Fenix 6 Series - 8.78 Beta Release

Yep, same here with indoor cycling)

So now my watch is not connecting to GPS, any ideas why. I initially had GPS + Glonass so I also tried GPS only.  No cigar, no GPS connection at all.  Help!

Tried off/on, then tried long press on LIGHT for a RESET, no GPS, what happened?

Just did an update to 8.78 and first what I noticed is HR readings, before update it was 60, right after update drop down to 46, so I connected chest strap to check what is real HR.. and so with chest strap it's 59, chest strap disconnected 46.... I will wait few more minutes to let it "adapt" and will see what will happens 

fly_man said:

Just did an update to 8.78 and first what I noticed is HR readings, before update it was 60, right after update drop down to 46, so I connected chest strap to check what is real HR.. and so with chest strap it's 59, chest strap disconnected 46.... I will wait few more minutes to let it "adapt" and will see what will happens 

When you are in "watch mode" meaning no activity is active/ongoing, I think watch uses always OHR and not strap. Strap is used only with activities. You need to disable OHR if you want to use strap HR when in watch mode.I'm not 100% sure of that but I've read it somewhere before.

Check that already, when you will wait few sec in watch mode then HR will switch to visible chest strap. It's clearly visible as a step change in HR reading.

In activity mode it will clearly indicate when connected to external sensor.

By the way I did already 5 minutes reading for both and compare, average is close the same so my assumptions would be that both needs some adaptation time but chest strap do it much faster and then response time on HR change is immediate. OHR need longer time to lock on HR and do not response as fast as chest strap.

Dr Phil said:

You might choose not to believe me but one of the two F6s I used for the Walk and Hike test was still broadcasting HR during the activity yet no apparent difference in energy consumption

I can believe you but speaking about battery there is another point. During normal watch usage the battery lasts 13 days while during recording activities without GPS lasts 3 days (the watch say 72h). 

So, this could not be a solution. 

Crispin_Ellisdon said:

broadcasting WHR in activity doesn’t draw any significant power if GPS is off

Crispin_Ellisdon said:

battery consumption would be equal too, if the out of activity broadcast HR were in the higher accuracy mode - arguably the current behaviour provides battery consumption choice, that some others might not want to lose

Read my answer above, please. Yes, broadcasting through the widget will not have 13 days battery life but also not 3 days.

Moreover starting an activity my watch will connect all sensors and devices already paired with it and this will drain more battery. Don't ask me to everytime turn on/off sensors into the watch, please ;)

Crispin_Ellisdon said:

I do not believe it's a bug (it behaves as it was designed to, whether we like it or not), but I also agree that in an ideal world the standard/plain/not-in-activity broadcast HR would use the 'higher power' activity mode WHR rather than the 'lower power' 24/7 mode

It is not so important if is a bug or by design. The importance is that the WHR broadcasting have to be reliable also using the widget.

Crispin_Ellisdon said:

I suspect that we might find someone complain if it were changed to the high power activity WHR, as they prefer that it consumes as little power as possible.

I do not think so, people that want to broadcast HR would like to have the best values the watch can. 

Anyway, I hope that Garmin is working also on 24/7 WHR and this could solve also issues in broadcasting if they decided not to use high power mode during widget broadcasting.

I am speaking in general because I had not already tested WHR with this beta. I installed it but without doing any soecific test and I think that this beta will be better than the previous ones ;) 

To be honest, I do not use WHR broadcasting functionalities in my sport life. But beta testing I think is important to think like you would like to use all the functionalities at their best! So I am happy to help other users to fix issues also if are not important for me. 

I know that is not the same approach of some other users here. But it's mine

jarivee said:

You need to disable OHR if you want to use strap HR when in watch mode.

fly_man said:

Check that already, when you will wait few sec in watch mode then HR will switch to visible chest strap. It's clearly visible as a step change in HR reading

If Garmin hadn't change something in the last weeks is not possible to see chest strap HR values during watch mode. 

fly_man said:

my assumptions would be that both needs some adaptation time but chest strap do it much faster and then response time on HR change is immediate. OHR need longer time to lock on HR and do not response as fast as chest strap.

Yes, these are the mai differences from one and the other technologies and this is influenced also by the position of the sensor near or far from the heart. This is the reason why I use always external HR strap when during training. I use the WHR only when walking or doing light exercise without using the HR values to train. 

Perhaps contact Garmin and ask them to add MTB to the list in Safety & Tracking. I can see a rationale for adding it but I can also see lots of false alerts being generated so I would choose to leave it turned off.

Dr Phil said:

I can also see lots of false alerts being generated so I would choose to leave it turned off

I agree with you, probably will be too many false alert.

Anyway, that could give the possibility bu leaving off by default for MTB profile.