Related
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

Is there really no "jacket mode"?

Data
6 months ago

I can't find power modes in the manual, only power saving mode. So I reconfigured power saving mode to my needs, but power save mode during activities does not seem to work. I just want aa "jacket mode" as on Fenix 6. Am I overlooking something? Esp. in winter I never use OHR for running and it bothers me that the OHR LEDs stay on.

  • +1 6 months ago

    you can turn off OHR when a chest strap is connected, In the HR widget you can change the "Source Switching" settings.

  • 0 6 months ago in reply to dtunney

    Thank you! I could not find that option it because my strap was not connected.

  • 0 6 months ago in reply to Data

    Update: I thought it would work this way with my Polar H10 and old Garmin HRM straps, but unfortunately it does not. I find it strange that the setting for source switching is forced On and unchangable while no connected HRM supports it.

  • 0 6 months ago in reply to Data
    Data said:
    Update: I thought it would work this way with my Polar H10 and old Garmin HRM straps, but unfortunately it does not. I find it strange that the setting for source switching is forced On and unchangable while no connected HRM supports it.

    But if source switching doesn't work with old Garmin straps and non-Garmin straps, then there's supposedly no reason for source switching to be active and, thus, for the OHR to be enabled during the activity.

    I would consider this a bug. Unless the real reason that the OHR is enabled is not because dynamic source switching is enabled but because Garmin wants to make sure Garmin Pay is available during your activity (the OHR is used to detect whether the watch remains on your wrist - once you take the watch off, you have to enter your PIN again). I saw the Garmin Pay explanation from a Garmin employee in a forum thread.

    I think it's stupid in any case to prevent users from turning this off until they connect a supported strap (it wasn't always this way). It's a feature most ppl aren't even aware of in the first place.

    One consequence of this is that source switching shows up in the Connect app real-time settings, but there's no way to change it (even if a compatible strap is connected). I consider this to be another bug. If Garmin knows that the setting can't be changed in the Connect app, it should be removed (or there should be a note).

    So there's a couple of ways to test various theories about why the OHR is still enabled when you wear a chest strap:

    - the theory that it's because source switching is enabled even though it won't be used: Can you borrow a compatible strap from a friend, so you can turn off source switching?

    - the theory that it's actually Garmin Pay that's causing the OHR to be enabled: can you temporarily disable Garmin Pay, if you have it enabled?

    EDIT: but to be fair, the text on the watch itself claims that the wrist HR will disabled when you turn off source switching (and doesn't mention Garmin Pay).

  • 0 6 months ago in reply to FlowState

    I tried testing this on my own with an HRM-PRO (compatible with source switching) and a Polar H10 (not compatible). (I don't have Garmin Pay enabled)

    HRM-PRO / Source-switching disabled: OHR is disabled during activity

    Polar H10 / Source-switching disabled: OHR is disabled during activity

    HRM-PRO / Source-switching enabled: OHR is enabled during activity

    Polar H10 / Source-switching enabled: OHR is enabled during activity (!)

    So yeah this seems like a huge bug, and yet another reason that it was a bad decision to disallow changing the source-switching setting unless a compatible strap is connected (especially if the default is enabled).

    Maybe worth filing a bug in the beta bug reports forum.

  • 0 6 months ago in reply to FlowState

    Thank you for the bug report, I upvoted it and hope it gets fixed!

  • 0 6 months ago in reply to Data

    I also upvoted, and tried to hack it on my own with no success (even though I'm on FW 19.18 which still has Menu -> Health & Wellness -> Wrist Heart Rate -> Source Switching On/Off no matter if a compatible HR strap has been connected or not)

    1. Did full backup of the watch.

    2. Turned "Source Switching" On and did another full backup.

    3. Diffed the two backups. Found that GARMIN/Settings/Settings.fit had changed.

    4. Did Hexdumps of the two .fit-files, also converted them to .csv and diffed those.

    5. Only the one byte differed (from 00 to 01) in Data entry for OHR - and 2 bytes CRC of course.

    6. Hexedited byte 0x00001ba7 from 01 to 00 and updated the .fit file CRC.

    7. Erased the Settings/Settings.fit file on the watch and copied over the 'corrected' Settings.fit

    8. Disconnected watch which rebooted and... It copied back the old Settings.fit from som hidden partition.

    Yeah, it slowly comes back to me now that Garmin consider certain files to be sacrosanct and prevents replacement through simple means. The device.fit in the root directory is another one. Well, we will have to keep bugging them through the bugreport instead.

  • 0 6 months ago in reply to soptunna
    soptunna said:
    8. Disconnected watch which rebooted and... It copied back the old Settings.fit from som hidden partition.

    Yeah Garmin watches have long had a hidden (inaccessible) area which seemingly has duplicates/backups of information that's in the user accessible "file system".

    One dramatic example is if you delete all the user-accessible files (don't do this), Garmin will restore most of them from *somewhere* (at least the "factory default" stuff). At least that's how it worked on my old FR935.

    Another example is if you create an interval workout on the watch (of which there can only be one), and delete the corresponding FIT file, the interval workout (and FIT file) will be resurrected by the watch regardless of your efforts. (I discovered this when I tried to see if you could undo creating an interval workout on the watch - looks like you can't, since there's no way to do it from the UI).

    There's also seemingly stuff in an inaccessible area which doesn't appear in the user-accessible file system, ilke wi-fi passwords, sensor pairings, and other sensitive information.

    And ofc, ever since music apps were introduced to Garmin watches, all CIQ music app PRGs were stored in an inaccessible area. (More recently, all CIQ apps started to be hidden.) But everything I said above also applies to watches which predate music apps.

  • 0 6 months ago in reply to soptunna

    Did you also try to put the settings.fit in NEWFILES? It is my lunch break, not sure if FR955 even has that directory.

    It is long ago now, but you could create a new settings.fit with the FIT SDK although even back then there were undocumented entries. My goal was getting a list of ANT+ sensors in the settings.fit on a new watch. I am quite sure the file was read from NEWFILES.

    Back then (Fenix 3) you could configure HRV logging by placing a FIT file in NEWFILES. Maybe that mechanism does still exist and you could place the altered line from settings.fit in a small FIT file. But oh well that is likely locked out these days. 

    Wish that they would reissue the original Fenix with its totally open XML configuration, but on today's hardware.