I found an old Garmin chest strap i had and successfully paired it with the Fenix 5 as per the owner's manual, and got confirmation on the watch that it was paired. However the owners manual seems ambiguous to me as to how it works now in the future. Is all i need to do in the future, is wear the chest strap and it will automatically pair with the Fenix? Or, do i have to go through the settings menu on the watch each time to pair the chest strap? Is there anywhere on the watch that gives indication that a chest strap is now paired and operational? Thank you!
The strap will connect automatically whenever you wear it AND start an activity or app. You will get a notification that an external sensor has connected.
Can you tell me where the notification occurs? I am not seeing it. I did see it the first time i paired but not since. When i start an activity, the top of the watch has thee items temporarily, the letters "gps", a battery status icon, and a heart. But, i get the same thing if the strap is not on my chest. Then, once the activity starts those icons clear and the data fields for the activity show. Is there anything more i can do to verify if the watch is receiving data from the strap? Should i re-pair it? Thanks.
It shows the process of pairing an external sensor, and at about 2:10 it shows how the sensor connects shortly after entering activity mode. There's the "Ext. HR connected" message accompanied by a short beep.
And I think the connection can also be verified by looking at the green LEDs of the built-in optical sensor. They should go out when an external sensor connects.
Thanks for the info and video link. Well, my Fenix seems possibly a bit strange. I put the strap on. The green light does stop flashing. And if i go to settings and scroll to that external sensor, it does say "connected". So, i guess i can trust that it is connected. However, when i start an activity, i do not get the message that says "Ext HR connected". I just get the little heart symbol and a message "gps connected". I watched it while that little message area is displayed (repeated twice) and that message never appears, and then that area disappears from the watch face and the regular activity face shows. I'll assume its not a problem; but does anybody think it is a problem? Does yours give you this message every time an activity starts and the strap is connected?
Are you playing around with it at the moment, going into the menus to see if it is connected, backing out to the watch face then starting your activity? If so, it may never have dropped the connection before you go in to the activity, and won't display the message. The same is true if it is disconnected, but reconnects while you're scrolling through the list of activities before pressing start to select the one you want to use. That is, the message is displayed only if the watch connects to the monitor after you have the activity fields on the display.
Just show the heart rate field on one of the activity screens. When you select the kind of activity you want to do, you should not even have to start it to see what heart rate is being displayed. Nor does the watch have to be on your wrist to check it.
So,if you put the strap on, and it connects, then start the activity, you don't see the message, as it is already connected? A bit non-reassuring, but i guess it does look like everything is ok for me, so I should not complain!
But...Thats a good idea, check it without the watch on the wrist! Thanks!
