Ant Generic Channel Widget Connectivity issue

Former Member
Former Member
Hi all,

I am new to Garmin development, but I want to create a widget that basically works as an ant slave that listens for a broadcast message from a master and displays the message on the screen. So far the app successfully displays the messages in real time when you first start the widget. However once I move to watch face for a couple minutes when I come back to the widget it stops receiving messages from the master. if I quickly move between the watch screen and the widget it still receives messages from the master. Does anyone who has experience with using the generic channel in widgets know what could be causing this? also are there any general things that people who are new to working with generic channels should keep in mind while developing?
  • I'm not sure why your widget would need to stay connected even if it's not running.  When your widget connects, can it query the current light setup?  If not, when you change the setup from the widget, can't it just save it to Application.Storage so it can use that the next time it runs?

  • Ok so imagine you are riding your bicycle and want to change the mode of the taillight without stopping, my app/widget does this. Now the problem is everytime the lightnetwork is created or the channel is opened the lights turn off for a few seconds and come back on again, this is the problem, I dont want to lose light while riding.

    So I either have the connection always on even when the app is not running(which is not possible from what you said), or I have a data field that is always on while I ride (but I cant take user input), or garmin changes the way a lightnetwork is created to allow the lights to never turn off when the network is being created.

    And yes I tried to save the current state of the lights for future reconnections but I can only reset the lights after the network has been established this is after the lights turned off and on.