can HRM-TRI be used away from the watch?

I use my HRM-TRI for swimming rather than contact sports, and it's been a few months, so my memory of the exact procedure is a little hazy. But it is important to wait for the HR data to finish downloading before saving. Metrics are calculated on saving, so even though the data may have downloaded later and been matched to the activity, the metrics will already have been calculated on partial or no data.

6453228 said:

Sometimes but not always I then take the watch off to see if it can still register a HR, indicating the watch works "offline" and get the HR data from the strap.

Not sure what you mean here. If you have an activity running and connected to a strap you will see a heart rate on the watch whether or not you are in range of the strap as WHR will kick in when out of range. 

It doesn't (shouldn't) matter how close the watch is to the strap once you've started the activity, provided of course you have the strap connected before starting the activity. You only need to be within 3m to transfer the data from the strap once you've finished the activity. The process (for me anyway) is:

Stop the activity.

Select Save. Watch then goes off looking for the data, finds it, then downloads it and saves it with the activity. I see prompts if it can't find it and on occasion have had to repeat.

Bear in mind that the F6 will also record WHR data when not in range of the strap so you will have two sets of HR data on the watch. It's not a problem if you use Garmin Connect to analyse the data as GC will use the data from the strap, which is appended to the end of the .fit file. However, some 3rd party apps will use the data in the fit file which will be the WHR and is likely to be different for all the reasons associated with WHR use during 'active' activities. You can verify this by choosing to 'export to tcx' from the GC activity then uploading the original fit file and the exported tcx file to something like DCR analyzer to compare them.

Here's what I mean taken from an open water swim comparing WHR and connected to a HRM_Tri. The two higher records are the WHR recorded during the swim from the .fit file. The other lower (and more correct) trace is from the strap.

thank you, this is very helpful. I have many new ideas of things to try in my troubleshooting. 

I have not attempted to crunch the numbers on my own yet, but the problem that keeps happening is that I start an activity, leave the watch in the locker during the workout, return and stop the activity and upload my HR data from the HRM-TRI, I can't remember if the upload is automatic or by prompt. 

The graph looks fine and according to expectations for the type of activity, both as I can see in the app and GC, but in the watch the times in the HR zones don't make up more than one minute even with an hour long HR curve uploaded and associated with the activity. In these cases the average and max HR seems to match that one minute, because it doesn't match the average and max HR of the full hour (see pic, this is the HR curve of an activity that according to the post-processing had an average of 109bpm and max 152 bpm which clearly doesn't match the curve) . If that one minute is what everything is based on then the very low total of load and calories also make sense.

So I think this means  the activity wasn't started right, that the HRM-TRI wasn't properly paired with the WHR prior to the watch being left, and that it isn't relevant that a full hours worth of HR is uploaded  afterward? The manual doesn't mention this it only says I have to be within range for upload.

?

mcalista said:

But it is important to wait for the HR data to finish downloading before saving. Metrics are calculated on saving,

Dr Phil said:

Select Save. Watch then goes off looking for the data, finds it, then downloads it and saves it with the activity. I see prompts if it can't find it and on occasion have had to repeat.

6453228 said:

return and stop the activity and upload my HR data from the HRM-TRI, I can't remember if the upload is automatic or by prompt. 

For me, 80% of the times the watch doesn't download (doesn't even try) the HR data automatically when I save the activity, I have to go to the menu and download it manually but as automatic activity upload is enabled and it also takes time until the download actually starts (sometimes 1-2 minutes, I get searching for HR data) most of the time the watch already uploads the fit file by the time I manage to download the data.

If the metrics are only calculated on saving the activity then it explains why we get this issues. However, in that case I don't understand what is the point having the manual data download option as I does nothing just update the HR graph.

I mostly use HRM-Tri this way with Yoga and Other activities, I have no experience with the rest of them, it might be activity-related issue.

I have no ticket number, I sent the reports to the Outdoor Beta Team directly and had a conversation with one of their team member.

My HRM-Tri is currently being replaced due to strap problems but as soon as I get the new one I will check with the Cardio and Strength activities as well.