App: Hiking

https://apps.garmin.com/en-US/apps/39d3b5e8-67db-4517-93a8-5ec485269635

For the vivoactive, FR230, FR235, and FR630 (I don't plan support for other devices)

Please use this thread for questions, etc!

"Hike" records an activity as a hike or walk in Garmin Connect. It also allows you to mark "waypoints" (they show up as lap marks in Garmin connect, so you can see them on that map).

When hike starts, it waits for GPS, and looks for an available HRM and Tempe. At this point, with the up/down key or a screen swipe, you can switch between "hike" and "walk". Then, press "start" to start recording.

The current time, HR and temp (if the sensors are available) is displayed on all screens. While recording, pressing "back" marks a waypoint. To pause or end, press "start again", and you are given the options of "resume", "save", and "discard".

When you hit the start button and get the resume/save/discard menu, you can hit the back button. The menu goes away, and the recording remains paused (it's indicated next to the clock time on all pages). But you can scroll trough the data pages at the time. That way, if you're taking a break, you can sit and look at the current data.

When "paused" is displayed with the time, pressing start again resumes the recording.

There are 5 data screens that you can see when recording (up/down button, or swipe right/left on touch devices) (some not shown here due to forum limits)

The first screen is basic recording info: The time for the activity, the time that recording was active (when paused, this doesn't increase), the distance, and the number of waypoints marked

The second screen shows pace, avg pace, speed, and avg speed.

The third page shows the waypoints you marked. They are shown 5 at a time, and rotate every 7 seconds. They closest waypoint is shown in green.

The fourth page shows elevation data. This is GPS based, and sometime may be off. Elevation, total Ascent, and total Descent is shown.

The fifth page is location information. Your current lat/lon and heading, as well as your starting location lat/lon and the direction and distance back to start. GPS quality is also show, both in text and colors (green is usable or better)

Changes in version 0.12: see https://forums.garmin.com/showthread.php?335082-App-Hiking&p=765691#post765691

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jim_m_58 over 8 years ago

for the 20 hrs: You can charge the watches while in use. What you can do is bring a battery based charger with you, and when you stop for a break, connect it to the battery with the charging cable. On 23x/630 there's nothing special to do, but with the va and va-hr, in settings, change the "USB Mode" from "Mass Store" to "Garmin" to allow for "on the go" charging.

AncilTech over 8 years ago

Thanks!

for the 20 hrs: You can charge the watches while in use. What you can do is bring a battery based charger with you, and when you stop for a break, connect it to the battery with the charging cable. On 23x/630 there's nothing special to do, but with the va and va-hr, in settings, change the "USB Mode" from "Mass Store" to "Garmin" to allow for "on the go" charging.

Gotcha, Thanks!

jim_m_58 over 8 years ago

Charging while using "Hike"

One of the things that I may have missed mentioning about "Hike" (and "Hike2"), is when you stop for a break and use a battery based cell phone charger to top off the battery, on the main screen, where it shows time and distance as well as battery level, the battery level turns green while you are charging. (I watch for the battery level increasing while Hike is running). Battery units I've used will cut-off when they think what they are charging is "full", but on the watch itself, the level may be less than 100% (in the 90's) before it changes back to the normal color.

HankDu over 8 years ago

Hike was actually initially developed using a 230. It sounds like something weird with your watch.

I used the native running app quite often and didn't run into this issue. Here is the error log,should I send this to Garmin for analysis?

2157 (Forerunner 230) SW ver: 460
Build Type: RELEASE
Commit:bce5238e08b034ddfcc0d584b6184f0713d34fcd
ESN: 3921582193
06/04/16 01:19:48
AP
PWR RST CTRL: 0x00400028
POR

2157 (Forerunner 230) SW ver: 460
Build Type: RELEASE
Commit:bce5238e08b034ddfcc0d584b6184f0713d34fcd
ESN: 3921582193
06/04/16 01:19:48
AP
PWR RST CTRL: 0x00400028
POR

jim_m_58 over 8 years ago

As this happened after you exited Hike, sending the error_log to Garmin might be the best thing to do, as Hike is no longer even running.

GHESTEM99 over 8 years ago

Hi. Thanks for a great app. There is just one thing that would be a big improvement (for me at least) and that is having the direction of travel on the waypoints page. It would allow me to see the distance and direction of the waypoints and make sure I'm heading in the right direction without having to toggle with the power hungry chart page to check my direction. On a long hike the scale of the chart can be low and making sure I'm heading for a waypoint is easier on the waypoints page.

jim_m_58 over 8 years ago

I'll put this on my list as something to look into, but it might be a tight squeeze on some of the devices. I like the idea though!

On the lat/lon page, you can also see your current heading, and it's not close to as power hungry as the chart. (on the va-hr, with it's HW compass, I display the actual compass heading on that page too, so you can see the heading when you're not moving)

VinodV over 8 years ago

Don't see route map after recorded Activity

Hi,

I've a Forerunner 230 and have used your app previously to record a few hikes. After saving/syncing, I was able to view my route (the map would show up in the activity summary both in connect.garmin and the iPhone app). However, the last couple of times I've attempted recording, pace, elevation, distance etc. show up correctly, but I don't see a route map. There is no difference in how I launched the recording (launch app, wait for gps, start) or no error shown.

Any ideas on what is happening? Did I inadvertently mis-set something? The most recent time (today), I was running low on charge, but the time before, I'm pretty certain I had loads of charge.

Thanks,
Vin

GHESTEM99 over 8 years ago

Hi. Thanks for your comments on my suggestion. I'll use the Lat/Long page in future. Perhaps it's just me being lazy. As regards space on the screen I have a Forerunner 235 and would rather lose the bpm and possibly the 7th waypoint in order to fit in the direction but others may not agree with me. I don't know about the space on other watches.

jim_m_58 over 8 years ago

Hi. Thanks for your comments on my suggestion.

What I'm thinking is replacing the time of day on the waypoint page with the heading (that works on all the device types, without removing anything else). I could replace the title, but on some devices, the time uses a larger font, and that looks to be a better choice.