Data field: Auxiliary Heart Rate

Support thread for the Auxiliary Heart Rate data field: https://apps.garmin.com/en-US/apps/88ce4547-7d84-4289-b2c7-3e15ca00185f
  • During that swim i even let the watch in the AUX HR datafield for the whole session.

    I use other datafields but only to show data. This was the first one that record in the fit file.

    Will tried to use your datafield but in the run app. I have this feeling that garmin may be blocking the function to save data into the fit file when the pool swiming app is in use.
  • When I record a run using both the oHRM of the FR235 and the Auxiliary HR, and upload to Strava, the HR graph is greyed out (but I do see the Cadence). When in Garmin Connect I export as .tcx and manually import this into Strava, I do see the HR graph (from the oHRM), but now the Cadence is missing. Is there a way to have both the Cadence and the HR shown in Strava when using this Auxiliary HR app?
  • When I record a run using both the oHRM of the FR235 and the Auxiliary HR, and upload to Strava, the HR graph is greyed out (but I do see the Cadence). When in Garmin Connect I export as .tcx and manually import this into Strava, I do see the HR graph (from the oHRM), but now the Cadence is missing. Is there a way to have both the Cadence and the HR shown in Strava when using this Auxiliary HR app?


    You can try and export the FIT file from Garmin Connect ("export original") and try importing that into Strava. You can check the TCX file to see if cadence is in the file (I thought it should be).
  • Thanks for your reply. I checked whether exporting and importing the .fit file worked, but it gives the same result as the automatic synchronization through Garmin Express; Cadence is present, but not the HR. When I open the .tcx file, I do see the cadence mentioned. So then probably the question is why Strava does not take the cadence information from the .tcx file.

    Excerpt of the .tcx's contents, where you can see the cadence is logged:

    <Trackpoint>
    <Time>2017-03-17T17:01:22.000Z</Time>
    <Position>
    <LatitudeDegrees>51.36824615299702</LatitudeDegrees>
    <LongitudeDegrees>5.169924013316631</LongitudeDegrees>
    </Position>
    <AltitudeMeters>29.799999237060547</AltitudeMeters>
    <DistanceMeters>3501.4599609375</DistanceMeters>
    <HeartRateBpm>
    <Value>180</Value>
    </HeartRateBpm>
    <Extensions>
    <ns3:TPX>
    <ns3:Speed>2.9210000038146973</ns3:Speed>
    <ns3:RunCadence>81</ns3:RunCadence>
    </ns3:TPX>
    </Extensions>
    </Trackpoint>
  • stop close

    I got a reply from Strava, saying that unfortunately importing TCX files will only contain limited information. I logged a feature request for Strava to also read that data (which is already available) from the .tcx file.
  • Update: They now logged a bug for the HR missing in Strava when syncing from Garmin Connect if this data field is used.
  • Very useful data field, thanks. I would like to second what another reviewer wrote - I would like the option to show the internal optical heart rate reading on the same data field page, marked clearly, for instant comparison. It could be an option in the settings, in case some users don't want this.
    Ideally what I would like is for the external strap to be the main one recorded and used for Garmin's calculations, with the internal OHR being saved in the auxiliary graph, but I suspect that may not be technically possible.
  • Is there a way to do the same with an external Blotooth strap (pe Polar H7)?
    I've tryed...don't works... :confused:
    Thanks
  • Very useful data field, thanks. I would like to second what another reviewer wrote - I would like the option to show the internal optical heart rate reading on the same data field page, marked clearly, for instant comparison. It could be an option in the settings, in case some users don't want this.
    Ideally what I would like is for the external strap to be the main one recorded and used for Garmin's calculations, with the internal OHR being saved in the auxiliary graph, but I suspect that may not be technically possible.


    Yes that came up last year and it doesn't appear to be possible unfortunately. On the other hand the Garmin built-in oHRs are so unpredictable that it probably wouldn't serve much of a purpose ;-) What you can do is force an external ANT+ chest strap as the main one for calculations and with the fiel pair another ANT+ external strap for comparison purposes, like say the cheap RunAR Optical armband that came out recently. I'm planning on doing that as soon as I receive it ;-)

  • This is a great data field and has helped me a lot to troubleshoot different artefacts that I was having with different HR monitors. There is a small inconvenience when I want to display and print the data traces from two different monitors: the only way that I have found is to go to garmin connect, show the graph with the HR graph for a given activity, and then overlay the auxiliary heart rate graph. However, GC shows the overlaid graphs with an arbitrary scale (different to the primary HR graph) and the plots are then impossible to compare visually (it is possible to place the cursor at an X coordinate and both HR values for that point are overlaid while in GC, but the graphs per se are not useful for comparison once saved or printed). ¿Is there other way to document and compare Auxiliary HR plots with the primary HR?