Suunto 9 + iPhone SE 2020 (iOS 13) - will it sync?

[simonzn]

Hi folks,

TL;DR: Does the Suunto 9 sync to the App with the current iPhone generation?

I currently have an Ambit 3 Peak, and as happy as I am with the watch itself, the broken sync with recent iPhones has become a show-stopper for me. I’m planning a longer hike and the A3P’s memory is probably not big enough to keep all activities (overall somewhere between 120 and 150 hours).

So I’m looking for a replacement, and the Suunto 9 Baro seems to be about the only adequate alternative. But as Suunto Support still hasn’t told us what the actual problem with the Ambit is, I’m not sure there isn’t a general problem with the app (iOS 13 changed how background apps may use Bluetooth - if that causes the problems, as someone suggested, it should affect all watches).

Cheers
Simon

[nseslija]

@simonzn I sync my Suunto 9 baro with iPhone 11 pro max with no issues.

[skorban]

Same here - my Suunto 9 syncs amazing

[Fenr1r]

@simonzn You might be able to stick with your A3P if you don’t want to sync and/or recharge on the hike.

Intrigued, I found this post (apparently from a 2015 exchange with Suunto) where the capacity of the A3P (at “OK”/10s GPS sampling) is that full 150hrs, including HR monitoring. Or more, one would imagine, without; and then watch battery life: ~200hrs. No extra battery weight.

Unless you want greater GPS accuracy and/or use any logging apps. (Which might not have equivalent available functions on the S9b.)

[Brad_Olwin]

@simonzn Using Suuntolink 3 your Ambit will sync to SA with a cable, this should alleviate long move issues so you do not have to sync via Bluetooth. @Fenr1r I am one of the posters in that forum (Martowl is me), here is a table I was provided from Suunto when inquiring about battery capacity. 

[Fenr1r]

@Brad_Olwin Y’know … I did wonder if that was you. Interesting: I wonder what that last line is recording every 10s - cadence? Barometric altitude? App things?

Was it a later FW revision that gave us the following (from MC sport mode options)?

[simonzn]

@Fenr1r The recording interval has always been there in Movescount, at least since I bought the Ambit 3 (mid 2017). From what I understand it means a log entry (the whole data set, i.e. position, heart rate, altitude, …) is written in 10s-intervals instead of 1s-intervals, which reduces the log size and is fine when you’re moving slowly. I use that for my hiking settings.

Edit: Though it seems like the log entries are already somewhat reduced or compressed, meaning not every recording contains all information - otherwise the 10s interval should mean it can store 10 times as many hours as the 1s interval.

[simonzn]

@Brad_Olwin That’s great, exactly what I was looking for. So I’ll keep the Ambit 3 until it dies

Thanks a lot!

[margusl]

@simonzn said in Suunto 9 + iPhone SE 2020 (iOS 13) - will it sync?:

otherwise the 10s interval should mean it can store 10 times as many hours as the 1s interval

Ambit uses different record types for location samples, gps-base sample includes list of satellites, GPS quality metrics, gps-based parameters (gps-altitude, -speed, heading, …) etc; position sample only includes lat/long and timestamp. To get 10x difference, the ratio between those samples should be constant, but this can’t happen for different gps accuracy & recording interval settings.

If you remove location samples variable and compare log capacities for OFF/1s/no and OFF/10s/no, you actually get 10x difference. Also note how recording of HR changes log capacity: for best/1s it’s just 40h vs 54h while for off/10s its 182h vs 726h - HR is recorded as IBI samples and this does not follow 10s recording interval, instead all individual time periods between every single heart beat during those 10s are recorded and once GPS accuracy is reduced and recording interval increased, this constant IBI data stream will consume most of log capacity.

And this is some kind of simplification as recording IBI samples for avg HR of 150 bpm requires twice as much storage compared to avg HR of 75 bpm.

[Fenr1r]

@margusl Out of curiosity: what IS filling that 726hrs of GPS-OFF/HR-NO/10s recording intervals? Cadence? Baro alt?

[margusl]

@Fenr1r said in Suunto 9 + iPhone SE 2020 (iOS 13) - will it sync?:

@margusl Out of curiosity: what IS filling that 726hrs of GPS-OFF/HR-NO/10s recording intervals? Cadence? Baro alt?

I don’t have samples with that exact configuration, but here’s a set of random periodic samples from A3P indoor activity (gps off / hr on / 1s rec, it’s not running so there’s no cadence / distance) that should give an idea of whats recorded:

<Sample>
	<VerticalSpeed>0</VerticalSpeed>
	<HR>1.5333333333333334</HR>
	<Temperature>298.84999999999997</Temperature>
	<AbsPressure>99880</AbsPressure>
	<SeaLevelPressure>100790.00000000001</SeaLevelPressure>
	<Altitude>72</Altitude>
	<Time>4469.9099999999999</Time>
	<SampleType>periodic</SampleType>
</Sample>
<Sample>
	<VerticalSpeed>0</VerticalSpeed>
	<HR>1.5166666666666666</HR>
	<Temperature>298.94999999999999</Temperature>
	<AbsPressure>99880</AbsPressure>
	<SeaLevelPressure>100790.00000000001</SeaLevelPressure>
	<Altitude>72</Altitude>
	<Time>4470.9099999999999</Time>
	<SampleType>periodic</SampleType>
</Sample>
<Sample>
	<VerticalSpeed>0</VerticalSpeed>
	<HR>1.5333333333333334</HR>
	<Temperature>298.94999999999999</Temperature>
	<AbsPressure>99880</AbsPressure>
	<SeaLevelPressure>100790.00000000001</SeaLevelPressure>
	<Altitude>72</Altitude>
	<Time>4471.9099999999999</Time>
	<SampleType>periodic</SampleType>
</Sample>

And for comparison here’s a periodic sample from running (gps best / hr / 1s, cadence from wrist):

<Sample>
	<VerticalSpeed>0.10000000000000001</VerticalSpeed>
	<Cadence>1.3833333333333333</Cadence>
	<RelativePerformanceLevel>0.99</RelativePerformanceLevel>
	<HR>2.1499999999999999</HR>
	<Temperature>289.94999999999999</Temperature>
	<AbsPressure>99550</AbsPressure>
	<SeaLevelPressure>100440.00000000001</SeaLevelPressure>
	<Altitude>71</Altitude>
	<Distance>4883</Distance>
	<Speed>2.4199999999999999</Speed>
	<Time>1831.0719999999999</Time>
	<SampleType>periodic</SampleType>
	<UTC>2020-01-04T11:35:13.072Z</UTC>
</Sample>

For HR OFF just strip HR. For running with GPS OFF cadence and distance probably remain, even when there’s no foot pod. Not sure about swolf for swimming and rule / MC app data (i.e. if it’s average of last 10s or if it’s a sample value of every 10th second).

While those snippets are from SML-files , actual watch data storage should follow pretty much the same pattern. That’s also the reason for somewhat weird data formats for HR and other fields (bps or beats per second , actually it kind of makes sense to use with IBI and 1 or 10s recording interval)

[Fenr1r]

@margusl Thank you for the satisfying answer.