Fenix 5 and Polar H7

Former Member over 7 years ago

I have searched everywhere but I can't seem to find any answers on pairing a Polar H7 with the Fenix 5 Sapphire.
I find many people speculating but nothing concrete, so I do apologise if this was answered somewhere that I was unable to find.

I have a Fenix 5 Sapphire but can't pair my Polar H7 HRM.
It just states "No Sensors Found".
I tested the H7 on my phone and it works correctly (I uninstalled it again to ensure bluetooth only connects to 1 device).
I also have an issue where I connected Runscribe Pro (not new one) and it found both sensors and subsequently decided it can't pick up either one, even with trying to pair them.

This makes me believe the issue is with the BLE as my Garmin Footpod works fine.

Can someone please shed some light on the subject as I really don't want to buy a new HRM as that's partly why I got the F5 as it "supposedly" can connect to H7.

I have software version 6.00 on the watch and 4.1.3.3 on the iOs app.

Any help would greatly be appreciated.

0 Bench001 over 7 years ago

Hi everyone,
I had also serious problems to connect my H7 with the fenix 5. Here the summary which I did to make it work after a "long" journey:
1. Disconnect your H7 from all the apps (Polar Beat, etc.) / disable bluetooth on your phone
2. Disconnect with your polar watch and other devices
3. Reset your H7 according to the description above
4. Restart your fenix 5

*After restarting the fenix 5 I was able to connect to my H7 strap.*

I have the HRM-Tri however in the gym the connectivity is not always given which is quite annoying. With any of my Polar straps (even older generations) it connects flewlessly. ANT+ is nice but it isn't supported everywhere.

I hope it helps.

Best,
Ben

0 danlee over 6 years ago

There are two different versions of the Polar H7 (and apparently no way to tell the difference).
One of the versions works with the Garmin watches and the other one doesn't.
There was a thread somewhere about this fact. I have one of the H7s that won't work - I can at least get it to pair with my watch but it sends no HR data.

You will have to go the same route as Openbox9. On the plus side getting an Ant+ compatible HR monitor will mean less interference with any other BT devices (like the RS pods) that you want to use.

Thank you so much carl.andersson! This was the solution for me.

I was trying to pair my Forerunner 935 with Polar H7, and it kept connecting/disconnecting every few seconds.

I happened to have two H7's, bought few years apart in different countries (one in S.Korea, other in Canada). I bought the second one when I couldn't find my first one and thought I left it in Korea; later retrieved when I went back for quick trip.

Anyway, when I tried the other one, it worked flawlessly.

I checked batteries with multimeter and they are both good; I even tried swapping batts while I was struggling with the first one so I know for certain this is not battery issue. I tested both strips for both sensors, so it's not the strip. Also, I know it is not that first sensor was defective, as I can connect it to smartphone and have it display HR on Polar Beat and Runtastic without issues.

They look almost identical except various small markings on the back are slightly different. I cannot tell which one is the newer one since they have no visible wear & tear.

On the back side, the "good" one has additional marking on the left side of the panel just below the middle ridge that reads "MODEL: 0B IC: 6248A-0B", while the "bad" one does not have this marking.

Also, the good one's ID (printed on top) is "392A8815", 3 numbers-1 character-4 numbers, while the bad one's ID is 262FFD, 3 numbers and 3 characters.

Lastly, good one has "FCC ID: INW0B", while bad one has "FCC ID: INWX0".

These differences might be due to them being sold in different regions though.

So to summarize:
1. Two different versions of Polar H7, one works with Garmin Forerunner 935 (and Fenix 5, though I haven't verified this myself), the other doesn't.
2. The "bad" one's symptom is it keeps disconnecting every few seconds, unable to relay HR info to the watch.
3. They have some different markings, most notably "MODEL: 0B"

0 johhalvo over 6 years ago

Hi everyone,
I had also serious problems to connect my H7 with the fenix 5. Here the summary which I did to make it work after a "long" journey:
1. Disconnect your H7 from all the apps (Polar Beat, etc.) / disable bluetooth on your phone
2. Disconnect with your polar watch and other devices
3. Reset your H7 according to the description above
4. Restart your fenix 5

*After restarting the fenix 5 I was able to connect to my H7 strap.*

I have the HRM-Tri however in the gym the connectivity is not always given which is quite annoying. With any of my Polar straps (even older generations) it connects flewlessly. ANT+ is nice but it isn't supported everywhere.

I hope it helps.

Best,
Ben

My Fenix 5 worked nice with Polar H7, but suddenly it stopped. First I changed battery in the H7, but it wouldnt't connect. Searching I tried different things, and my trial and errors look like the list above, but over å period of time. What finally worked was restarting the Fenix 5. This tread was very helpfull. I will after this experience, turn off/on the Garmin f5 after updates.

john