From the Desk of
Introducing wbs01-web
If you still have a Withings WBS01 WiFi scale and need to change its WiFi settings, plug it into your computer with that mini-USB cable you’ve been storing, open wbs01.zcs.me in Chrome, and you’re finally free of wrestling with Withings’ horrible config software. You’re welcome.
In 2010, I bought the Withings WBS01: the first WiFi-connected bathroom scale, launched right at the dawn of the Internet of Things. You configure it by plugging a mini-USB cable into your Mac1 and running a true bastard child ugly mofo of a config app.
Apple hadn’t yet bothered to make a Bluetooth SDK for accessory configuration, so instead Withings shipped this native config app, and as a result… I’ve dreaded WiFi changes for fifteen years2. Last year, after a network change and weeks of procrastinating getting the scale back online, I discovered the app had become officially impossible to run: it’s 32-bit, modern macOS won’t launch it anymore, and Withings never shipped a replacement.
Then, Christmas came twice: my brother-in-law gifted me a software-defined radio whose setup flow was “plug it in, open this URL in Chrome”. Turns out there’s an API called WebHID that Chromium browsers have been shipping for years, which lets webpages talk directly to USB devices. Which got me thinking: why isn’t there a Withings config app that’s just on the web like that?
Enter Claude Code. I asked if it could sniff the USB traffic between the dead config app and the scale, reverse-engineer the protocol, and port the whole flow to a webpage. One Linux VM later, it pointed a packet sniffer at the traffic, decoded all eleven commands the app sends, and vibe-coded the web config site.
If you have one of these scales and a mini-USB cable: plug the scale in, open wbs01.zcs.me in Chrome or Edge3, click connect, pick your network, type the password. A six-digit blindcode shows up. Punch it into account.withings.com and you’re done.
Full protocol writeup is in the repo. Not planning to maintain it, but it’s an independent Cloudflare Worker site so it should just stay online forever I guess.