And Suunto does it again: mid-activity crash on Suunto Race

Dimitrios Kanellopoulos

@GiPFELKiND this looks like a ble problem

GiPFELKiND

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos do you mean Bluetooth Problem?

aiv4r

Agree on this one. The crashes should be Priority #1 to fix in any sports watch, that is the main task of a sport watch. (And it probably is prioritized at Suunto and other warch brands).
After saying that, in reality is not a huge issue on the user end, watch restarts and one can start activity again. (Yes I know it is annoying to merge 2 fit files after that). But frustration level when that happens is through the roof and I think my mental state would be so much better if crashes would never happen

P.s.: only had 2 crashes in my 8years with Suunto watches (1xVertical, 1xSuuntoRaceS)

elbee

@sky-runner said in [. There are no multiple processes. All of them run a single process.]

Are you sure? While I run, I can still receive notifications and the weatherfore cast is updated in the background.

Most sportwatches use very simple operating systems, and specifically s+ apps don’t run in a sandbox. We agree there. But it will be a bit more complex than a single thread.

Suunto support doesn’t help very much when you report crashes. They advised me to do a restart of my watch. Well, that is quite stupid if you report a crash, during a race. They didn’t sound like it was a serious problem, nor did they intend to report it to the developers. I told them to report it, but I highly doubt they did. They just closed the issue.

sky-runner

@elbee said in And Suunto does it again: mid-activity crash on Suunto Race:

But it will be a bit more complex than a single thread.

I never said there is a single thread. Most likely it isn’t a traditional program but some sort of bare metal system which is driven by various events or interrupts from sensors, timers, etc. I have some experience developing baremetal code that runs without an OS… Also, I watched a hour long interview with a Garmin developer that shared a few interesting specific details about Garmin software, specifically that everything, including all apps runs in the same single process. Of course I don’t know how exactly Suunto software is built, but I think there should be some similarities with Garmin software considering that the hardware is similar. From what I read pretty much everybody uses the same NXP SoC.

Olaf Gottschalk

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos said in And Suunto does it again: mid-activity crash on Suunto Race:

@sky-runner nope. That’s not it. Suunto plus can crash and many user space stuff.

Hi Dimitrios - crashed again today. 2 crashes within 3 days. This is simply sick and defeats the complete purpose of a sports watch!
Today it crashed after only one hour. Didn’t notice it and since it did not resume recording my activity is more or less destroyed by Suunto.

I do NOT use any Suunto plus apps or whatsoever, it is the plain core Suunto App recording a bike ride.

This is not okay.

sartoric

@Olaf-Gottschalk

Are you using a custom sport activity or a default one ?

TyreseJ4

@Olaf-Gottschalk This (crashing) was an issue with the Suunto 9. The only fix was to downgrade the software. After downgrading from the latest software that’s available for the Suunto 9 the crashing stopped. Not sure how to do that with the newer devices since you cannot use Suunto Link…at least that’s what I was told.

elbee

@TyreseJ4

This is what suunto support told me (after complaining that tbt now show distance to finish and previous the more useful distance to next turn)

If you feel that the previous navigation style better suited your needs, we recommend rolling back your watch to the earlier version.
Please follow the steps below to perform a rollback:

Procedure:

Access the Watch Settings:
On the Suunto Watch, navigate to Watch settings > General > About.
Enter Debug Mode:
Scroll down to the bottom of the screen.
Long press the bottom right button for 12-20 seconds.
Initiate Software Rollback:
The debug settings menu will appear.
Select the option Select OTA pkg to view the available software patches installed on the watch.
Confirm the software version you want to roll back to by pressing the middle button.
This action will initiate the downgrade process.
Wait for the Process to Complete:
Important: Do not press any buttons while the watch is undergoing this process.
The rollback may take 10-15 minutes to complete.
Ensure the watch has more than 40% battery life before starting.

megaphylls

@elbee said in And Suunto does it again: mid-activity crash on Suunto Race:

@TyreseJ4

This is what suunto support told me (after complaining that tbt now show distance to finish and previous the more useful distance to next turn)

If you feel that the previous navigation style better suited your needs, we recommend rolling back your watch to the earlier version.
Please follow the steps below to perform a rollback:

Procedure:

Access the Watch Settings:
On the Suunto Watch, navigate to Watch settings > General > About.

Enter Debug Mode:
Scroll down to the bottom of the screen.
Long press the bottom right button for 12-20 seconds.

Initiate Software Rollback:
The debug settings menu will appear.
Select the option Select OTA pkg to view the available software patches installed on the watch.
Confirm the software version you want to roll back to by pressing the middle button.
This action will initiate the downgrade process.

Wait for the Process to Complete:
Important: Do not press any buttons while the watch is undergoing this process.
The rollback may take 10-15 minutes to complete.
Ensure the watch has more than 40% battery life before starting.

Can I apply this procedure to the Suunto Run as well? (well it’s a bit different because after I scroll down I see “Development Support Debug”)

elbee

@megaphylls

I haven’t got a clue. Tbh, I haven’t tried the downgrade. In stead, I told the support engineer that it was about the strangest comment I ever got from any support department and asked if they can explain why Suunto thinks it’s better to know distance to finish than distance to next turn. Haven’t got any direct answers, other than they will pass my remarks to development.

wakarimasen

Based on the title of the post, and for perspective, it would be interesting to hear how many people have not had a crash mid-activity. I’ve been using Suunto for a few years now and it’s never happened to me. Is this a common thing, or something related to a very unique use case and/ or configuration?