Watchface: M2

M2 advanced profile settings

If you are copying a single profile from the designer to the watchface then you only need to worry about the top setting where you paste the profile.

But there are also 24 user profiles where you can save different designs in M2 or M2 Designer (numbered 1 to 24) and also some preset profiles (numbered 25+). Note that saved profiles are not shared between M2 and M2 Designer - they each have their own copies (because saved data cannot be shared between apps).

Advanced things you can do with the saved profiles:

• If you change the watchface setting for “Profile Management” to “Save Profile” and save the settings, then the watchface will save whatever profile text you have entered in the settings to the save slot number 1-24 as specified by the “Profile Number” setting.
• If you change the watchface setting for “Profile Management” to “Load Profile” and save the settings, the watchface will change its display to the previously saved profile (save slot number 1-24 as specified by the “Profile Number” setting) or a preset profile (25+).
• Advanced settings when you save a profile on the watchface:
  • If you specify Profile Activation Days, then that profile will be automatically loaded on those days (1=first day of the week, 2=second day of the week, 12345=first five days, 1234567=all days).
  • If you specify Profile Start Time and Profile End Time, then that profile will be automatically loaded between those times on the specified days. (Use the format HH:MM for time, e.g. 07:50 or 21:59)
  • Lower numbered profiles take priority over higher numbered ones if there are overlapping days or times.
  • You can create your own "default profile" in a high numbered profile (e.g. 24) which loads on all days (1234567), all the time (between 00:00 and 00:00), and then temporarily override this with lower numbered profiles which load at set times.
  • The start and end time for automatic loading can be relative to your current sun rise or sun set times by using one of these prefixes “SUNRISE+”, “SUNRISE-“, “SUNSET+”, “SUNSET-“, e.g. “SUNRISE-00:30” will activate at 30 minutes before sun rise. ("DAWN" and "DUSK" added now too for twilight when the sun is even lower below the horizon.)
• If you set a Gesture Profile (e.g. 1-24 or 25+) when saving a profile (0 means none), then while that profile is being displayed on your watch, when you use a glance gesture to look at the display it will temporarily switch to the Gesture Profile for 10 seconds, and then switch back to the previous display. This is useful if you want the display to change to a large degree, or have the background color change, or load in different fonts which wouldn’t fit in memory otherwise.
• Profile Block Random – while this saved profile is active then no random load events will occur. See next for what they are ...
• Profile Random Events – setting this for a saved profile, will cause that profile to get randomly displayed for a few minutes at random times throughout the day (unless blocked – see Profile Block Random). The number specified here can be between 0 (= off) and 255, and is roughly how many times a day that profile will be randomly displayed. So a value of 2 will make it appear twice a day, and a value of 240 will make it appear about 10 times an hour.

Demo Profiles – this is a global option (not saved with any profile). Turn this on to continuously cycle round the saved profiles in the range specified by Demo Profiles Start & End.

Using Garmin Express

The main difference when using Garmin Express (compared to the mobile apps) is that while your watch is connected to the PC via USB, then no apps on the watch are running. And when you change the settings in Garmin Express then M2 will only receive, and be able to act on, the current values when it next runs.

So this means that every time you save the settings in Garmin Express you need to do the following:

• Disconnect your watch from the PC
• Wait for the watch to boot up
• Wait for M2 to be running on the watch (it will read the settings, and write back any values to the settings as needed)
• Reconnect the watch to your PC
• Reopen the settings for M2 in Garmin Express (I'm guessing they already closed when you disconnected the watch, but if they didn't make sure to close them yourself)

When using the mobile apps to change the settings (Garmin Connect Mobile or Garmin Connect IQ Store App) then M2 runs continuously on your watch and handles new settings dynamically. Just make sure to close the settings in the app if it doesn't happen automatically when you save them - if M2 changes the values in response, then the settings page needs to be closed and reopened in order to update what it displays.

M2 Designer help & instructions

Pressing the up & down buttons (or swiping on touchscreens) will move between menus at the current level, or modify the current value (of whatever you are editing).

Pressing select will advance a level in the menus, and pressing back (or swiping) will move back a level.

(Similar to the Garmin watch system menus.)

The main concept is that there are “fields” on the display (most of these are horizontal lines of text), but they can also include rings, rectangles and a seconds indicator. Text fields can contain multiple “elements”, e.g. the day number, month name, a space.

