Message Sending via inReach Mini and 5XP during activity tracking

WD over 6 years ago

I wanted to throw this out and see if anyone else had a similar setup, or noticed this. I was hiking over the weekend. I have a Mini, 5XP and iPhoneX. All three were connected and communicating. I was just wanted to build a reference on battery life, features, etc.

I have the 5XP tracking a Hike activity with default setting. The Mini had tracking enabled, default settings. iPhoneX Earthmate app, defaults.

On the 5XP there is a widget to connect to Mini. I chose to send a Predefine Message. The 5XP indicated it was talking to Mini, but I never saw the Mini's arrow to indicate uploading the message. I tried this three times. Finally, I stopped, and paused my tracking on the 5XP, attempted the same, and it worked. I re-enabled(unpaused) the 5XP activity, and again attempted to send a predefined message, and failed.

The failure is not a hard failure... it all looks likes it works, just no messages is actually sent. If you were just walking, and not really listening for tones, or watching the screens, you would have assumed it was working.

iPhoneX was able to communicate the message OK. However, I continue to see Earthmate lose credentials to inreach.garmin.com, so I always have to re-enter those for sync.

And yes, battery life was about 50% of what has been indicated... all the chatter of those devices... lol

I have opened a case with Garmin.

0 Bob.Shelley over 6 years ago

...
iPhoneX was able to communicate the message OK. However, I continue to see Earthmate lose credentials to inreach.garmin.com, so I always have to re-enter those for sync...

This happens to me often too. Rather than re-enter login info do a forced-close of the Earthmate app (kill via red X on iPhone X) and then restart it; the login info will be there.

0 WD over 6 years ago

I'll give that a shot next time. Strange that I never saw this with my Explorer +.... just since I started using the Mini. Thanks for responding!

0 Michael over 6 years ago

Works as designed for me:

Did the following:
- Turned on inReach
- Sent test message to the inReach from the Garmin web site (I was indoors). No reply received during a 15 minute wait.
- Went outside, turned on tracking.
- Sent a pre-set message from my mail account using my Fenix 5x linked to the inReach Mini
- Walked about
- After 11 minutes, 45 seconds, I heard the inReach beeping and the test message was received. Checking my phone, the pre-set message was also received by the phone.

Conclusion: I belive that, during tracking, the inReach will send/receive messages every 10 minutes or so in the time slot it uses to upload tracking points.

Also keep in mind, that having a GPS fix and being able to communicate with the Iridium satelites are two different things - I can get a GPS fix from my window, but no SATCOM.

0 WD over 6 years ago

I did some further testing last night. In the first 5 minutes, I was able to send three messages without issue. At minute 19 I tried. 4 times, nothing happened. At about minute 60, the 4 messages suddenly went out at the same time. This seems to be a serious comm issue between the 5XP and the Mini. Others have also confirmed dropouts between the 5XP and the Mini, so maybe thats what Im experiencing.

0 Michael over 6 years ago

When sending a message from the Watch, I get a message saying “Transferring message to inReach”, then it disappears- supposingly after transfer is complete. From that point, I would think the watch connection is no longer relevant

0 WD over 6 years ago

Sure, I get that also... but the mini never indicates upload (up arrow)... until 40 minutes later, when (4) messages suddenly go out. Thats not right. I have not heard from Garmin yet... so until they look into it more, that's all I got.

0 Michael over 6 years ago

Has this 40 min delay happened more than once ? Could it be that the inReach only got a satCom connection after 40 min ?

0 twolpert over 6 years ago

The curved up-arrow in the status bar means "trying to connect to Iridium". It should appear, at least sporadically, whenever the unit has something to send. It will appear for a longer period of time if it is having difficulty with the transmission - typically because the sky view is occluded.

in good conditions, I would expect it to appear as soon as the iR knows it has something to send. It would disappear within a few minutes, as soon as the traffic is sent. With default settings, you would also hear the "sent message" whistle as the message goes out.

