Fenix 5/5S - 5.40 Beta Release

I went for a run with OHR enabled today and had a HR strap paired with my phone for parallel recording of HR. While the HR line looked a bit different, avg HR was 147 on the fenix and 145 with the HR strap. Max was 172 and 174. I do have Connect IQ apps installed. So the issue doesn't seem to be as universal as some of you make it sound like.

I went for a run with OHR enabled today and had a HR strap paired with my phone for parallel recording of HR. While the HR line looked a bit different, avg HR was 147 on the fenix and 145 with the HR strap. Max was 172 and 174. I do have Connect IQ apps installed. So the issue doesn't seem to be as universal as some of you make it sound like.

thats good to know

I've factory reset mine and reinstalled the firmware

fingers crossed it was a one off on my last run

What's your running cadence, ianporter? There are really two issues here; a specific flatlining bug in some versions of firmware, and generic issues with wrist optical HRM units, which sometimes lose the plot from vibrations overwhelming the blood based signal variations. Cadence lock is a classic way that appears. The only really reliable OHRM I've used is the Scosche Rhythm+, which goes further up the arm and is on an elastic strap, so doesn't suffer anything like as much from vibration as the watch back units do.

What's your running cadence, ianporter? There are really two issues here; a specific flatlining bug in some versions of firmware, and generic issues with wrist optical HRM units, which sometimes lose the plot from vibrations overwhelming the blood based signal variations. Cadence lock is a classic way that appears. The only really reliable OHRM I've used is the Scosche Rhythm+, which goes further up the arm and is on an elastic strap, so doesn't suffer anything like as much from vibration as the watch back units do.

My run today was actually with Scosche. Here is how Fenix 5 OHR (firmware 5.40) compares to Scosche Rhythm+. 12km run, easy/moderate pace, ups, downs and flats. As I said, averages were spot on but Scosche was more accurate. Given what I know about limitations of OHR this is acceptable for me - and not drastically different to what DC Rainmaker had in his review.
ciq.forums.garmin.com/.../1247533.png

What's your running cadence, ianporter? There are really two issues here; a specific flatlining bug in some versions of firmware, and generic issues with wrist optical HRM units, which sometimes lose the plot from vibrations overwhelming the blood based signal variations. Cadence lock is a classic way that appears. The only really reliable OHRM I've used is the Scosche Rhythm+, which goes further up the arm and is on an elastic strap, so doesn't suffer anything like as much from vibration as the watch back units do.

i did wonder if it was cadence lock but my cadence at that point was 160ish

hr sorted itself out again a short while later and seen Ed more like what I expected as I got further into the run and picked up the pace

will do some more testing with it over the next couple of weeks

5S here. Upgraded from 5.33 to 5.40 two days ago. Still no luck with the heart rate issue; same issue as I reported with the 5.33 update after 5.30 broke my wrist OHR during activities

previous 5.33 post: https://forums.garmin.com/forum/on-the-trail/wrist-worn/fenix-5-5s/1244919-fenix-5-5s-5-33-beta-release?p=1245608#post1245608

Today's workout was rowing and barbell thrusters. I warmed up with some easy rowing and empty barbell thrusters for about 10 minutes and got my heart up to a steady 100 BPM. The wrist OHR was working and displaying correctly. I selected the Cardio activity and started my main workout. My displayed heart rate quickly dropped to the low 90s, then lowered to about 83 BPM over the next 20 minutes as I did some intense intervals of 500m rows and sets of 95# barbell thrusters. My actual heart rate was in the 130-150 BPM range the entire time; the activity history for this workout reports a max of 101 and an average of 84.

My displayed heart rate stayed in the low 80s until I rebooted my watch after about 5 minutes, after which it correctly displayed my cool-down rate as it continued to drop from 110 to the mid 80s.

Again, I know it's not a fit issue, or an issue with the movement being one that's hard to get good results on, because it works perfectly with those same movements until I start an activity.

All that aside, the average BPM is broken too. Even if my heart rate did decline steadily from 100 to 84 during the activity, the average would be around 92, not 84.

will cc this post to the beta team.

Did another workout today. Same exact results. Wrist OHR worked perfectly until I started an activity, then flatlined and dropped from 105 to 88 as I kept my actual BPM in the 130-140 range for 15 minutes.

Not only does this suck for tracking heart rate, it messes up calorie estimates and recovery times and all the other metrics based on heart rate.

Does anyone know how to revert back several versions? I went from 3.x to 5.08, then got the auto-update to 5.30 which broke OHR, then updated to 5.33 and 5.40 to try to fix this issue. I'd like to go back to 5.08.

Does anyone know how to revert back several versions? I went from 3.x to 5.08, then got the auto-update to 5.30 which broke OHR, then updated to 5.33 and 5.40 to try to fix this issue. I'd like to go back to 5.08.

See the beta download page
https://www8.garmin.com/support/download_details.jsp?id=11663#Instruct
Instruction 7. at the bottom
You will lose all settings though.

See the beta download page
https://www8.garmin.com/support/download_details.jsp?id=11663#Instruct
Instruction 7. at the bottom
You will lose all settings though.

I think that will only get me back to 5.30 which will have the same issue.

I think that will only get me back to 5.30 which will have the same issue.

Send me a direct message and I can send you the 5.08 beta zip.