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Gesture detection not working when wearing watch over clothes

Hello,

I previously owned a Fenix 6 which firmware I was thinking having a bug since backlight didn't turn on using gesture during my winter night workouts...

Just bought a fr965 and I was thinking this morning that the new watch has same bug. (which is way more annoying since amoled display is "normaly" totally off)...

....before I understood that gesture control only work when the watch detects heart-rate using the built-in sensor....

... but during cold session I use an external heat-rate sensor and put the watch over my warm clothes.... Too bad :-(

Is there a workaround for enabling gesture detection over clothes ?

If not, if you read these lines, people at Garmin, please either add an option to allow gesture detection without heart-rate detection during activities.... Or just allow gesture detection when an external heart-rate sensor is connected. I think people having activities during cold nights like me will really appreciate !

Thanks,

Cédric

0 S.M.R. over 2 years ago

Just tried mine with AOD on and Gesture and over a thick sleeve and it works fine, and with AOD off, same result.

0 Dric over 2 years ago in reply to S.M.R.

I did extra tests. It works over clothes as long as it can have some light green going through it in order to measure your heart rate. And yes, it is working with thick sleeves of fabric.

But with some clothes, such as my warn and waterproof running jacket, light is just stopped and neither heart rate measure nor gesture detection work anymore.

Outside activities there is a workarround disabling wirst heart rate mesure in battery saver ans keeping all other parameters unchanged.... But battery saver is disabled when you start an activity :-(

0 Dric over 2 years ago in reply to Dric

After some deep diving in the user manual, I found a workaround : turning off the wirst-based hear rate monitor in the heart rate options available from the hear rate widget before starting an activity with such clothes. Gesture detection no more rely on wirst heart rate.

This being said, an option in order to keep gesture detection without wirst heart rate detection duing activites will be great, Mr Garmin !

0 Former Member over 2 years ago in reply to Dric

[deleted]

0 Dric over 2 years ago in reply to Former Member

Thanks for your feedback.

I encountered the issue on both Fenix and Forerunner during running and trail activities having these common settings :

External heart rate using Polar OH1 (paired either using ANT+ or using BT, no change),
(only on Fenix since not available on Forerunner : "Jacket" power mode in order to disable wirst heart rate and save battery)
Stryd paired as footpod and primary source for pace and distance, not paired as powermeter,
Stryd Power zones datafield,
Livetrack

Also Garmin Pay not configured because it is not supported by my bank. And training outside configured sleep hours.

On your tests, do gesture detection works during an activity if you remove your watch from your wirst (in order to ensure there is no hear rate detected) ?

0 Former Member over 2 years ago in reply to Dric

[deleted]

0 Dric over 2 years ago in reply to Former Member

So strange since I’ve done equivalent tests and I only had gesture detection working while the watch is on my wirst.

I disabled all external sensors, same behaviour,

Also tested an activity without Stryd datafield, no change.

Do you have Garmin Pay configured on your watch ?

Thanks for your tests

0 S.M.R. over 2 years ago in reply to Dric

I just tried a thick "puffy" jacket and again if I move my wrist the gesture works.

At the moment I don't have Garmin Pay activated. I didn't add any other sensors nor did I put my HRM pro when testing this.

I have AOD on for General and Activities as my settings.

I have the same FW listing as listed above by "OnlyTwo"

0 Former Member over 2 years ago in reply to S.M.R.

[deleted]

0 Dric over 2 years ago in reply to Former Member

All firmware version on my side are same as yours.

What do you mean with "OP" ?

I've done some extra tests like yours.

On my side, behaviour is not related to AOD for activites. Same behaviour with our without AOD

I agree with you regarding the fact that it is related to OH1 :

Using my HRM-Dual, gesture detection during activites is OK (but HRM chest strap is not great at night since I also use a chest light during such runs.... This is one of the main reason I use OH1 for such activites....)
Having both OH1 ant+ and OH1 bt disabled, in sensors does not help, the bug is still present
Disabling wirst optical heart-rate sensor looks to be a workaround. Once disabled gesture detection looks ok but I just realized that I did test without OH1 connected.... I will test with OH1 connected this evening

Konwing that OH1 was also never considered as an appropriate sensor for lactate threshold dectection, it looks like the watch firmware :

first decide whether you use an optical heart-rate sensor or not (eitther wirst integrated optical sensor or external sensor like OH1)
second, and it may be the bug, if you use an optical heart-rate sensor then gesture detection only works when a wirst heart-rate is detected

Thanks again