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

When it comes to things like calories, I only display what the firmware is telling me. The calculation and actual recording of the calorie data is all done by the firmware.

What watch are you using and what firmware?

Sounds like it might be something odd happening on the Garmin servers to me.

Former Member over 8 years ago

Thanks Jim.

It's a FR235 and firmware is 7.10.

I've not experienced this before, but I guess it could just be coincidence and hopefully the Garmin server glitch will correct itself.

jim_m_58 over 8 years ago

You may want to go back and look at the data again, as there are times, right after a sync, the servers plays a bit of "catch up" with some things. For example, when you do a normal sync of steps, the steps tile could update right away, but in your leader board, they might take some time to update.

webvan over 8 years ago

Use that great app each time I walk with my FR235 ;-)
Another suggestion : could lap info be added, i.e. current lap time and lap distance (possibly lap speed) ? Actually I thought I'd seen it when I first started to use it but based on the screenshots it seems I'm wrong ;-)

jim_m_58 over 8 years ago

Couple of things here. The biggest is that in Hike, I've pretty much maxed out memory for 1.x devices, so adding much of anything isn't that easy.

Also, with Hike, and the default settings, laps are marked when a waypoint is marked, so I'm not sure how useful the data would be. If Hike is set to do auto-laps, to me it might make more sense, but there's still the thing about being tight on memory (I barely had enough to add the auto-lap functionality itself)

webvan over 8 years ago

Thanks for explaining. For a "hiking" app it seems it could be useful to know what time/distance you've covered since you marked the last waypoint ? Actually I'm not sure how I would use auto-lap for hiking purposes ?

jim_m_58 over 8 years ago

The Auto-lap thing was basically added for folks that record a walk with hike. That's why it's off by default. In Simple Walk, I have auto-lap on by default, as it seems to be a bit more of a norm there.

Using the lap marked waypoints complicates things a bit too. I add a lap mark when the waypoint is first marked, but internally, I look for things like returning to a way point, and then you get into things such as do you want the time since the waypoint was first marked, last time you were "close", or both. And then there's also the difference on the watch vs what you'll see split-wise in Garmin Connect for things like returning to a waypoint.

But since there really isn't enough free memory, I can't really anything anyway.

jim_m_58 over 8 years ago

I'm still watching this thread, but expanding a bit and have a facebook page for all my apps. One of my first posts is a bit of history on why there is a Hike and Hike2!

Please share your experience there if you like my apps!
https://www.facebook.com/connectiqaz

Maybe, the next time you're out for a hike, take a scenic picture with the chart screen of Hike/Hike2 in the foreground and post it there? :)

webvan over 8 years ago

Interesting, thanks and thanks again for all these great apps !

Former Member over 8 years ago

Thanks again for the great app. I use this a lot for 'city hiking'. One thing i notice however, is when I stop indoors like pop in for a coffee break, it keeps increasing the miles distance moved. I think it may be due to losing GPS signal. Is this a know feature/issue?