Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by MezzoDelCammin 1483 days ago
Well, if it feels petty, it's because it is.

The "data" You're talking about is basically just battery level and which gear are You in.

Just for context, SRAM (the second biggest component producer and the new owner of Hammerhead) publishes the same data in plain ANT+ format. It's basically an open standard over which sensors broadcast their data. Anyone who is interested can read it, no license agreements necessary.

AFAIK Shimano has decided to encrypt their packages and the license is for the encryption keys / algorithms.
2 comments
nradov 1483 days ago
Technically you do have to agree to the ANT+ adopter license agreement in order to access the specifications. But it's free and available to everyone.

https://www.thisisant.com/business/go-ant/levels-and-benefit...

link
dachryn 1483 days ago
so one of the future firmware updates will just be to rotate the encryption keys out of spite to make sure it doesn't work anymore.

What a time to be alive /s

link
nradov 1483 days ago
That would be difficult given the very limited compute power on the sensor devices involved.
link