8.10.2020

Gluco-Tracker

Gluco-Tracker

Gluco-Tracker is an application that runs on your iPhone, iPad or Mac. It visualizes blood glucose data that is coming from a nightscout server.
So you need to have your own nightscout server to be able to use Gluco-Tracker!
You can setup your own nightscout server by following this instructions.

Issues:
If you encounter problems running Gluco-Tracker, feel free to file an issue over at github.
 

Here are some screenshots of the applications.

iOS app:




















In the settings you need to set the address of your nightscout server (e.g. https://nightscout.herokuapp.com).

"API secret":
If you have defined an api secret you can add it in the field api secret but usually that is not needed to access the nightscout instance for reading values.

"Token":
In nightscout you can define a token for things like reading data, writing data, admin etc. If you have defined a token to access your nightscout instance for reading, you need to put it in this field to make sure GlucoTracker can read the values.

"Unit mg/dl":
The GlucoTracker app assumes that your nightscout instance is configured to use mg/dl as base unit. If you would like to use mmol/l in the app, you simply set this switch to OFF and it will display all values in mmol/l.

"HealthKit":
If you granted GlucoTracker access to HealthKit, GlucoTracker can store your current blood glucose values to HealthKit so that you can access it from the Apple Health app. This might be useful to view values that are older than 7 days because GlucoTracker only shows you values from the last 7 days. 

"Too low" notification:
When enabled, GlucoTracker will send notifications if the blood glucose value is below 55 mg/dl. If you would like to get a sound added to the notification you also have to enable the sound switch.

"Low" notification:
Enable the switch if you would like to receive notifications for low values (in Gluco-Tracker acceptable low means values between min acceptable and 55 mg/dl which is min critical).

"Acceptable low" notification:
Enable the switch if you would like to receive notifications for acceptable low values (in Gluco-Tracker acceptable low means values between min normal and min acceptable values).

"Acceptable high" notification:
Enable the switch if you would like to receive notifications for acceptable high values (in Gluco-Tracker acceptable high means values between max normal and max acceptable values).

"High" notification:
Enable the switch if you would like to receive notifications for high values (in Gluco-Tracker high means values between max acceptable and 350 mg/dl which is max critical).

"Too high" notification:
Enable this switch if you would like to receive notifications for values higher than 350 mg/dl

"Too low notification interval":
You can define the interval for notifications of too low values in a range of 5-10 minutes. In case of too low values you will receive notifications in the given interval.

"Too high notification interval":
You can define the interval for notifications of too high values in a range of 5-30 minutes. In case of too high values you will receive notifications in the given interval.

"Min acceptable":
The min acceptable value can be defined in the range of 60-70 mg/dl. 

"Min normal":
The min normal value can be defined in the range of 70-80 mg/dl. 

"Max normal":
The max normal value can be defined in the range of 120-180 mg/dl. 

"Max acceptable":
The max acceptable value can be defined in the range of 120-250 mg/dl. 


"Too low notification as critical alert":
When enabled, GlucoTracker will send a critical alert notification in case the blood glucose is below 55 mg/dl. Critical alert notifications will even break through focus (e.g. do not disturb) or if you muted your phone. This is useful in case you monitor your child and the value gets too low over night. The sound of the critical alert notification sounds like this

Critical alert notification sound: <SOUND-LINK>


"Reminders":
Here you can define the life time of your catheter, sensor and pump battery. You can also decide if you would like to get a reminder for each of those three in case the lifetime expires. You can see the remaining days in the Timer Settings view.



Today widget:






The today widget always shows the latest value with the date/time of measurement, the increase/decrease to the last value and the current trend. Keep in mind that the widget can only be updated every 30 minutes. Apple restricts updating widgets to 50 times a day which is roughly every 30 minutes. Even this is not really guaranteed because I can only request to update the widget, the final decision when it really will be updated is made by the Apple AI on the phone.


Lock screen widgets:



You can choose between two different styles for the lock screen widget. For this widget the same rule applies as for the normal widget, no more than 50 updates a day which means not faster than every 30 minutes.