Pressing the back button (twice) from the starting level of the menu will exit M2 Designer.

Long press your menu button (left middle button or touchscreen) to hide the editing menu and get a better view of what you are creating.

As an example, to change the color or font of the month name you would do:

• Press down (& up if needed) to highlight the field containing the month name
• Press select to modify that field (and see “Elements” on the menu)
• Select Elements to start selecting elements in the field (the first element is highlighted)
• Press down (& up if needed) to highlight the month name
• Press select to modify the month name
• Press down (& up if needed) to get to “Font” or “Color”
• Press select to start modifying the font or color
• Press up & down to choose the font or color you want
• Press back a bunch of times to go and edit something else

Menu layout

Here is an Excel file here which attempts to show the full menu layout - but don't be put off if it looks scarily complicated! There is more of a description just down below. The Excel file is initially scaled at 75% but you can zoom in from the View menu.

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>>>    M2 menus v13.xlsx    <<<

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The starting level of the menu has the following items (press up & down to move between them):

• Global Settings - overall settings for your design, like Background Color
• Field 1
• Field 2
• …
• Field N
• Add New - for adding a new field
  • Add Field
  • Add Rect
  • Add Ring
  • Add Seconds
• Quick Add - for adding some predefined full fields (not implemented yet!)
• Save Profile - for saving your current design to a profile save slot
• Load Profile - for loading any of your saved profiles
• Load Preset - for loading some example designs created by me (only one for now!)
• Clear Display – deletes all the fields on the display

If your menu is on a field, then that field is highlighted with a rectangle. (You can change the highlight color in Global Settings.)

Editing a field: pressing select while on a field will give you options to edit that field:

• Elements - select this to add / edit / delete individual elements
• Position - select to modify the position of the field. Selecting this will lead to:
  • X – select this to adjust the horizontal (X) position. Note you still have to use up & down to adjust the position even though it is left to right!
  • Y – select this to adjust the vertical (Y) position.
  • Centre X – puts the position in the centre horizontally.
  • Centre Y – puts the position in the centre vertically.
• Alignment - centre, left or right aligned
• Visibility - most fields are visible all the time, but you can also make them appear or disappear at specific times, e.g. when you use a glance gesture to look at your watch
• Move Earlier - move this field earlier in the list (and also earlier in the drawing order – later fields will be drawn on top of earlier ones, apart from the seconds which are always drawn on top)
• Move Later – move this field later in the list
• Delete Field – delete this field

When you select “Elements” then you get a list of elements in the field. As you select each one it will be highlighted with a rectangle on the display. For example you might see these menu items:

• Day # In Month
• Space
• Month Name
• Add Element – selecting this last item in the Elements list will let you add a new element to the end of the field.

Editing an element: selecting an individual element will give you options to edit that element. They follow a fairly similar format (though items can vary between different types of element):

• Change Text / Icon – select this to change your mind about what this element displays!
• Font – select to begin changing the font (size & weight) for this element.
• Color – select to begin modifying the color for this element.
• (Color 2, Color 3, etc – some fields/elements have additional colors, e.g. a Ring has a filled color and an unfilled color.)

• Visibility - most elements are visible all the time, but you can also make them appear or disappear at specific times, e.g. when you use a glance gesture to look at your watch. This is also used for Status Indicators: you can create an Icon element (e.g. an alarm icon), and set it’s visibility to only be visible when “Alarm On”. If you want to display a different colored icon when the alarm is off, then create a second icon and set its visibility to be “Alarm Off”.
• Move Earlier – move this element one position later in the field
• Move Later – move this element one position earlier in the field
• Delete Element – delete this element

Color editing – you will see a grid of colors like this overlaid on top of everything else:

Initially it will look confusing, but you can rotate between different display options for color editing by pressing the select button.

Press up & down to select different colors.

