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Side-loading a .prg file on Vivoactive4s through VS Code

9753774
1 day ago

Hello All

I appreciate people like you willing to help out people like me.  I am not a programmer, but have built a small app for use on my vivoactive4s using VS Code and a boat lad of google.  I have it functioning as intended on the Garmin SDK Simulator. 

My next step is to try it out on my watch.  It seems as though the Garmin sanctioned way to do so is through Eclipes, using the Connect IQ Plugin, which (the the best of my knowledge) no longer exists. 

Most of the suggested workarounds are to simply plug in and copy the .prg file into the apps/ folder as though it was a mass storage devise.  Sadly for me, the vivoactive 4s does NOT lend itself to that method.

So, my question is if anyone could help with some intermediate level directions on how to use VS Code to side-load my .prg file onto my watch so I can test out functionality before I take o the task of cleaning up code, structure, and stuff.

Again, I thank you very much for any insight y'all may have here.

Bob

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  • 0 1 day ago

    >  It seems as though the Garmin sanctioned way to do so is through Eclipes, using the Connect IQ Plugin, which (the the best of my knowledge) no longer exists. 

    The documentation you've found mentioning Eclipse is out-of-date.

    We document how to side load an app at the bottom of this page.

      https://developer.garmin.com/connect-iq/connect-iq-basics/your-first-app/

    > Sadly for me, the vivoactive 4s does NOT lend itself to that method.

    What exactly do you mean when you say it does not lend itself to this method? What happens when you plug the device in via USB?

    Are you on a MacOS machine? If you're on MacOS, you'll need some additional software to be able to access the device filesystem.

  • 0 1 day ago

    Devices which support music, such as Vivoactive 4S, use MTP and not mass storage.

    On Windows, MTP devices will be auto-mounted and work *similarly* (but not exactly the same) as mass storage devices. On macOS you need a 3rd-party tool like openmtp.ganeshrvel.com/

  • 0 1 day ago in reply to Travis.ConnectIQ

    Thanks for the response.  I found out that vivoactive4s simply does not support being treated like a mass storage device.  I am on Osx Sonoma.  I had tried disk utility and it wasn't visible.  It does show up in the system info>hardware>USB ports thingy.  Ok, I didn't consider third party software.  Is that to say that you can't load it from VS Code (which is fine, just curious)

  • 0 1 day ago in reply to 9753774

    Well, that particular piece of software failed to recognize the vivoactive4s.  I'll keep on looking.  I refuse to believe I am asking too much out of this computer and watch...

  • 0 1 day ago in reply to Travis.ConnectIQ

    Thank for the page you sent over.  I did find that, and already have a nice little .prg waiting, but no way to get it into the garmin/apps folder on my vivoactive4s.  When I plug the watch into the computer, it shows up in the system report, and it connects just fine to garmin express.  But it doesn't show up in the finder, disk util, or the third party software I've tried thus far.  Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

  • 0 1 day ago in reply to 9753774

    I've successfully used openmtp on my Mac with my Forerunner 955, which uses MTP.

    9753774 said:
    it connects just fine to garmin express

    I think you have to exit Garmin Express before you can access your device using openmtp (or any other software that supports MTP devices).

  • 0 1 day ago in reply to FlowState

    My hero!  Thanks for that tip!  So OpenMTP has recognized it.  I'll now try and test this thing.  Thanks Everyone!!  Flowstate, for the record, I ended up0 using your answers on this forum to other peoples questions a lot while figuring out how to code this thing.  Thanks for all that, too. 

  • 0 1 day ago

    Hi

    Just a thought why don't you load it to the App Store as a Beta, then only you can see it and download it to your watch. This saves faffing with 3rd party software, usb cables (which is not good to keep plugging unplugging your watch - battery life and watch connector reasons).

    You can easily make updates, if your needs change, and you can get to Settings of the watch face - which you can't via a sideload.

    Edit: And its really easy to do :-)

  • 0 1 day ago in reply to 8108279

    That's seems like a totally reasonable approach.  This is the first time I've ever messed with writing a watch app, so I don't have a developer account yet.  One step at a time.  But if core functionality works as intended, that sounds like the way to go for polishing.