Data field: Flexirunner

I made a custom data field for myself, and then I found out I had to upload it to the store to be able to use settings in the Android GC app. So this thread is to support that, any questions/problems/comments, etc., let me know.

Flexirunner

https://apps.garmin.com/en-US/apps/ce1e0b46-7c83-4ddb-9d48-c93edadabe3d

Flexirunner is (yet another) all-in-one data field, for use in a single field layout. It is designed for running, with a native look and feel.
It shows time, distance, number of laps, heart rate, pace, and cadence. It also measures running economy (http://fellrnr.com/wiki/Running_Economy), and records this and energy expenditure (https://www.firstbeat.com/en/science-and-physiology/energy-expenditure/) into the FIT file, for later display on Garmin Connect.

Please see the page in the Connect IQ app store (above) for the list of features and screenshots (to avoid re-posting the same thing here).

I have tested this field with my FR235, but it should perform identically on the FR230, FR630, FR735XT. Since version 5, Flexirunner is now also compatible with FR920XT, Fenix 3 & HR & Chronos, vivoactive & HR!
Since development is primarily focused on me having an FR235, the layout is currently most optimized for the semi-round watches.

Donations
If you use & like this data field and you're feeling generous, donations are gratefully accepted (but not obliged) here (give what you feel!): https://www.paypal.me/imgrant

Source code
The source code for Flexiruner is freely available on Github: https://github.com/imgrant/FlexiRunner
You can also raise issues there.

Acknowledgements
The Flexirunner icon incorporates elements by Freepik (http://www.freepik.com) from www.flaticon.com, which are licensed by Creative Commons BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).

gvasilak over 8 years ago

You can do it via GC like all the other configurable CIQ apps, sometimes you need to restart your watch for the parameters to become available for some reason.

Thanks all of you, WEBVAN, jim_m_58 and IMGrant. A restart of the watch did the job.:cool:

IMGrant over 8 years ago

ImgGrant were you able to see if adding calories as a optional field put it over the memory limit?

Version 5.3.0 is out now, it should've fixed the crash-without-HR-data bug and also adds the option to display calories in the lower fields.

webvan over 8 years ago

Thanks for the new version, will give it a try later today on the track...where "last lap time" in the bottom left would have been more useful than "Calories", hopefully for a future version ? ;-)

IMGrant over 8 years ago

Thanks for the new version, will give it a try later today on the track...where "last lap time" in the bottom left would have been more useful than "Calories", hopefully for a future version ? ;-)

Yeah, it's at the back of my mind. The problem with timer fields is their complexity: they require more lines of code to format (turning raw timer into m:ss, or h:mm, or even h:mm with seconds in a smaller font - calories is simple and comes ready formatted), which makes it difficult to fit into memory, especially since if I did last lap time, I'd be keen to have the full complement, so current lap time, avg lap time too.

I might consider doing this for the CIQ 2.x devices only (FR735xt, Fenix Chronos, vivoactive HR), since they have more memory available, but then I'm not so incentivized to do that since I don't own any of those devices, so I wouldn't be able to use those features myself.:(

Former Member over 8 years ago

Version 5.3.0 is out now, it should've fixed the crash-without-HR-data bug and also adds the option to display calories in the lower fields.

Awesome! Thanks again.

Around adding future fields - is it the lines of code or the calculations that take up the majority of the available memory?

IMGrant over 8 years ago

Around adding future fields - is it the lines of code or the calculations that take up the majority of the available memory?

They're the same thing, really.

Former Member over 8 years ago

They're the same thing, really.

Ahh ok. Wasn't sure if things like variables added much compared to the math equations.

webvan over 8 years ago

Yeah, it's at the back of my mind. The problem with timer fields is their complexity: they require more lines of code to format (turning raw timer into m:ss, or h:mm, or even h:mm with seconds in a smaller font - calories is simple and comes ready formatted), which makes it difficult to fit into memory, especially since if I did last lap time, I'd be keen to have the full complement, so current lap time, avg lap time too.

I might consider doing this for the CIQ 2.x devices only (FR735xt, Fenix Chronos, vivoactive HR), since they have more memory available, but then I'm not so incentivized to do that since I don't own any of those devices, so I wouldn't be able to use those features myself.:(

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this, as the owner of a FR235 I'm with you on the last part ;-)

It's too bad GC doesn't give direct access to the lap time since they calculate it too...

Former Member over 8 years ago

IMGrant, what do you think about increasing or adding a configuration option on the minimum speed per second for moving time to stop? I find that during cooldown brisk walking it's still registering moving time. Perhaps up to around 5mph cutoff might keep it to jogging/running only?

Does more memory consumption = more battery usage or is that more dependent on the calculations behind the scene?

IMGrant over 8 years ago

IMGrant, what do you think about increasing or adding a configuration option on the minimum speed per second for moving time to stop? I find that during cooldown brisk walking it's still registering moving time. Perhaps up to around 5mph cutoff might keep it to jogging/running only?

The current threshold is 1.8 m/s, which is about 4 mph (6.5 kph, 9:15 min/km, 15:00 min/mi). Perhaps this is a tad conservative and 5 mph might work. I was reluctant to cut it too fine in case GPS noise caused it to hit the threshold erroneously too often.

Does more memory consumption = more battery usage or is that more dependent on the calculations behind the scene?

I am no expert on the inner workings of the watch hardware, but memory consumption will not affect battery life. Whilst running the watch will be computing continuously anyway, but I think the main factors affecting battery life would still be radio usage (GPS, GLONASS, ANT+, Bluetooth), screen (backlight), and LEDs (in the case of optical HRM).