Timer : hour in tiny size after in case of activity of more than an hour

FlowState said:

To show hh:mm after two hours, use the following formula: if (timer gte 7200, timer div 60, timer)

It would even be possible to rotate between hh:mm and mm:ss, if that's what you really want. (Although some people might find that confusing)

Thanks - I will definitely be checking your field out! I suspect that when I'm gettting brain fog hours into an ultra, a rotating field would at the very least have me tripping over my own feet trying to figure things out

subra said:

mcbadger said:

Think I’d like to see seconds still up to 2 hours,

The problem is the space in the field.

I think this exchange demonstrates why Garmin can't fix this problem without unacceptably increasing complexity (e.g. having a ton of config options on the watch just for the display of time.)

Everyone has different priorities and preferences, and Garmin can't please absolutely everyone with one-size-fits-all behavior. The best they can do is try to please most of the people most of the time.

Even if they did give us that config, would it apply to all timer fields (e.g. lap time, elapsed time, etc.) or just the Timer field? Would people want different config for each of those fields? What if I want tiny seconds (like the native stopwatch) instead of tiny hours?

If only Garmin supported configuration of data fields from the Garmin Connect phone app. But I have a feeling they still wouldn't want to provide that kind of complexity when most people seem to be happy with the status quo.

Whereas a CIQ dev could easily provide any of the requested functionality without making things more complex for everyone else. The only problem is that Garmin only allows two CIQ fields.

It isn't a problem with the lack of space. It is a problem with the automatic font selection that doesn't consider the content and is based only on the field height. In the example above, hours would still fit perfectly if the font size was a bit smaller, but that wouldn't reduce the timer field readability.

As I mentioned above, the problem is already solvable, using the built-in Timer filed, just by tweaking the layout. For example when there are 4 fields stacked on top of each other, timer field is displayed correctly, with hours in the same font. It is counter-intuitive, that the problem appears only when using fewer fields on the screen - something that is supposed to make the field larger and more readable, in fact makes it less readable. 

Just to report back, using the 5 field workaround worked well up to 9:59:59

At 10:00:00 it went to using small digits for the hours again.

I'll try swapping the fields around as the bottom field that I was using is narrower than the one just above the middle, though might need to record a > 10hr activity to test it before my next ultra.

doug.steel said:

Just to report back, using the 5 field workaround worked well up to 9:59:59

At 10:00:00 it went to using small digits for the hours again.

That is unfortunate! I have an upcoming race this weekend that will take me close to 30 hours. After seeing your comment I decided to enable auto-laps back.Thay way, at least, I'll see my time normally every mile.

I don't know what Garmin designers were thinking when deciding to make the hour digits so tiny! This is supposed to be an adventure watch for people who push the boundaries after all! At least that is supposed to be the spirit of it! I wonder if Enduro has the same issue? 

silentvoyager said:

I don't know what Garmin designers were thinking when deciding to make the hour digits so tiny!

my guess is they figured that whatever you're doing you're probably not going to forget if you're on your 7th hour or 8th hour anyway, and if you do, the number is there to answer that question.  It is unfortunate that of all of the data display options they provide, none of them seem to solve this issue other than the 4 field stacked display mode.  Is there a reason you don't want to use that format?  I've never run those types of races, is the fatigue factor so great that reading the smaller font is really a problem?

5693709 said:

I've never run those types of races, is the fatigue factor so great that reading the smaller font is really a problem?

WIth respect, all of those posting here about why this is an issue with lengthy races have already answered your question.

You should run some trail ultras. They're a Good Thing. But your information processing won't be at its best 8 hours in, no.

5693709 said:

I've never run those types of races, is the fatigue factor so great that reading the smaller font is really a problem?

For some yes it is. Personally, I've never had a problem even at the end of a ultra run, swimrun or Ironman. But apparently some do struggle.

And as noted the ability to see big hours is already there. 

I dabble in writing apps and would be willing to write something that has the format silentvoyager is requesting.  I don't know exactly which data fields he'd like displayed yet, but if he gave me a list I could put something together fairly easily as long as those field values are available in the Garmin SDK.  It would be hardcoded to those specific fields, not user configurable, but it would solve his problem.