Sensor battery status now in GC inc. non Garmin

OK, just dug out my HRM-SWIM, which I hadn't used for a while (certainly beyond the 90 days listed in the app). The HRM-SWIM is ANT+ only, no bluetooth, so there is no direct connection possible with the phone.

Checked the sensor settings on my F6 and waited until the battery status appeared (battery status is sent only intermittently - only every 30 or 60 seconds or so, so you may have to wait a bit).

Then recorded a brief test swim activity on the watch, synced to the phone, and suddenly the HRM-SWIM appeared as a sensor in GCM.

Indeed, that's why I opened this feature request, please vote on it: forums.garmin.com/.../feature-request-add-battery-level-to-garmin-connect-app

My strap doesn't even have BT IMHO it's an old Garmin HRM3-SS), only ANT+. BTW I read on the internet that ANT is superior to BT because it's protocol enables it to send more info. So it would be strange if it didn't work with ANT, especially that the info is there when I look in the watch settings at a connected ANT device. However I have now a new idea:
can it be that the sensors section only shows up in GCM if there's at least one sensor that reports battery level? Because that would explain it: the HRM-SS doesn't report battery level. BTW people with more than one watch, can you check one more thing: if you set one watch to broadcast HR on ANT, and connect that watch to another watch as an external HR sensor, then does the watch show up as a sensor?

flocsy🤠 said:

and connect that watch to another watch as an external HR sensor, then does the watch show up as a sensor?

no, it doesn't seem to - my Forerunner 255 broadcasting to my 6 Sapphire

There is no sign of an any device with ANT ID 527746

flocsy🤠 said:

I read on the internet that ANT is superior to BT because it's protocol enables it to send more info. So it would be strange if it didn't work with ANT, especially that the info is there when I look in the watch settings at a connected ANT device.

Hi, thanks for the explainer, in fact I know pretty much nothing about the two protocols and differences... I was just trying to understand.

flocsy🤠 said:

can it be that the sensors section only shows up in GCM if there's at least one sensor that reports battery level?

well... yes, a very good point, actually.. I will have to experiment a bit, which was not possible to be in the latest days... but this function ticckles my curiosity, I don't even know why

...and does it show a battery status for ANT ID 527746 on the Fenix?

Probably the watch used as a sensor does not care to share also any battery information, it only broadcasts the HR value, and if no information to be shown then not appearing in connect (following Gavriel's hypothesis)

Frankysour said:

...and does it show a battery status for ANT ID 527746 on the Fenix?

no, shows -- for battery status. But it's identified as a 255, with firmware 10.10, even transmitting it's serial number

But looks like it isn't transmitting battery status

Ok thanks, so it can be very possible that if there is no battery status information to be shown the sensor simply does not appear in connect, makes sense

I just found a Wahoo Tickr I never use as its garbage but as an experiment when I paired as ANT, it didn't show up, but when paired with Bluetooth it did.

Can it be that the Tikr only shares battery information through bluetooth, not through ANT+ ?

Not saying it would make any sense, just hypothesis