Always active on the 735XT?

Has anyone managed to convert their relatively complex watch face to use always active on the 735XT without limiting functionality? A user pointed out to me that the 735XT now has CIQ 2.3.1 on it but a quick update to my UTC Titanium to add the 735XT to the list results in an out of memory error due to the 735XTs 64kb limitation for watch faces. The problem, at least in this case, is that in addition to the main background buffer I also need four smaller buffers for the date and the three info dials.

Some potential solutions I've thought of:

1. Reduce code to make room for the buffers; this may result in lost functionality.

2. Use bitmaps for the dial headers (ie. STEPS, BATT, UTC) on the 735XT; this means that it's more complex to support different languages.

3. Reduce size of the buffers by limiting colours; this makes the watch face less attractive.

4. Hope that Garmin increases the available size for watch faces on the 735XT.

Any other ideas?

Cheers,
Douglas

jim_m_58 over 7 years ago

The 735 doesn't support 1hz. Nor does the va-hr. While they both have 2.3.x, they can do backgrounding but not 1hz.

Maybe build file excludes? You don't need to do all this if you're on a watch that doesn't have onPartialUpdate() like the 735.

dbrobert over 7 years ago

The 735 doesn't support 1hz. Nor does the va-hr. While they both have 2.3.x, they can do backgrounding but not 1hz.

Oh?? How did I miss that? I thought every device with 2.3.x supported all the new features. And interesting that using a "has" check on BufferedBitmap doesn't help since the simulator reports true. I guess that might be the case, so is there a better way to check for support programatically other than just knowing what devices support what features?

Maybe build file excludes? You don't need to do all this if you're on a watch that doesn't have onPartialUpdate() like the 735.

Yeah, all my apps employ the build excludes so as to support the various screen sizes, features and such of the various devices. But even with build excludes the 735XT was running out of memory when trying to use five BufferedBitmaps. However, since the 735XT doesn't support 1Hz, this is all moot since I don't have a memory problem anymore.

Cheers,
Douglas

jim_m_58 over 7 years ago

1hz requires HW that supports it (a newer type of display), so not all watches with 2.3.x can do it

I use

(Toybox,WatchUi.WatchFace has :onPartialUpdate)

to determine if a device can do 1hz.

dbrobert over 7 years ago

1hz requires HW that supports it (a newer type of display), so not all watches with 2.3.x can do it

Yeah, I guess I assumed (based on the history with fēnix 5 devices not being updated to 2.x) that any device updated to 2.3.x would support all the features of that SDK. I haven't seen any Garmin documentation that collectively describes what devices do or do not have support for the new features so I assumed (there's a lot of assumptions it seems) it was all good to go.

I use Toybox,WatchUi.WatchFace has onPartialUpdate to determine if a device can do 1hz.

That's probably a better way; thanks.

Brandon.ConnectIQ over 7 years ago

I have a plan to provide better documentation of which features are supported by devices. It shouldn't be too difficult to generate appendix-worthy content for the programmer's guide from our device configuration files, but it's a matter of 1) finding the time to do it, and 2) deciding which information to include. I have similar issues keeping things straight sometimes, so having something generated based on the actual device configs would help me out too. :)