Popup says an external HR sensor is connected, but then wrist HR sensor is used anyway
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This happens approximately every 3rd or 4th time I start an activity on my watch. There is some wine sort of timing issue or race condition - as I am starting activity, shortly after the watch detects an external sensor and shows the popup that the external sensor is connected, but then I see that it has actually locked to the built-in wrist sensor. I can see that because the icons are slightly different. But since the icons for the wrist HR and external HR sensor are so similar, it is easy to miss this. If I continue and begin the activity it would use HR from the wrist sensor. To fix it I have to exit the start activity screen, go back to home screen, then start activity again. On the second try it usually works correctly.
I should add that this isn’t a new issue and it behaved this way for months. Does anyone experience something similar?
Suunto: Ambit, Ambit 3 Peak, 9 Baro, Race S, Race Ti, Vertical 2 Ti
Garmin: Forerunner 210, Forerunner 610, Fenix 6X, Fenix 7X Ti -
On my race s it’s quite simple to see if the internal or external sensor (or none
) is used.If I see a measured heartbeat on my watch and the lights of my internal sensor are off, the external sensor is used. If the lights of the internal are on, that is being used.
If the lights on the internal sensor are off and the watch doesn’t show heartrate, then the bluetooth stack has crashed. Again.
Suunto t3c | Suunto Ambit 3 sport | Tomtom runner 2 | Garmin forerunner 935 | Garmin forerunner 965 | Suunto race s
Stryd | Bryton Gardia R300L | Polar H9 | Polar oh1+ | Wahoo bolt v2 | 4iiii precision 3 -
@sky-runner This also happens to me. Before starting an activity, I always check the HR icon. Sometimes the popup with information about the external sensor does not appear, even though the HR icon shows that an external sensor is connected.
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@elbee Yes, it is easy to see. My point is that the current code for connecting external HR is flaky - it doesn’t work consistently every time and fails to do what it is supposed to do one time out of every 3-4 times. Shouldn’t that be fixed?
Things like this impact perception about the overall software quality of Suunto watches, and there are a lot of small quirks like this.
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@elbee Yes, it is easy to see. My point is that the current code for connecting external HR is flaky - it doesn’t work consistently every time and fails to do what it is supposed to do one time out of every 3-4 times. Shouldn’t that be fixed?
Things like this impact perception about the overall software quality of Suunto watches, and there are a lot of small quirks like this.
Suunto introduced a complete reimplementation of their bluetooth firmware last year and since then the connection to external sensors is flacky, to say it mildly. Suunto support promised to keep me up to date with any progress, but I haven’t heard from them (and I do keep asking) so there must be zero progress there.
Frequent restarts seems to mitigate the problem for me. I don’t have any hope a fix will ever come to my race s.
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@elbee Yes, it is easy to see. My point is that the current code for connecting external HR is flaky - it doesn’t work consistently every time and fails to do what it is supposed to do one time out of every 3-4 times. Shouldn’t that be fixed?
Things like this impact perception about the overall software quality of Suunto watches, and there are a lot of small quirks like this.
I’ve discovered that on the activity screen, I have to wait for the external HR sensor to connect before going into the settings; otherwise, the sensor won’t connect at all. This points to a fundamental flaw in the watch’s software design. (I worked as a firmware developer for many years; the state machine here is either missing or poorly implemented.) I suspect that fixing any given bug must be incredibly complex then, so I’m no longer surprised that there aren’t enough resources to address minor issues. Instead—likely due to marketing pressure—development focuses on adding new features. My Race 2 is my first Suunto watch, and while I’m thrilled with how the firmware has evolved over the past year, the watch still fails to meet the basics of a “smartwatch” (notification issues) or a sports watch (planning a route so that the “distance to next POI/turn” field actually shows that distance—rather than the distance to the finish—while also displaying a turn arrow icon, proves impossible even after following support’s advice. There are also errors in the maps—see https://forum.suunto.com/topic/14979/double-blue-lines-on-map and numerous other bugs, both major and minor.) The hardware is amazing, but without proper firmware, it’s useless. I’ve had the watch for about three months, and my disappointment keeps growing. I’m not a hater—I always try to find solutions and stay positive—but this watch is really testing my patience. And it is called as “flagship”.
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@sky-runner I am using a Race 2 and a Polar Verity Sense as a HR sensor.
I don’t know if this applies to other sensors, but from my experience:If I go to the activity pre-starting screen at least 6-7 seconds after powering the external sensor on, the watch always connects successfully to the sensor and starts using its readings right away.
If I go to the activity pre-starting screen less than 5-6 seconds after powering the sensor on, the watch always connects successfully to the external sensor, but always uses the wrist (internal) sensor HR readings. In that case, going to “Exercise options” -> “Sensor data” -> the respective sensor -> toggling “Enable sensor” OFF and the back ON makes it use the external sensor.
I suspect that in the second case, at the moment the watch connects to the sensor, the sensor is in a state that does allow connections, but does not provide any valid HR readings yet. Then the watch decides to use the internal sensor instead and completely disregards the external sensor readings afterwards, unless the user manually instructs it otherwise.
Other sensors might behave differently.
To sum it up: it seems to me that the watch expects the external sensor to be able to provide HR data right after a connection is established. If such data is not yet available at that moment in time, the watch decides not to use the external sensor data at all (even if it becomes available just a couple of seconds later).
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@Lazar-Dimitrov It shouldn’t matter how long it takes. If the watch pops up notification about the sensor, than that sensor should be used. Otherwise it just adds a user confusion. If it cannot obtain a proper HR from the sensor, then perhaps it shouldn’t popup the notification in the first place.
What happens now is that user is basically misled about which sensor is user. The only indication is a tiny icon. This isn’t a good user experience. Personally I perceive it as a bug. Other users are likely to think about this as a bug too.
Suunto: Ambit, Ambit 3 Peak, 9 Baro, Race S, Race Ti, Vertical 2 Ti
Garmin: Forerunner 210, Forerunner 610, Fenix 6X, Fenix 7X Ti -
It shouldn’t matter how long it takes. If the watch pops up notification about the sensor, than that sensor should be used.
I second that
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@sky-runner Completely agree.
I would add that it would seem more logical to me, if they change the implementation in a way that the watch allows for a longer window for the ext. sensor to start providing HR readings before giving up on it.
I haven’t tested the situation when the wrist (internal) HR is disabled for the particular activity type via the “Exercise options” menu. Perhaps in that case the watch will be more generous in terms of time spent waiting for the ext. sensor to start providing HR readings. At least in that situation the the degree of UI confusion should be smaller - I assume the HR icon would remain grey until external HR readings become available / unless they are available at the time the BT connection is established.
Once the “Wrist HR” option in “Exercise options” is disabled, it should remain disabled for the particular activity type - perhaps give that a try.
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Once the “Wrist HR” option in “Exercise options” is disabled, it should remain disabled for the particular activity type - perhaps give that a try
Yes, disabling wrist HR works as a workaround and allows external HR to connect reliably. But I don’t want to use that because occasionally I run without an external HR - I either forget the sensor when I drive for a run or don’t care about HR quality, for example when running with my dog. I think this issue should be fixed regardless because this clearly doesn’t work as intended, and users don’t have to use workarounds.
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I set all my custom sports modes to no wrist HR sensor, and I just use my strap.
Wrist based HR is rubbish for most of my activities.
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