I noticed that if you've selected an external monitor as the main source it won't find any HR, makes sense I suppose, but in that case could it display the HR from the OHR ?
I think maybe the watch can only make a single ANT+ connection to a given device, so perhaps if you are using an external HRM, then the watch has already made this connection and so my data field cannot. Unfortunately I don't think there is a way to access the optical HR directly, if you have paired and are using an external HRM, then the heart rate data presented via Connect IQ will come from that. So for my testing, I have been sticking to using the optical HR by not configuring an external HRM, and then connecting to the external HRM with this data field. This means that HR data in, e.g, Garmin Connect will show the optical HR. Aux. HR is available as a Connect IQ graph. However, the data field does mark the Aux. HR as equivalent to the native HR, and so in Training Peaks this seems to cause TP to show Aux HR as HR instead of the optical.
Also, could it be labelled "Aux. HR" instead of "Heart Rate" in case it's displayed on the same page as the "standard" Heart Rate ?
This is a good suggestion, I'll look to implement it for a future release soon.
Been using AHR over the past few days to try to troubleshoot the mostly odd behavior of HR on my FR235, both with the OHR and external straps. I got a very clean graph for the external HR in the AHR "channel" yesterday on an easy run. I noticed that in the "intervals" details I was only getting "Min HR" data, not average data so today for my track session I didn't use it and guess what the HR data of the external data looked rather odd in places. Might be just a coincidence of course but still... Is there any way to get the average AHR data by lap in the "intervals page" on GC ? Thanks !
The data field should be recording average, max and min HR for the overall session and each lap. I noticed in one of my runs that I was missing min HR in Garmin Connect but did not investigate the actual FIT file. I think the Connect IQ stuff is still a bit buggy in places and so I'm going to blame Garmin for this. One caveat, however, is if you are using the workout/interval feature on the watch - laps that are automatically triggered in this mode are not exposed to Connect IQ, which means Connect IQ data fields cannot properly calculate lap quantities. This is a known problem. It's really annoying and I can't see why it is designed this way, I would call it a bug, but so far Garmin have not been forthcoming on whether it will be fixed. I urge you to let them know your feelings about this.
I'll do a static test to see if I get Average Values for AHR. What's strange is that GCM showed Average/Max/Min columns but with no values for Average/Max, while GC only showed a Min colum with values. I had lapped manually.
It's too bad AHR can't access the OHR directly. I suppose there's no way of limiting AHR to previously configured External sensors either? Reason I'm asking is that I tried to use it on a race on Sunday and well...I'm not sure to what strap it connected to ;-) A workaround would be to start the activity in a place where there are no runners around and making your way to the line.
Is the external HRM paired and connected to the watch? If that's the case, the FW will be using that for the .fit, and if you're doing your own pairing with ANT, I can see how things might get confused. What if you remove the pairing in the FW or turn it off in the FW? The FW would then use the WHR and your DF, the external one.
I suppose there's no way of limiting AHR to previously configured External sensors either? Reason I'm asking is that I tried to use it on a race on Sunday and well...I'm not sure to what strap it connected to ;-) A workaround would be to start the activity in a place where there are no runners around and making your way to the line.
Yes, I had in mind this might be necessary, but since I wanted to get it up and running quickly, and I'm training alone rather than racing, it wasn't a problem for me. Probably will add a data field setting to put the ANT+ ID in, rather than searching.
Haven't seen any problem with external HR, but have only done a couple of runs with that, and it isn't paired to the watch, it's just with Aux HR.
Is the external HRM paired and connected to the watch? If that's the case, the FW will be using that for the .fit, and if you're doing your own pairing with ANT, I can see how things might get confused. What if you remove the pairing in the FW or turn it off in the FW? The FW would then use the WHR and your DF, the external one.
The data field does it's own pairing. My use-case is as you describe, the watch is not paired to the external sensor, so it records optical HR, the data field then records external HR, as a Connect IQ field. This seems to be the only way to simultaneously record both internal and external HR.
Ah yes, inputting an optional ID in GCM settings would do the trick to avoid connecting to a stranger's strap.
Do you mean you're not seeing any issues using an external strap with the nativ" FR235 HR field ("HR") or using AHR ? As described in the topic I linked my HR data looks really odd with "HR" and it looked ok with AHR on a steady run. I'll have to see what AHR looks like during intervals. I'm guessing/hoping that if Garmin are doing any "post-processing" to the raw HR data to make the OHR data look "better" it wouldn't affect AHR ?
Do you mean you're not seeing any issues using an external strap with the nativ" FR235 HR field ("HR") or using AHR ? As described in the topic I linked my HR data looks really odd with "HR" and it looked ok with AHR on a steady run. I'll have to see what AHR looks like during intervals. I'm guessing/hoping that if Garmin are doing any "post-processing" to the raw HR data to make the OHR data look "better" it wouldn't affect AHR ?
I haven't paired my external HRM to the watch, so it's only Aux HR that recorded my external HRM. Once it comes out the sensor, I'm sure Garmin don't do any post-processing of the heart rate.
That's what logic would dictate...on the other hand the graphs I posted in the thread I started and the strange behavior for many of HR (using OHR) since v6.10 make me doubt it somehow. I'll continue to investigate !
Had a quick look at that other thread, and it does look weird. Obviously you need to confirm that the watch is properly paired with the external HRM and is using that (because those traces look like optical HR to me). You could try recording the external HRM with another device simultaneously (another watch or phone that can do ANT+, I have done this) and verify that way.
Finally, to confirm exactly what is recorded into the FIT file, you need to examine the FIT file, with tools like fitdump or convert it to CSV. Then you would know whether or not Garmin Connect is faithfully reproducing the data.
Yes I'll record the external sensor data with my old FR610 to see if it's any different, first with the FR235 paired to the external sensor and then connected via AHR.
About the data recorded in GC, it's very strange, when using the "Other" mode I see the "Average Header" heading and when recording "Running" I see the "Max. HR" heading! Now I need to do another test to see what exactly is being shown, hopefully it's "Average". Can that be forced by the DF ? Thanks !
EDIT - ok, did some more testing and in "Other" it is the Average AHR that's shown. In "Running" however it does appear to be the "Max HR" (as the header implies) that is shown. The only difference I can see is that I have "Flexirunner" activated in running mode (with the "running economy" metric). Let's see what happens if I deactivate it.
EDIT2 - yes that was it, without Flexirunner I get an "Avg. HR" column in GC and GCM. I for one wouldn't mind losing the "running economy" metric to get "Avg. HR" instead especially as I find it less "usable" than the previous version that gave a score over 100.
As a side note I installed "Peter's Pacer" APP and "AHR" shows up in GC/GCM but without any data!