• They are ordered: black > dark gray > light gray > white > 6 pale colors (in the centre) > 18 bright colors (biggest ring)  > 6 dark colors (at the outside) > black > dark gray > etc
• Sometimes “Foreground” color is available – this color can be set in Global Settings
• Sometimes “Unset” color is available – this means that color option is not set (sometimes it means no overriding color, sometimes no color at all)

There are some special kinds of fields which are also like special elements on their own too:

Rect – these can be used to draw colored lines & rectangles on the display (or even data bars)

• Data – set what this rect displays (plain color by default for a simple line, or something like daily steps)
• Direction - the fill direction: to the right, to the left, upwards or downwards
• Color Filled – the main fill color
• Color Unfilled - for the rest of the bar not filled yet
• Position – modify the position of this Rect like other fields
• Width – set the width of the rectangle (set this to 1 for a vertical line)
• Height – set the height of the rectangle (set this to 1 for a horizontal line)
• Visibility - control visibility like other fields/elements
• Move Earlier - move this rectangle earlier in the list (and also earlier in the drawing order – later fields will be drawn on top of earlier ones, apart from the seconds which are always drawn on top)
• Move Later – move this rectangle later in the list
• Delete Rect – delete this rectangle

Ring – display data values in a ring bar format around the outside of the display

• Data – set what this ring displays (e.g. plain color, daily steps, or sunrise/sunset times)
• Style – change the graphical style of the ring (and also selects between different positions if you want multiple rings at once)
• Start – change the start of the ring (normally at the top). This can be used to create partial arcs, e.g. just at the side, or just at the top/bottom of the display
• End – change the end of the ring
• Direction – clockwise or anticlockwise
• Limit – if the ring is a complete circle then you can limit the value display to 100% or no limit. With no limit the ring will continue to show values beyond 100% by drawing a 1 second gap that continues to move around the ring. E.g. if you walk 125% of your daily steps goal there will be a 1 second indicator at 3 o’clock, if you walk 350% of your daily steps goal there will be a 3 second gap at 6 o’clock.
• Color Filled – the main color used to fill up the ring
• Color Value – color to use for the current value in the ring (between filled & unfilled). So you could set both the filled & unfilled colors to unset if you just want to see a single moving indicator.
• Color Unfilled – color used to show the unfilled part of the ring
• Visibility  - control visibility like other fields/elements
• Move Earlier - move this rectangle earlier in the list (and also earlier in the drawing order – later fields will be drawn on top of earlier ones, apart from the seconds which are always drawn on top)
• Move Later – move this rectangle later in the list
• Delete Ring – delete this ring

Seconds (Indicator) – displays a 1Hz second indicator around the outside of the display

• Style – change the appearance of the indicator
• Refresh – change the way the indicator is refreshed every second (try it and see …)
• Color – the main color
• Color (5s) – override the above color(s) at 5s, 15s, 25s, etc
• Color (10s) – override the above color(s) at 10s, 20s, 30s, etc
• Color (15s) – override the above color(s) at 15s, 30s, etc
• Color (0s) – override the above color(s) at 0s
• Visibility  - control visibility like other fields/elements
• Delete Seconds – delete the seconds indicator

Memory notes:

• Every different font you display will use up a bit of available memory (shown by the memory bar at the top) – if you run out of memory and try to display another font then that item just won’t be drawn.
• There is also a total limit to the number of items you can create & display (but most people won’t reach this!) The more items you display, then you could experience higher battery usage and lower performance (but it may not be noticeable).

More memory tips:

Notes on 12-hour and 24-hour display options

By default if your M2 profile uses the value that says "Hour" then it will change between 12-hour and 24-hour depending on your watch setting (set in the watch system menus). But the 24 hour format is not padded with a leading zero – so if you want that then you need to use "Hour 0#" and again it will use your watch system setting for 12 or 24 hour.

There are also some values you can choose to force 24-hour (whatever the watch system setting is on):

• Hour12
• Hour24
• Hour12 0#
• Hour24 0#

If you already have an “Hour” value set in a field and want to change it to one of the others then you can use M2 Designer to modify the profile - select that element and then choose “Change text” in the menu, to change it to one of the other options.

If you have problems with Sunrise / Sunset/ Dawn / Dusk times not displaying

M2 & M2 Designer require your GPS position in order to calculate and display sun event times - in order for them to access this you need to do the following:

• Start an activity that uses GPS, wait for a GPS lock (outside), stop the activity & discard it, switch back to M2 or M2 Designer (and the sun times should then display correctly)

How to use M2 Designer to create a battery icon which changes color

First set up the battery percentages you want:

1. Select "Global Settings" (right)
2. Press up/down to get to "Battery High" and select that
3. Press up/down to change the percentage to 50% in your example, then press back
4. Press down once to get to "Battery Low" and select that
5. Press up/down to change the percentage to 30% in your example
6. Press back button (twice)

You now need to add 3 battery icons - these can all be in the same field. Only one will be visible at a time, and the other 2 will be invisible (they take up no width in the field).

