MQTT Broadcast

[YPOC]

Hello,

is it possible to broadcast glucose values to an MQTT Broker?

MQTT is a lightweight protocol meant for IOT communication, where multiple clients can broadcast to a broker and can simultaneously subscribe to new messages published to this broker. Implementation would be perfect for my target of having my glucose displayed on other devices such as desktop pc while reducing the dependency on Nightscout.

[Navid200]

May I ask why dependency on Nightscout is an issue?

We already have put a lot of Nightscout support into xDrip.

[Navid200]

xDrip already offers many protocols for sending data.
It let's you use Nightscout, xDrip sync, Tidepool and others.

It may help if you explain what you need to do. For example, if the intent is to have someone follow you, you can use xDrip sync.
But then, I would be curious what happens if you lose your phone? Where will you get all your data back from?

If we spend the time and add a new protocol and only one or two people use it, it wouldn't be a very good outcome.

To help avoid this, please explain what you need to do that none of the existing protocols can do.
For example, why can you not use Nightscout?
I admit that setting up Nightscout requires spending some time. But, you only need to do that once.

[Stan-Di]

Hello! Thanks for the answer! Mqtt is the best and simplest protocol for transmitting sensor readings (from temperature and radiation to glucose). It does not depend on Google servers like xDrip sync (for example, one of the phones did not have google service and I could not launch them, I got a brick), does not depend on the “business model” of Tidepool and other IFTTTs that recently changed the conditions again, does not depends on Nightscout, that hosters also constantly change conditions.

MQTT servers, of course, also can change conditions, but the same Mosquitto server is much easier to launch and connect with Home Assistant, for example, or any MQTT client, or Grafana etc. Using MQTT I can output sugar data to DIY watch with ESP8266 and OLED display.

Of course, I can come up with a crutch: run Nigthscout with MongoDB on the phone via Termux (this has already been done) and come up with a script to read data from Nightscout and send it to MQTT. But this is already a perversion. And the MQTT client library for any platform is open and free.

And after talking with people, I also realized that Nightscout’s functionality is redundant for many.

[Navid200]

I am going through old outstanding issues and am trying to fix them.
There are developers who add something to xDrip and then leave and never show up again. The bugs that come up later are still there.
It is very unfair to consider this to be a reasonable approach.
It takes me much longer to figure out what's wrong and how to fix sompared to the person who added the feature.

But, since we are all volunteers, I cannot demand someone who added WearOS to xDrip to come and fix it now as an example.
So, either I have to fix it or it will remain there as a well-known shortcoming of xDrip.

There is always going to be something that can be added. But, we cannot just keep adding.
Nightscout already has related bugs we have to fix.

An Android phone without Google play service? What percentage of Android phones don't have that?
You can run Nightscout on a Google Cloud virtual machine. Then, your database will be backed up on Nightsocut as well.
If you lose your phone, you will not lose all your data history.

[Stan-Di]

I'm not asking you to make a quick decision, I'm just asking you to consider the possibility. At the same time, I contacted the developer of a similar application and it turned out that it was easier to implement it there, via TCP connect.

And about Google, etc. Unfortunately, recent years have shown the politicization of some of the company’s actions: for example, sanctions for Huawei (which is why many phones do not have Google service). In Russia, for example, Google Cloud, Oracle and MongoDB Atlas no longer work. That's why I ran 100+ copies of Nightscout on my personal computer and am giving them away for free, but that's a whole different story. I would like diabetes to be out of politics, but unfortunately not everything depends on us...

Thank you for your answers, I will be glad if this opportunity appears someday!

[Navid200]

I don't want diabetes control to have anything to do with politics. But, there are some things that are out of my hands.

I use Dexcom products because they are the best for my needs, not because I agree with the political views of the heads of Dexcom.

I am not the lead developer.
The first step is for someone to develop this. Then, I will ask questions and state the facts that there is already too much in xDrip and I cannot be the only one who spends time fixing bugs. Those who add features should do some of that work. That's only fair.

Then, the lead developer will decide to merge or not.