveal the display,
circuit board, and vibration motor (from Jinlong Machinery Electronics in China) used for signaling. These
watch components sit on top of a substrate that goes against the wear’s skin. The substrate includes a C-shaped
metal strap that braces the charging cable plug while also serving as a cradle for centering the PCB and display
in the plastic watch housing.

The substrate of the watch is up against the wear’s skin in normal use. The surface that is in intimate contact
with the wear’s wrist holds the heartbeat sensor. An examination of the surface touching the wrist reveals both
the sensor chip itself and two dots which are infrared LEDs. To one end of the heartbeat sensor sit two prongs
which comprise the connection plug for the charging cable.

heartbeat sensor detail

A view of the surface of the Charge that goes up against the wearer’s wrist. Visible here are the optical sensor
and two infrared LEDs, as well as the metal strap and USB recharging connections.

substrate reverse side

A view inside the watch substrate that goes against the wearer’s wrist. Visible here are the quad op amp chip
and connector to the flex cable connecting the substrate to the main PCB. The optical sensor chip lies beneath
the connector. Here, the C-shaped metal support for the charging connection has been bent out for visual clarity.

pulse-oximetry
Pulse oximetry takes advantage of the fact that oxygenated and de-oxygenated hemoglobin have different
optical properties. With every heartbeat, there is a spike in arterial oxygenated blood which an optical sensor
can detect as a change in the skin’s absorbance or reflectance of LED light.

The heartbeat sensor actually consists of both the optical sensor chip and the two infrared LEDs. In normal use
the optical sensor detects light from the LEDs that reflects from the wear’s skin. Heartbeat detection is via a
technique called pulse oximetry. This measurement method takes advantage of the fact that oxygenated and de-
oxygenated hemoglobin have different optical properties. With every heartbeat, there is a spike in arterial
oxygenated blood which the optical sensor detects as a change in the skin’s absorbance or reflectance of LED
light.

Put another way, the optical sensor measures the amount of LED light reflecting from the blood under the
wearer’s skin. The reflectance is a bit different during a heartbeat, and the sensor will detect this periodic signal
from which the heart rate is extracted.
The substrate holding the optical sensor and LEDs also holds an integrated circuit. This chip carries CMOS op
amps optimized for amplifying super-small sensor signals and is made by Texas Instruments (OPA2363). One
supposes that Charge designers located the op-amp chip on the same substrate as the optical sensor, rather than
on the main Charge circuit board, to reduce the possibility of noise garbling the signals from the optical sensor.

Another interesting construction detail is that the connector from the heart rate monitor substrate to the main
circuit board lies directly overtop the optical sensor. We might surmise the Charge designers wished to further
minimize the chance of noise impacting the heart rate signals; sitting where it does, the connector might provide
some shielding against other signals emanating from the main circuit board.

Flex cables
There are two flat flex-type cables in the Charge. One connects the main PCB to the optical sensor substrate.
The other connects the display to the main circuit board. The display is an OLED, logical because OLEDs may
consume relatively little power compared to alternatives.
Both flex cables attach to the bottom of the Charge circuit board. Also nestled on the bottom of the PCB is the
lithium-polymer battery, a 3.7-V cell capable of providing 140 mA. Three other components on that side of the
board are noteworthy.

top board
A view of the partly disassembled PCB shows the Bluetooth antenna in place and the back support piece
supporting the OLED display.

top view
The top side of the PCB holds the two accelerometers, the BLE interface chip, the two STM processors, OLED
power supply, side switch, and connections to both the Lithium-ion battery and vibration motor.

bottom board surface

This is the side of the PCB that is against the watch housing substrate touching the wrist. Notable features are
the two flex cables and connectors, the battery charger IC, altitude sensor, side button, and OLED display.

One is a battery charger IC from TI (BQ24232) that also lets the watch work from power coming via the USB
connection if necessary. Another point of interest is an altitude sensor from Measurement Specialties. This
altitude sensor is basically a MEMS pressure sensor calibrated for altitude. Its spec sheet says it has a resolution
of 20 cm. The sensor module includes an ultra-low-power 24-bit analog/digital converter.

A chip sitting next to the battery charger IC is a bit of a mystery. Its markings aren’t definitive, but there are
clues to its identity. One of those hints is that the chip sits super-close to the altitude sensor. Thus it could easily
have something to do with altitude sensor readings. Also, a close look at the circuit board reveals there is a
connection from the mystery chip to the side button the user pushes for getting readings. There’s another
connection from the chip to the TI battery charger IC. So one might surmise that the mystery chip might have a
role in managing readouts of the altitude sensor.

