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18.07 alpha firmware????.

msx981
10 months ago

For a reason I cannot see anywhere on the web. My watch has got 18.07 and it's an alpha build according to the watch. I wasn't signed up to the beta either so even more mysterious since alpha enrollment isn't a thing any more. Anyone got any ideas what's happened? 

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  • 0 10 months ago in reply to Dr Phil

    Also this statement you make is INCORRECT..."A heart rate chest strap and an ECG machine both detect the same electrical activity of the heart. The difference is in how that detected signal is used."

    A HR Chest Strap or Wrist based ECG DOES NOT detect the same electrical activity as an ECG machine, this is not technically possible. An ECG machine uses mutiple sensors all around the Heart and other areas. An ECG machine is a much more refined data tool.

  • 0 10 months ago in reply to Dr Phil

    I beg people again, do your research and know what you are talking about...people are eager to know if this fixes the HR issue introduced in a firmware update.

    Those saying things like this are moot as it's been here since the introduction WHR clearly are ignorant of the topic or WHR improvements made by just software updates (see latest Whoop 4 WHR firmware update as the latest example, or Apples WHR updates that track back to it's older watches). They also don't even understand that there are times when WHR is better at detection that Chest Straps....Hence the latest firmware updates from Garmin that allows the watches to choose between the sensors and detect the best data AKA NOT always assuming the Chest Strap is the best.

  • 0 10 months ago in reply to Saganist
    Saganist said:
    A HR Chest Strap or Wrist based ECG DOES NOT detect the same electrical activity as an ECG machine, this is not technically possible.

    Of course. Silly me for not knowing the heart produces a different signal for the chest strap than it does for the ECG. Nothing to do with how the different sensors (strap v ECG)  are placed to look at the waveform of the signal.

  • 0 10 months ago in reply to Saganist
    Saganist said:
    people are eager to know if this fixes the HR issue introduced in a firmware update.

    I think at this stage people are more keen to know whether or not there really is an 18.07 firmware (whether beta or alpa). The topic digressed to another futile discussion about how long problems with optical heart rate have existed.

  • 0 10 months ago in reply to Saganist

    I hope this is a bug from their side. I have also made a post about how off the optical HR sensor is on a watch released in 2023, versus a watch that was released in 2020. 3 years are a lot considering the progress in electronics every single day.

    And don't get me wrong, I really like my garmin watch and my garmin bike computer but I want to be able to go out for a run without my chest strap; I find this a huge limitation.

  • 0 10 months ago in reply to Dr Phil
    Dr Phil said:
    What chest strap provides ECG information? I only know of those that measure the electrical impulse and provide heart rate. ECG from a chest strap is not possible as far as I am aware.

    Fourth Frontier X2 reads electrical signals and products an ECG graph. I have one. 

    https://uk.fourthfrontier.com

    I also have Garmin HRM Pro, Polar H7 and H10 and multiple Wahoo TickR and TickR X.

    Although the Fourth Frontier X2 is not the best strap for sports, in my opinion, it is the best strap for identifying heart health problems. I've been wearing mine exclusively for the past few months due to such concerns. 

    What I do not do is expect the OHR to be reliable for anything more than walking, if that. 

    Experience tells me that, if you are wearing a "weighty" Garmin watch (I have four generations from Fenix 3HR to Epix Pro Gen 2 51mm) then OHR should not be relied upon. Maybe it can be, but it is not guaranteed. Success depends, most likely, on the individual concerned, environment of temperature and humidity and exactly how tight and where they position the watch.

  • 0 10 months ago in reply to Saganist
    Saganist said:
    A HR Chest Strap or Wrist based ECG DOES NOT detect the same electrical activity as an ECG machine, this is not technically possible. An ECG machine uses mutiple sensors all around the Heart and other areas. An ECG machine is a much more refined data tool.

    You are correct that a full ECG system is a much more refined data tool; using 12 leads lets you map the electrical activity regionally around the heart and get a very clear understanding of what is wrong.

    You are wrong to say that an HR chest strap does not detect the same electrical activity. Only two contacts, but it's detecting the electrical activity of the heart in exactly the same way as any pair of electrodes on a clinical unit does. Example below from a Polar H10. Can't see the Q wave at all, but it's genuinely ECG.

    Polar H10 ECG plot

  • 0 10 months ago in reply to mcbadger

    I get it, I got caught in the muck of frustration. I was equating electrical signal to electrical activity and told somehow this was different, which I guess technically if you were writing a paper they are in fact different as each sensor is picking up an electrical signal and the culmination is the electrical activity. So then I was trying to call this person out for the something. Anyway some are dismissing others real world issues about Wrist based HR that many are seeing on Garmin with the introduction of a certain software release as "par for the course". As a software engineer this is extremely frustrating when people aren't looking at the data nor history for answers but making wildly dismissive generalized "debunking" claims without a shred of research or understanding of peoples problems that are effecting all their training metrics.

  • 0 10 months ago in reply to Dr Phil

    It's clear from the posts they are looking for both. Why the alpha was released when not in program, and if it fixes the HR bug introduced with a certain software release, and/or specific HR sensor firmware/driver update. 

  • 0 10 months ago in reply to eezytiger

    The Garmin Elevate v5 on your Epix Pro was actually a very accurate sensor when released, even on heavy watches (4 more LEDs). That watch can also now dynamically choose between the WHR or Chest Strap when running. Hope all is well with the ticker man. Do you swim? If so what Chest Strap are you finding stays on without fuss.