How to avoid chest band pairing with FR235

Anyone raced with this model?
How can it be that you do not need any process of paring/validation before the sensor couples the watch?

I've done a 5K with the 235. No issues with it picking up strangers' straps. Wasn't a huge race, but I also didn't take any particular precautions in the pre-start crowd. I also didn't hug anyone or put my watch near others chests.

I cannot disable the "external" chest belt. Even if I 1.) disconnect my ANT+ belt and 2.) even remove it from the menu, it will soon reconnect to the watch automatically.

Are you saying your watch doesn't let you go to Settings>>Sensors_and_Accessories, select the ANT+ HRM, then change Status from ON to OFF???

Doing the above worked great with my HRM-RUN when I was comparing it to the optical HRM. It disabled the HRM-RUN as above and I used it with my 920xt. Works perfectly fine.

My watch does not show a generic "ant HRM" under this menu.
I can only see the reference to the strap of my girlfriend that was connected before. If I delete this strap, it shows empty.

Are you saying your watch doesn't let you go to Settings>>Sensors_and_Accessories, select the ANT+ HRM, then change Status from ON to OFF???

Doing the above worked great with my HRM-RUN when I was comparing it to the optical HRM. It disabled the HRM-RUN as above and I used it with my 920xt. Works perfectly fine.

Hi, I disabled the ANT+ belt in my watch. See images 1-4 attached here. But after doing that, it will still automatically reconnect within a minute and that is also displayed in the watch, see image 5.

Hi,
I made several tests with diferente HR belts. These are my results:
- To get any new device (HRM belt) paired with the 235 you just need to put both devices (watch and sensor) near each other at less than "a couple of cm". By doing so, the 235 accepts any HRM or ant+ sensor, and connect to it automatically, replacing the wrist optical sensor by the signal of this new HRM. So I guess you can hug in a race and move freely, but if you want to keep your wrist optical sensor, you rather avoid touching with the watch the chest of someone else for a couple of seconds or your watch will get his HR
- Once any sensor is paired with the 235, you can turn it off, by selecting it and changing the status.
- Or you can delete it, but if you delete it and you put watch and sensor together again, it will pair again immediately. So in the case of my girlfriend, I rather keep her HRM in my list and turn it off, to prevent new accidental pairings.

Hope it helps.

My watch does not show a generic "ant HRM" under this menu.
I can only see the reference to the strap of my girlfriend that was connected before. If I delete this strap, it shows empty.

Quit deleting the strap entry. Turn it off and leave it be. Then the watch will see it, realize it's not supposed to use it, and you'll be just fine. When you delete it, the watch then has no knowledge of the sensor and you're back at the start.

Hi, I disabled the ANT+ belt in my watch. See images 1-4 attached here. But after doing that, it will still automatically reconnect within a minute and that is also displayed in the watch, see image 5.

Shoulda stopped after image #2 and you'd have been just fine.

if you want to keep your wrist optical sensor, you rather avoid touching with the watch the chest of someone else

Yes, if you're male, going around a race corral touching other runners chests is not likely to end well... :p:D

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the advice. But now I found out the problem I had. In order to monitor my heart rate continuously via the watch screen, I am using the App DomiPulse.

https://apps.garmin.com/de-DE/apps/99298633-efd0-4c6f-b2db-782b6aa89e03

This DomiPulse App, however, will always re-connect to the chest belt, no matter whether you turn it manually off or not. It automatically re-connects to the ANT+ belt, even if the watch shows in the menu that the chest belt is turned off. Only when I close that App and use the standard setup of the watch, I can see that now both heart rate measurements (optical via watch, belt via Edge 1000) are different, which is good. So obviously, next time I can go out and record both different HR readings at the same time, once with the watch and optical sensor and once with the belt and the Edge 1000. This is what I was looking for. :D

I guess we've come to expect discrepancy as normal and agreement as necessarily wrong

I can see that now both heart rate measurements (optical via watch, belt via Edge 1000) are different, which is good.

I would have thought that, in the ideal scenario, the two independent sources of heart rate data will corroborate on the same physical measure, as opposed to being different. :p