FLIC BUTTON ALTERNATIVE HOW TO
FLIC BUTTON ALTERNATIVE CODE

The code for the webapp (Python, Flask) and the Feather (CircuitPython) I pushed to GitHub immediately (because I can), but there’s no documentation for it yet. There’s a bit of logic in there to define “the day”, as I don’t need the notification at 1am if I have not gone to bed yet (I did say that my routine is messed up didn’t I?) but that’s all minor stuff. The webapp would have the logic to turn the LED either red or quiescent depending on whether I got my insulin for the day.

FLIC BUTTON ALTERNATIVE HOW TO

I originally bought it to fix an issue with my TV (which I still have not fixed), and considered using it on my art project, but it also has a big bright RGB LED on it (an AdaFruit NeoPixel), which I thought I would use for notifications.Ī quick Flask app later, and I had something working - the Flic button would hit one endpoint on the web app, which would record me having taking my insulin, while the Feather would be requesting another endpoint to know how to reconfigure the LED.

I had a spare Adafruit Feather M4 Express, including an AirLift FeatherWing coprocessor for WiFi. It wouldn’t be great for notifying if I forgot the insulin, but it would at least allow me to keep track of it. It should be fine.īut what should the trigger do? The first idea I had was to use IFTTT to create a Google Calendar event when I pressed the button. I have a trigger, it doesn’t risk getting too much in my way. But since that’s a complex project for which I have no obvious solution, I’ll ignore that. The perfect trigger wouldn’t require an action outside of the measured action - so in a perfect world, I would be building something that triggers when I throw an used needle into the needle container. And indeed, it’s extremely easy and obvious to reach while putting the pen down - as an aside, most European insulin pens fit perfectly on a Muji 3-tier slanted display, which is what I’ve been using to keep mine in. The button fits on the back of the cabinet where I keep my “in use” insulin pen. We kept a third one “spare”, not quite sure what to use it for until now. I bought Flics last year upon suggestion of Luke, and they actually helped immensely - we have one in the study and one in the bedroom, to be able to turn on the smart lights quietly (in the night) and without bothering with the phone apps. The first thing I decided to do was to use the spare Flic Button. And hopefully something that I wouldn’t risk telling I took my insulin too soon in the interaction, and then not actually doing the right thing (as sometimes I reach out for my insulin pen, realise there’s not enough insulin there, and need to pick up a new one from the fridge). I also wanted something that would be a lot more explicit about telling me (and my wife) that I forgot to tell my insulin. Theoretically, the Libre App allows annotating that you took long-acting insulin (and how much) but that requires me to remember to scan my sensor right after and write down that I did. I needed something to make it easier to remember and not to forget.īecause insulin injections tend to be one of those things that I do “in autopilot”, I needed something hard to forget to do.

A few too many times that answer was “I don’t know”, and I think at least twice in the past couple of weeks I did indeed forget. What this meant, is that days blurred together, and I started wondering if I remembered to take my insulin in the morning. Maybe a bit worse for me since I’m currently still between jobs, which means I don’t even have the routine of logging in to work form home, and of meetings. Unfortunately, like for many others, this routine is gone out of the window due to the current lockdown. This is not usually a problem: the routine of waking up, getting ready to leave, making a coffee and either drinking it or taking it with me makes it very hard to miss the step “taking the insulin”. In particular, I use both fast and long acting insulin, which basically means I need to take a shot of insulin every morning (at around the same time, but there’s at least a bit of leeway around it). As you may know if you read this blog, I have insulin-dependent diabetes.

Flic button alternative