Is my Chest Strap working, or is OHR still on??

Former Member over 5 years ago

I purchased the Fenix 6 Pro black with black band. I find it comfortable, legible, enjoying the device very much. This morning I noticed during my 5 mile treadmill run, that my stryd footpod connected just fine. It also said my EXT HR monitor connected fine (Garmin chest strap). However, despite very stable HR readings (which I presume were coming from the chest strap, verified when I removed the watch from my wrist for 30 seconds and held it in my hand), the OHR lights remained lit the entire time, behaving in the way they would in 24/7 mode. I’m curious why, and if there is a way to shut those off when a chest strap is really in charge so that battery could potentially be saved?

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0 ericbfit over 5 years ago

I believe the lights will still be on but it is taking the measurement from your HR strap (based on past experiences). If you don't want this you can manually turn it off in the settings as you probably already know.

0 Former Member over 5 years ago

Former Member

from the Forerunner 945 forum ... another-bug-hrm-run-and-run-activity-watch-hr-sensor-leds-still-working

happy & safe sporting

0 Jabimus over 5 years ago

I noticed the same thing on my 6x solar. On my 5x the OHR lights would shut off when connected to a chest strap HRM. Seems like a bug since it is using battery unnecessarily keeping the lights on even if it isn't reading from the OHR.

0 GJRodenburg over 5 years ago in reply to Jabimus

If you have Garmin Wallet enabled it won't shut off the oHR I believe, it's doing so for the 'wrist detection' to see when you have to re-authorize your wallet. However, it is indeed rather annoying, as my usual check ('is the light out') won't work anymore to see if the cheststrap is connected :/

0 Crispin_Ellisdon over 5 years ago in reply to GJRodenburg

That seems to me to be a logical way for the watch to operate. The battery usage of the HRM in it's lower power 24/7 monitoring mode is pretty negligible, when compared to everything else consuming power when recording an activity. I know folks like to have the 'confidence check' that the strap is the source of HR, but that's really easily done by a long press of the Up button and then access the Sensor & Accessories menu (at any time). To me that's a better confidence check than just assuming because the WHR lights are off that the HR is from your strap, by checking the Sensor & Settings menu you can double confirm it's the correct strap that it's paired to.

0 drkglb over 5 years ago

One thing I also have noticed is that the Fenix 6 now tracks breathing frequency (one additional field with "brpm", I guess breathes per minute) during run activity. Since - as far as I know - the heart rate strap cannot capture such data, maybe it's from the wrist OHR ?

As advised above, I have (temporarily at least) disabled pulseOx on my watch, and after a reboot it seems the OHR now stays off when I start an activity with my chest strap on. I'll try to see if it still records breathing frequency...

0 nmyeti over 5 years ago in reply to drkglb

drkglb said:
Since - as far as I know - the heart rate strap cannot capture such data, maybe it's from the wrist OHR ?

Generally this is done via HRV recorded by a heart rate strap. At least this is how it is done on the MARQ.

0 drkglb over 5 years ago in reply to nmyeti

Oh OK. So this is completely unrelated then. Thanks for the information

0 drkglb over 5 years ago in reply to Crispin_Ellisdon

most people may already know but there is also a little heart icon showing up in the activity "options" panel when you start the activity (next to the GPS icon). This is to confirm that your HR strap is connected and HR value is read from the external sensor.

0 kalamarios over 5 years ago in reply to drkglb

So is this verified that turning off pulseOx turns off the light or is the Garmin Wallet (wrist detection) feature what is causing the light to stay on?