Build a Dodgy Smart Scale With a Raspberry Pi and an Old Wii Balance Board
A smart scale that tracks your weight over time isn’t exactly expensive, but it’s kind of boring. If you have an old dusty Wii Balance Board and Raspberry Pi, the initial state will show you how to build one that helps you keep track of your weight.
This project uses a Raspberry Pi 3 (you can use a different Pi model, but you need a Bluetooth adapter), a Wii Balance Board, a Wii battery, and some felt pads. The back end is handled by Initial State, a cloud service that streams data from connected devices. They have paid plans for $ 5 a month, but the free version should be enough for this project. Initial State tracks your weight over time on an online dashboard using the Wii Balance Board, and then sends you a text message with some scathing comments like, “How do I like my balls? Umm, into the cake. You weigh 140 pounds. ” Don’t worry if you’re not a snark fan, you can change these comments by changing a few lines of code. It’s a fun little system, and you can find a complete guide to building it on GitHub.
Weight Tracking and Text Messaging Scales – Humorous | GitHub via Adafruit