wrist-based heart rate for swimming

FR945 enables wrist-based heart rate for swimming on Beta 2.64 firmware.

https://forums.garmin.com/sports-fitness/running-multisport/f/forerunner-945/167792/forerunner-945-beta-2-64-is-now-available

Will the wrist-based heart rate for swimming be enabled for fenix 5 Plus?

Top Replies

MarcWilensky over 5 years ago in reply to zoonamai +10 suggested

Try this.

Enable pool swim mode on your Fenix 5 Plus. (Make sure that you have HR enabled in one of the data fields)

Activate broadcast HR mode

Once HR is showing in broadcast mode, switch off HR mode…
JanH over 5 years ago in reply to rtperna +1

No. As MarcWilensky 's observations suggest, it is purely for marketing reasons/that they want you to buy a new device.
The sensor for OHR is pretty simple. It's the software behind that makes it complex…
1781978 over 4 years ago in reply to MarcWilensky +1

This works for Fenix 5 as well. THANKS.

All Replies

0 SAHO over 5 years ago

Only Garmin would know, and they don't tend to answer such questions in here as this is primarily a user-to-user forum.

But we're free to speculate of course, and my best guess is NO as I suspect they will save it as a selling point when the Fenix 6 comes out - just as the case is with the new FirstBeat metrics which are not being backported to older models.

The FR945 also features a new OHR sensor, if that has better capabilities for swimming then that's also a reason not to enable it for the F5+.

0 R_Tellis over 5 years ago

Never say never and all. But I agree that it's likely that it'll only come to wearables that use the latest oHRM sensor.

0 zoonamai over 5 years ago

Yes, you are correct.

I hope the firmware is updated.

At the moment, I'm basically satisfied with recording my heart rate for swimming by the wrist-based optical heart rate sensor through the Cardio mode.

0 MarcWilensky over 5 years ago in reply to zoonamai

Try this.

Enable pool swim mode on your Fenix 5 Plus. (Make sure that you have HR enabled in one of the data fields)

Activate broadcast HR mode

Once HR is showing in broadcast mode, switch off HR mode.

HR in pool swim mode will now stay on and you can see heart rate (even if the watch is submerged) while swimming. (The sensors do not turn off, as they would if you just went into pool swim mode)

After you save your swim, your device will not find stored heart rate, and save your swim normally. However, if you review your swim on Garmin Connect, it will show you both your aerobic and anaerobic numbers (which is based on heart rate).

0 rtperna over 5 years ago in reply to MarcWilensky

Interesting, thanks. I'm assuming the reason Garmin doesn't enable it for our watches is we have the old OHR sensor, and the new one is less prone to water interference.

Which, by the way... the Sony GPS chipsets in the new watches are crazy good in the woods. I ran an ultra this past weekend, and the guy with the 945 put up *by far* the cleanest track of anyone else. I'd have to re-mortgage our house to replace my wife's 935 (which, she'd love to have OHR swim working) and my fenix, but man, it's tempting!

0 JanH over 5 years ago in reply to rtperna

No. As MarcWilensky 's observations suggest, it is purely for marketing reasons/that they want you to buy a new device.
The sensor for OHR is pretty simple. It's the software behind that makes it complex. I guess the Fenix 5 Plus' OHR sensor is as good as the one of the FR945.

0 Dr Phil over 5 years ago in reply to JanH

JanH said:
No. As MarcWilensky 's observations suggest, it is purely for marketing reasons/that they want you to buy a new device.

I don't believe that.

rtperna said:
I'm assuming the reason Garmin doesn't enable it for our watches is we have the old OHR sensor, and the new one is less prone to water interference.

This is why.

JanH said:
The sensor for OHR is pretty simple.

Really? The sensor has to detect changes in colour (wavelength) of reflected light as a pulse of blood passes in blood vessels below the skin. LED technology gets better as does the algorithm used to interpret the information received. The F6, 945 and Marq all have different OHR sensors from the 935, F5 and F5+.

0 JanH over 5 years ago in reply to Dr Phil

As far as I know, it is only about the intensity. Changes in wavelength are not detected.

0 Dr Phil over 5 years ago in reply to JanH

Light can be either a particle or a wave. Optical heart rate uses different wavelengths of light to determine pulse rate from the reflected light.

valencell.com/.../

0 JanH over 5 years ago in reply to Dr Phil

For PulseOx two different wavelengths are used. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=4352784&isnumber=4352185&tag=1

For HR the intensity is enough.