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What’s the point of All Day Mode for pulse ox?

acousticbiker
over 5 years ago

Are the data being collected by the pulse ox sensor in All Day Mode being used for anything? My understanding of the altitude acclimatization function is that it’s calculated purely based on the altitude you are at (I live at high altitude and travel frequently to places of varying altitude, so the altitude acclimatization feature is of particular interest to me). Is it being used for anything else (for example, Body Battery or Training Status)? Especially curious given the battery life hit.

On a similar note, I believe Sleep Pulse Ox is used for the sleep tracking algorithm but I can’t find a definitive answer. Anyone know? Are the sleep pulse ox readings used for anything else?

Finally, is pulse ox tracked during activities regardless of whether the All Day Mode is on?

?

  • 0 over 5 years ago

    Well, it's niche feature. Just turn it off, if you don't need it.

    In normal altitudes it's totally pointless to have it on 24/7. On sleeping it might be useful to diagnose sleep apnea, but still dunno. I have mine off.

    It's pretty important feature for the altitude acclimation but that's pretty much it as far as I know.

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to jmto

    so what would you suggest as the proper watch>pulse-ox settings for when at altitude?

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to badbri

    If you feel you need to know how well adapted you are then 24/7 and accept the battery hit. I'd suggest if you live at high altitude that you are likely to be reasonably well acclimatised. 

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to philipshambrook

    That’s assuming the acclimatization function even uses the pulse ox readings. DCR indicates that it’s just based on number of days at any given altitude and Firstbeat’s documentation is not clear to me on this point

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to badbri

    Yeah, pretty same opinion what philipshambrook said.

    By normal I meant normal altitude for you. If you live in altitude you are most likely acclimatized already.

    So it's more like if you are going to higher altitude as you usually are and want to know it.

    acousticbiker, Even if the metric wouldn't use it, the measurement tells your SpO2 which you can use to figure it out yourself. The SpO2 is usually lower when arriving to some altitude and after adapting it raises to "normal level for that altitude". So when the SpO2 doesn't raise anymore in that altitude you have been acclimatized to that altitude.


  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to jmto

    Thanks, I’m a doc and understand how spo2 works. For me the potential value of the acclimatization function is due to my travel to places of varying locations and tracking my acclimatization in the midst of those changes. I’d like to turn off spo2 to save battery if I can get confirmation that it’s not used in The acclimatization algorithm (and that acclimatization is just based on number of days at a particular altitude)

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to acousticbiker

    I know Garmin are assumed to do some strange things but ask yourself, why add a feature if it's not gong to be used to provide data? Just because DCR says it isn't so does not mean it isn't so. Two sources of information to validate its purpose - Garmin or FirstBeat. Find out from them otherwise it's just hearsay.

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to philipshambrook

    Providing data, and processing it are two completely different things. Garmin's "features" provide plenty of data, however the majority just lives as meaningless graphs, and doesn't get processed into actionable data. Just take a look at LTHR. What is the point of providing LT when nothing is done with it? Why give the option to choose zones based on LTHR, and HRmax or %HRR, when the underlying algorithms for any of FB's metrics use a decoupling of pace over %HRmax, and time spent at %HRmax anyway? I'm not a Garmin basher, I like my 935 very much, but there are times I am furious about some of its "features" that seem to exist only to tick boxes.

  • 0 over 5 years ago

    To my knowledge, pulse-ox data isn't currently utilized by anything Firstbeat related, Body Battery, Training Status, Acclim, etc. 

    Garmin's sleep tracking/interpretation analytics are not provided by Firstbeat, so I don't actually know whether or not they are utilizing that data in their sleep analysis. 

    Hope that helps.