This issue’s How To was inspired by a tip from reader Brian Gibbs, who uses smart plugs to let his daughters monitor his daily actions so they know he’s healthy (Issue 681, page 41). He uses smart plugs as an alternative to CCTV, but another option is to wear a fitness tracker that your vulnerable relatives can monitor.
Even older trackers, such as the Fitbit device we’re going to set up here, can count steps and monitor heart rate, then send that data wirelessly to a paired smartphone, from where it’s synced to online storage (‘the cloud’). Once set up, it works without much involvement from the wearer – as long as you remember to charge the tracker every few days.
New fitness trackers can be expensive and many have far more features than we need, so we’re using the Fitbit Charge 4, which launched in 2020. We picked one up second-hand for just £40 from CeX. The store had given the Charge 4 a ‘B’ grade, which is the second of CeX’s three ‘working’ grades. CeX explains its grades at .
