[General Accessories] berryelectronics:
Mi Band 2 Firmware Editor

Your warranty is now probably void.

I am not responsible for any bricked devices, do this at your own risk!

The Mi Band 2 is a really popular, inexpensive and good fitness tracker from xiaomi. Their App is great, but with third party apps you get a lot more access and control over your Mi Band 2.

Things like setting custom notification patterns was a really nice thing for me. Being able to select the vibration pattern or which icon to show when someone special writes to you is something very powerful in my opinion.

But there is one thing that these apps cant do: Change out the icons for something else.

Atleast half of the icons on the normal Mi Band 2 are rather unknown in the western world, and mainly used in asia. I thought that this is a lot of wasted space.

After months of digging through all the firmware versions, i am happy to present to you: The Mi Band 2 Firmware Editor!

Simply load in the correct firmware file for you Mi Band, select the icons you'd like to edit, save your changes and flash your Mi Band 2!

Features

Edit (nearly) all icons from every Mi Band Hardware and Firmware Version!

Edit the big numbers which show you the time

Edit the small text showing the Date (pro_1.0.1.54 only right now)

To Do

Add support for editing date font

Add support to edit the font files

Search for more icons in the firmware files

Edit the way the date is represented (allowing for better localization)

Auto Version Detect

Downloads

Releases

Source Code

Instructions

1. Check your Mi Band Hardware Revision

This might be a little tricky. One way is with the App "Mi Band Masters".

After you authorized your Mi Band, you can find your hardware version under the tab "Statistics". This Image is from the Gadgetbridge Wiki:

Now you have to look which firmware file is needed for your hardware version. If you Mi Band doesnt has a pulse sensor, its the hrx variant.

2. Getting the desired firmware file for your Mi Band.

Now that you know which Mi Band Firmware file you need. When you scroll down the Gadgetbridge Wiki for the Mi Band 2,

you can find the lists for which Mi Fit App version had which firmware versions. NOTE: This tool only supports 1.0.1.x Version files, everything older doesnt make sense to search all the icons for.

You search the group with your Mi Band Firmware name, and look out the needed Mi Fit Version.

Now you can search the needed version APK on sites like APKMirror. Download the APK from there and open it with a ZIP-programm like Winrar.

The needed .fw-file will be in the folder assets. Extract that file.

3. Editing your firmware

Now you are finally ready to edit the firmware! Open the Mi Band 2 Firmware Editor, press the button "Load Firmware" and select your firmware file.

Then you select the appropriate firmware version from the drop down list. And you can now select the icons or the numbers through the dropdown list!

After you are finished with the current icon, press the button "Save changes". After you are finished with editing your firmware, press the button "Save edited firmware". Select a location to save it.

4. Flashing your new edited firmware

You are nearly done! All you have to do now, is to copy the edited firmware file onto your phone (f.ex. with a usb cable or via bluetooth), and open up the "Mi Band Master" App

(Though you can use nearly all third party apps, most of them support flashing from a file), and after syncing with Mi Fit, you have to open up the settings.

There you enter "Wristband" and press on "Firmware". Here you can select "Firmware Update from file" and select the edited firmware. Now your Mi Band will receive the new firmware and restart afterwards.

And you can use your edited firmware!

Troubleshoot

Sometimes it doesnt really refresh the drawing grid, so you might press the "redraw eidtor" button in this case.

This program is working properly, and if correctly used (i.e. using the correct firmware settings), you shouldnt be at risk of bricking your device, though this tool really isnt the best or most beautiful. If someone wants to improve it, or completely do it by themself on a different plattform, you happily can use the data (like positions, etc.) i collected. This is rather a usable Proof-of-concept.

I would be pleased to get feedback and error reports, and you for sure can submit changes to the program through github.

Credit:

Thanks to SirStefan for the documentation of the font data for the small text used for the date. Post

The icon positions and big number positions are found by me.

Screenshot:

Editing icons

The new icon displayed on the Mi Band 2

Editing time numbers

The new time font displayed on the Mi Band 2

Older examples with small font data (1.0.1.54 version)