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hr sensor always blink

Former Member over 5 years ago

is it normal that the hr sensor always blink? even when the watch is taken off. that may be why the battery consumption is high

Top Replies

Garmin-Blake over 5 years ago +15 verified

We are finalizing work on a fix for this issue and hope to have this available very soon. I apologize for not having a definitive release date for this and I understand the frustration caused by that.…
Garmin-Blake over 5 years ago +0 verified

Please power cycle your device off and on if you are seeing this symptom. This should resolve this symptom, but if it does not, please post here.
3425675 over 5 years ago +8 suggested

HERE, video demonstration It doesn't stop blinking
yaatzek over 5 years ago in reply to Garmin-Blake +6 suggested

It doesn't help, the issue is still there. It gets triggered by recording an activity. The only way to fix it is to turn off/on the watch. It stops until next recording.

All Replies

0 Gizmo over 5 years ago

Maybe we will come back to the topic of sending many e-mails to the support with one content describing the problem?

Maybe someone will notice it if they don't read the forum?

0 yaatzek over 5 years ago in reply to Gizmo

Oh I believe they do know about it. The question is why they didn't fix it?

0 Former Member over 5 years ago

Just bought VA4 and it does not stop blinking. This is my first garmin watch. Is it a software problem, that will get eventually fixed or hardware? I need to know to decide to return it or not..

0 Z over 5 years ago in reply to Former Member

Should be software, because the watch had that bug, fixed with one release and recycled with 3.8.

0 LoekV over 5 years ago

+1. Same problem here with the new v3.80 firmware.

0 Former Member over 5 years ago

I can confirm that this is happening for me with my brand new vívoactive 4. In this video you can see the blinking although because of the refresh rate of the camera it looks like the blinking is intermittent. I can confirm it is not and it is flashing quickly and constantly. After power cycling the device the blinking stops but this keeps happening, how is power-cycling the watch after every activity a satisfactory workaround? Can we get a bug raised for this and a firmware update?

Thanks,

Reece

0 Former Member over 5 years ago

Same here ... and this is not the only issue...

Since firmware v.3.80 the hydration widget doesn't sync correctly.
Several times it shows the status of the day before or even 0.
After manually syncing it's back normal. This worked correctly with the previous FW.

I have different GARMIN-devices but for this one I'm a little disappointed...

0 Pseudo-fed over 5 years ago

I did a separate thread, but same issue with First Avenger model on latest--3.60. Turn watch off and HR sensor stops, until you put it back on wrist. Once wrist detection picks up that it is on your wrist, the HR sensor stays on forever, EVEN if wrist based HR is disabled in settings.

Also battery on track for 4 days at best in smart watch mode, or about half the promised performance. EDIT-per my later post, on track for 5 days of use.

Purchased a week ago and likely going back. EDIT-probably keeping it given watch face I'm using could be draining some. Would like to see constant HR blinking fixed. And of course I've done a ticket with Garmin.

0 Former Member over 5 years ago

I think the blinking is not the reason for the battery drain. After I shut down my watch for one hour and restart It was blinking but I only lost 9% in 24h. In my opinion the gps is still active after an activity and can only switched off by shut down the the watch for a while. By the way after this workaround the vibration for achieving goals is working again. (before it was switched off)

0 Pseudo-fed over 5 years ago in reply to Former Member

It's not GPS lock, at least for me. I've done a couple activities, and if GPS were locked on, I would see only a few hours of battery from full. I'm experiencing .831 % per hour of battery drain per battery widget. Charged to 100%+ on Sunday morning about 0900. It's now Wednesday about 0945, so 3 full days. I'm at 45%.

That's with Data Lover watch face showing me constantly changing HR, fetching weather every 15 mins, the HR blinking all the damn time, Pulse Ox off, about 50 notifications per day (slow days during vacation from work) all coming to watch, firmware 3.6 (First Avenger model latest FW), 30% backlight with shortest timeout, gesture lighting OFF, connected to iPhone XS Max on 13.1.

So at .831% per hour drain, I'm on track for 120 hours of use, or 5 days exactly. I'm using a 3rd party watch face which I love, which has real time HR and 15 minute weather updates. Even though I won't wait the full 5 days to 0% battery, and I'll have to charge it at maybe 4 days, I think I've decided I'm comfortable with this.

I would like to see a FW update to shut off the HR sensor when watch is off my wrist, though I'm not sure this will save enough battery to get to the "ideal" conditions for 8 days smartwatch use.