Apple watch app:








The watch app is a stand alone application which is not connected to the application on your phone. Therefor you have to set up the nightscout url, api secret and token also once on the watch.
Once you open the app, it will automatically get the latest value and will display it in a similar way as on the phone application. It will show you the last value, the delta to the former value, the unit and the date and time of the value.
The icon on the lower left corner will do a manual refresh and the icon on the lower right will open the settings. You can also switch between mg/dl and mmol/l if you like.



Apple watch complications:

These are the complications that are available on the Apple Watch, you can open the watch app by tapping on the complication.
The complications only show the last value from the watch app and won't be updated automatically. This might come in the future but at the moment that's the way it is. Tapping on a complication will open the watch app, which will automatically load the last value.




This is all the app has to offer and if you need more, please let me know in the comments :)



12 comments:

  1. Good start only issue I have so far is watch is only showing in mgdl not mmol

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    Replies
    1. So I've tested it this morning on my own watch. Our nightscout instance is running with mg/dl and the way to make it work is to first switch to mmol/l in the phone app, after that switch it to mmol/l in the watch app settings for Gluco-Tracker. Now deinstall Gluco-Tracker from your watch and re-install it again. On my watch it then showed just 0. After some time I've pressed the complication and updated the value directly on the watch and now it shows mmol/l totally fine all the time.

      Delete
  2. Hallo. Erst einmal vielen Dank für die App. Ich suche schon seit längerer Zeit ein Widget für mein IPhone um den BZ meines Sohnes direkt auf meinem homescreen zu sehen. Problem seit dem Update für iOS 14: das Widget auf dem Homescreen aktualisiert erst, nachdem ich auf dem iPhone nach ganz rechts wische und das gluco Widget auf der Übersichtsseite aktualisiere. Dann aktualisiert sich das Widget auf dem Homescreen.

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    Replies
    1. Hallo Jan, hmm...das ist komisch, ich habe es auch auf meinem Phone laufen und da tut es eigentlich ganz gut. Ich schaue mir das noch mal an, habe die App im Wesentlichen auch für unseren Sohn geschrieben damit er möglichst einfach seinen aktuellen Wert sehen kann.

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  3. Danke für die super schnelle Rückmeldung.
    Ich habe eben auch nochmal geschaut: Hintergrundaktualisierungen - falls das notwendig ist - sind jedenfalls aktiviert.

    Einfach super, dass es Leute gibt die ihr Know-How mit anderen teilen, um das Diabetes-Management ein Stück weit zu erleichtern.

    Besten Dank Jan

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Aloha Jan,
      also ich habe das Widget auf dem Homescreen laufen und es wird aktualisiert ohne das ich etwas machen muss. Ich habe ein iPhone 11 Pro und wenn ich dann einfach mit dem Finger das Display aktiviere und nach rechts streiche ist das Widget aktuell (meistens ein wenig hinterher aber sollte sich auf jeden Fall aktualisieren). Schaue jetzt noch mal ohne bei den Widgets zu schauen ob es sich dann auch direkt auf dem Screen neben den Icons aktualisiert...was es eigentlich tun sollte. Im Prinzip läuft da ein Hintergrund-Task der die Daten alle 5 Minuten aktualisiert in dem er sie in die UserDefaults auf dem Gerät schreibt, die Widgets ziehen sich jede Minute den letzten Wert aus den UserDefaults. Du kannst mich gerne auch direkt per mail anschreiben, dann brauchen wir die Konversation nicht hier über die Kommentare zu führen :)
      han dot solo dot gg at gmail dot com
      Gruß, Gerrit

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  4. Hi Gerrit, would hyphens “-“ in the URL of my NightScout server cause the app to not connect?

    My NightScout server URL resolves fine in a browser but the app I downloaded yesterday is failing to pull any data from it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi there, no it should work fine, I also have a "-" in the url. If you could send me the url I would be able to test it. Just send it to han dot solo dot gg at gmail dot com

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  5. i can not for the world change the applewatch to show mmol, the phone show right. is there an issue with mmol?

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  6. Hallo,

    URL eingeben funktioniert nicht was kann ich machen?

    glg

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hmm, kannst Du mir einmal Deine url per mail an han [dot] solo [dot] gg [at] gmail [dot] com schicken? Dann kann ich mir das einmal anschauen?

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  7. Somehow widget is not updating value even after 15 min. Updates only after manually opening the App.
    IOS version 15.3

    ReplyDelete

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