In bad conditions, I would expect it to appear as soon as the iR knows it has something to send. It would stay visible for longer than a minute or two. You would not hear the sent message whistle if the message did not go out. If the message does not go out on the first try, the unit will eventually retry. There is a delay between retries. I do not think that the arrow remains in the status bar unless the unit is actively trying to contact the network. In other words, I think the arrow disappears in the interval between retries. But I don't know that for sure.

Bottom line: You ought to be able to tell if the message made it TO the iR based on the visibility of the arrow, at least immediately after you send it from the watch. Once it's made it to the iR, it's on the iR to send it. Problems with satellite visibility can cause delays here. Further delays can occur in the actual delivery of the message to the recipient after it's been sent to Iridium. But those have nothing to do with the watch or the iR.

Reading back through this thread, I see that one or more of you has been trying this inside. All indoor results are meaningless. You may or may not get an approximate GPS fix. It would be the wildest stroke of luck if you succeeded in reaching the Iridium network.

I did try sending a preset from the watch, in watch mode with the inReach otherwise idle. That worked. I also tried it with the watch in watch mode, while the inReach itself was tracking. That also worked. I have yet to test the situation where the watch has a GPS-based activity in progress.

0 WD over 6 years ago

Has this 40 min delay happened more than once ? Could it be that the inReach only got a satCom connection after 40 min ?

Sure, I can reproduce this at any time. I've done it, and videoed it multiple times, at the request of Garmin. First 5-10 minutes things work normal. Then after that, no messages sends. Tacking is on, and points are reaching inreach.garmin.com. Then all of a sudden (yesterday it was a 17 mile bike ride. Attempts to send messages at mile 4 and 5 did not actually send until after mile 17 or so(at the end of the ride when I cycled ANT). Then they went out all at once.

This is not an issue with the Mini or 5XP by themselves. There is a comm problem of some sort between those two devices, or my hardware is defective.

The way I set it up is I start an Activity on the 5XP.
I go to the widget on the 5XP and start tracking on the Mini. So now both devices are tracking.
On the IR widget on the 5XP it is receiving stats from the Mini(distance, etc).
Send a message from the widget (I send to my phone number, which is NOT connected to the Mini). You will see the arrow indicate on the Mini screen, and in a clear sky, it beeps quickly.
I receive the txt on my phone.
I respond to the txt from my phone.
I receive on the Mini, which in turn is indicated by a receive tone, and on the 5XP.

Now, I have verified full loop of communication within the first 5-10 minutes.

At some point (minute 15 to 20 for me) I try to send another message from the widget.
The widget indicates its transmitting to the Mini. However, there is no indication that the Mini tries to transmit.
I'm still receiving updated information on the widget for miles, time and such.
I try to send another message from the widget. Again, NO indication of transmitting.

Now, I pull out my phone, connect and open the Earthmate Map app, and send a message. It immediately send fine. Yet, the messages I sent from my 5XP still have not sent.

At the end of my activity, when I stop the tracking, or break and re-establish the ANT connection, then all those messages from the 5XP suddenly send, sometimes in duplicate(yesterday this happened).

Let me throw another wrench in here.... yesterday I received a message on the Mini. I tried to read it via the 5XP. I read it, but the Message Awaiting indicator would not clear on the Mini. I then actually tried to read it on the Mini.It still would not clear. Finally, the only way I was able to get it to clear, was to open my Earthmate app on the phone and read it. It immediately cleared on the Mini.

So what I think is ANT comms between these two devices is screwed up big time. I give other examples as well. ANT leaves these two devices in some sort of limbo when the comms break down. You can tell when comms are being interrupted because the 5XP widget will constantly flip between stats and "Connecting...", and depending on whats happening, it totally screws up the device(s).

Garmin has not responded back. I requested a RMA for both devices. Half-baked at best here.

0 WD over 6 years ago

I tried to reply with my test, and received a message that my response was denied. It was clean, so I'm not sure why it was denied.