This discussion has been locked.

You can no longer post new replies to this discussion. If you have a question you can start a new discussion

Check if chest strap is used in a Garmin Connect activity?

Sometimes the battery of my chest strap is empty and I‘m not concentrated on the „chest strap connected“ message in the beginning of the activity.

So sometimes not sure if the HR data in the activity comes from the chest strap or from the optical sensor of the watch.

Can I check afterwards in Garmin Connect which source is used for the heart rate (chest strap or optical sensor)?

0 e7andy over 2 years ago

Which chest strap?

If you use HRM-Pro you will see the strap in the device list for the activity.

For HRM-Run and HRM-Tri you can see if running dynamics is logged.

If you got Fit File Repair Tool you can download the FIT file and import it. Then under "Devices, File Info" you can see the devices used.

You can inspect the network calls in the browser and look for the call to connect.garmin.com/.../xxxxxxxxxxx where xxxxxxxx is the id for the activity. Look in metadataDTO > sensors. If there is a an antplusDeviceType: "HEART_RATE" then it is connected to an ANT+ chest strap.

0 Ralf_23 over 2 years ago in reply to e7andy

Thanks e7andy for your answer,

I do have an „Polar H10“ and an „Garmin HRM-Run“ and do not find them in the activity device list. The activity device list only contain my „Forerunner 945“.
The hint with „running dynamics“ in case of the „Garmin HRM-Run“ is only valid for running activities and not for strength, yoga or other activity types.
The hint with „Fit File Repair Tool“ and „inspection of network calls“ are also completely valid.

I hoped, that I can open the activity on my Smartphone App and see easy if I can really trust the HR and the derived metrics.

But it seems that I really have to inspect *.fit files on the PC to get that information.

In my case the data are not so important to make this additional effort.

0 e7andy over 2 years ago in reply to Ralf_23

It is a bit tricky to check if you use the older straps.

An easier way would be to write a userscript or browser extension that checks the activity data and edits the web page to show if a strap was used. The limitation then is that you need to use a browser that supports that and it is usually only found on a computer.

I usually notice if the chest strap isn't working by looking at the heart rate during the activtity. The heart rate is often affected by the run cadence (the watch moves a little every step) and when I see my heart rate at ~180 I check under the watch to see if I see the green light.