Instinct Crossover - v13.19 - External HR Sensor Issues

ARS over 1 year ago

I'm using an instinct crossover which recently updated to version 13.19 and I noticed that even though the watch says it's connected to my polar H10 chest strap, the lights on the watch's HR sensor are still lighting up as if the watch is reading the HR from my wrist.

In the past this was a way I could spot check if my chest strap was truly paired and being used for the HR reading.

If i take the watch off, the HR reading continues and the lights turn off - which seems to confirm it is in fact using the chest strap. But if I put it back on my wrist, the lights turn on again as if it's reading pulse from my wrist.

I also just went through this flow:

go to the run screen as if i'm about to start a run
connect the polar h10 sensor to its strap > this then triggered a "HR sensor connected" confirmation on my watch
I start the activity and then navigate to the sensors screen on the watch which then shows the sensor is actually disconnected
going back to the activity page, it's still tracking HR as if the sensor IS connected, even when the watch is off my wrist.

this update seems really buggy as far as sensors/HR monitors go - anyone else noticing this weird behavior?

It doesn't seem to be auto connecting properly or overriding the wrist-based reading when it should be

0 ARS over 1 year ago

I restarted the watch and it seems to solve the 2nd portion of my post, it does now show as 'connected' if i navigate to the sensors screen in the watch, however the HR lights are still rapidly blinking as if they are trying to read HR from my wrist as well

0 sspanak over 1 year ago in reply to ARS

I have an Instinct 2 Solar and I also have a problem with the HR sensors. When I start an activity, the watch immediately says "connected to external HR" and its own sensor still remains on. Nevertheless, I can confirm it is reading my heart rate from the external sensor.

The curious thing I noticed is, the LEDs on the watch keep flashing only when I have selected an activity, but I haven't started it yet. And they turn off and stay off while the activity is in progress, right until I press "Save" or "Discard". And while the watch is waiting for me to start the activity, the LEDs are flashing in energy saving mode, as if it was in normal mode, just showing the time.

I suppose they changed the energy saving rules, so now the LEDs start shining at full brightness only when an activity is in progress, but they forgot about the scenario when an external HR is connected before the beginning of the activity. In that case, the internal sensor must also turn off. It makes no sense for it to keep consuming energy if the watch is not reading any data from it anymore.

0 ARS over 1 year ago in reply to sspanak

> And they turn off and stay off while the activity is in progress,

huh, this isn't the case for me - that is the expected behavior, no? When I start my activity, the lights continue flashing - that's the issue i'm having. It seems yours is working as expected if I'm reading correctly?

The lights didn't used to shut off prior to the activity starting, only once the activity starts

0 sspanak over 1 year ago in reply to ARS

Yes, the internal sensor is supposed to be off, while an activity is in progress and an external one is connected. This is correct.

What I am saying is, I think the internal sensor used to switch to full power mode when the activity is in "ready" mode. You know, when you have selected it, but you have not started it. But now, it stays in energy saving mode until the very start of the activity. And I am talking about the case when there is no external HR connected.

The only problem I have is both sensors are working when an activity is in "ready" state.

Have you carefully checked when exactly the internal sensor is on on yours? I was also confused at the beginning, I thought the internal sensor stays on all the time, but then I realized it quickly switches off after the start of the activity. That's when the external one is connected, of course!