The other side of the PCB is more densely populated. This is the side of the PCB one sees when first popping
the plastic cover off the watch. The OLED display sits on top, pressed against a piece of plastic that both
supports the display and doubles as an antenna for the Bluetooth connection. The metal bracket which serves as
a supporting frame for the recharger cable, wraps around and seems to help keep the OLED readout stable as
well.

Adhesive attaches the OLED to the Bluetooth antenna assembly. And the antenna assembly is held to the circuit
board by two tiny torx screws. Unscrewing these releases part of the antenna assembly supporting the OLED.
The rest of the antenna assembly then can be pulled off the circuit board to reveal the components on the board.

There were several smaller ICs on this side of the board whose markings and PCB traces just weren’t definitive.
One of them, based on the pin-out connections, might be a low-drop out linear regulator from TI.

However, several other chips were readily identifiable. One is a Texas Instruments boost dc-dc converter
(TPS61093) that sits at the end of the PCB near the solder connections for the battery and vibration motor. This
chip serves as a power supply for the OLED display.
The board also contains two different processors. One is an eight-bit unit (STM8L151 from ST Microsystems).
We can speculate the eight-processor is there to handle mundane tasks such as display management, perhaps
dealing with the Bluetooth connection (via a Nordic nRE8001 chip), and the user input.

The other is a 32-bit device (STM32L1 also from ST Microsystems). One might wonder why the watch needs
two processors. The answer seems to be that there’s a lot going on in a Charge. The 32-bit chip, for example,
could be required because there is a significant amount of signal processing associated with pulling a valid heart
rate out of the data coming in from the optical sensor. Ditto for calculating the number of steps the wearer takes.
On the Charge, this task apparently requires data from two accelerometers.

Fig 2. Working of Fitbit Ecosystem

Technical Details

Security Concerns/Risks
itbit, the leading wearable maker for corporate wellness, has much to lose if it doesn’t take
security seriously.

According to IDC, Fitbit is still the top maker of activity trackers, though its lost some market
share. The company also has a corporate division, Group Health, which offers wellness
programs to customers such as Adobe, McKesson and BP. And Fitbit CEO James Park has said
recently that growing its Group Health business “is critical to the growth of the company.”

To help safeguard against hacks and to protect data, Fitbit devices receive firmware updates that
address security (and functionality) as needed and include built-in encryption when syncing
data to the cloud, says Marc Bown, Fitbit’s senior security engineer.

Other security steps Fitbit takes include the following:

Partnering with a customer’s IT and/or security team to “proactively address any questions or
concerns” regarding the security of employee fitness and health data, says Amy McDonough,
vice president and general manager of Fitbit Group Health.
Offering an invite-only, bug bounty program to augment the research and testing that Fitbit’s
security response team conducts.
Posting explanations of tracker firmware updates. Since spring 2016, Fitbit has also labeled
client software updates that contain security fixes with a “Critical/Important/Moderate/Low”
rating to provide “guidance for interpreting those ratings similar to best practices from Google,
Microsoft, and others,” according to a Fitbit blog post on security.
Developing best practices around the activity tracking data employers obtain from employees
who participate in Fitbit wellness programs.
Fitbit says the recent hack conducted by researchers, manipulating its tracker accelerometers via
sound waves, “is not a compromise of Fitbit user data and users should not be concerned that
any data has been accessed or disclosed.” Fitbit, in an official statement, added that “we
carefully design security measures for new products, continuously monitor for new threats, and
rapidly respond to identified issues.”

Concluding Comments
While its feature set isn’t in the same league as say that of its older brother, the Fitbit Versa, the
Fitbit Charge 3 offers many of the same features just in a more compact and lightweight design
that is by no means earth-shatteringly beautiful but still looks the part. It also does what it says
on the tin: tracking everyday workouts without promising the world and not asking for it either
when it comes to costs. There’s a nice and simple, yet clear and bright display, a host of nifty
smart notifications, contactless payment capabilities (for a little extra) and all the features Fitbit
users will have come to know and love. But what makes it worth considering is that you can
pick up some really great fitness tracking features, all wrapped up nicely in a well-designed app,
for just under £130 / $150 / AU$230. Something that’s hard to fault, and also something many
of Fitbit’s competitors can’t compete with.
If you're after an activity tracker and consider yourself a moderate exerciser (working out twice
or so a week) then the Fitbit Charge 3 is by far one of the best choice’s money can buy.
However, Fitbit has a substantial range of wearables all aimed at different types of individuals,
so we’d suggest doing some research. For instance, if you don't need swim tracking, you could
potentially instead opt for the Fitbit Alta HR.

[3] https://www.techinsights.com/blog/fitbit-charge-3-teardown
Appendix

Fig 1. Opened central unit of FITBIT CHARGE 3

Image from teardown