1. Go to the field you want the battery icon(s) in, or create a new field
2. Select "Elements" to edit the elements
3. Press down until you get to "Add  Element"
4. Add the 1st icon
5. Then repeat to add 2 more icons
6. Select the first icon
7. Press down to get to "Color" and select it
8. Choose the color you want (e.g. green) with up & down, then press back
9. Press down once to get to "Visibility" and select it
10. Press up/down until you get to "Battery High", then press back - this icon will now only be visible when the battery is in the high range (above 50%)
11. Press back again, then down to select the 2nd icon
12. Repeat to choose the color, and set the visibility to "Battery Medium" for the 2nd icon
13. Repeat for the 3rd icon, and set visibility to "Battery Low"

And you should be done!

You can either make the whole icon change like this - or there is also a dynamic "Battery % Fill" icon which you can set up in the same way (3 icons with different visibility all in the same field). The "Battery % Fill" icons require one of the other battery icons to be earlier than them in the same field, and they just draw a dynamic rectangle on top of the previous visible battery icon. So you could add 3 outer icons and 3 fill icons, and make both the outer & inner ones change color if you want ...

You can also try the "Quick Add" menu (underneath all the fields) and select "Battery (When Low)" - this adds a new field which has a battery % number, battery icon & battery fill % which are all only visible in the battery low state. But it gives an example if you want to check it out.

Description of training load:

Garmin don't make the official training load value available to CIQ watchfaces, so the value I calculate and display is a custom one and may not (well definitely won't match ) the Garmin one.

The one calculated for M2 is based on active calories, a daily average for the last week, compared to your average over the last few months. If you burn your average number of calories the value is 100, of if you burn more then it's above 100 (so your training load is increasing) or below 100 then decreasing.

So it is kind of like a percentage value. If you burn twice as many active calories as normal then it should be 200. (But you would have to do it several days in a row).

When you display as a ring or bar then it always displays values from 0 at the start to 200 at the end. So an "average" value of 100 will be in the middle.

Note that it can take a while for the average training load to settle down. (I'd expect at least 2 or 3 weeks). Especially if the initial activity data that it starts from happens to be higher or lower than your normal average.

And that a value of around 100 (%) is expected for the custom M2 value, as that indicates you are training (burning the same number of active calories) roughly about the same as you normally do.

How much it fluctuates probably depends on how regularly and consistently you workout and burn active calories.

Smart intensity: (copied from Luceo/Actiface watchfaces by request) this takes your intensity minutes so far, as a fraction of a "smart goal" - where the "smart goal" is your intensity goal for the whole week, divided by the number of days in the week so far. E.g. on day 1 of the week your smart goal is 1/7th of the weekly goal, then on day 2 it is 2/7ths etc. So I guess it allows you to try and spread your activities and intensity minutes across the week, and still feel like you are hitting a goal each day.

You could see the same kind of thing by having a bar for the whole intensity minutes in the week, and then splitting the bar into 7 segments (one per day ...) using some markers on top. Then you would see if your activity was progressing enough through the week in order to hit the total goal at the end of the week.

Hi!

My configuration is there. Would like to get watch alarm icon, when it’s active. 

Nice Now we have to guess what the "1" on the top line is for!

In order to show an alarm indicator what you need to do is this:

• Add an icon to a field (could be the alarm icon, or anything else)
• Then edit the icon and go to "visibility"
• Edit the visibility and change it to "Alarm On"
• Now the icon will only be visible when your alarm is on.

If you want a different icon (or different color) to show when the alarm is off, then add a 2nd icon, and set its visibility to "Alarm Off". Now it will either show one icon or the other.

I'm just about to upload a new version which works with the visibility editing a bit better - currently the icon will hide itself in the Designer, but with the new version whatever icon you are editing is always forced to be visible.

The “1” stands for notifications.

Thanks for Your help :)

Hi. My settings here: 

01Ys2553111WDPO1011WwWO023Vc121VcVf1VuVt03X7C11XRVs035C13NC13XDC19ZD211Vf01WwWw01WwN03VVC11WDXk03VvC11XWXk03VtC11WwWw01WjYE03VjC11XHYE03VkCVf1WwWw0

Clever idea with the seconds, I hadn't thought of that I like it!