Accidental sensor pairing -Race season time/comment to show Garmin this matters

I ask if an administrator would make this a sticky thread please. I want to help garmin and the 235 users before they are overwhelmed after race season starts.

In other words, “This is my hobby horse, and I want it to gain more visibility and look more important, than is inherently warranted by the normal processes of fellow forum members creating and participating in topics and threads that are relevant to their interests. Please don't let it fall off the front page even if nobody else cares enough”?

There you go. I just unwittingly helped you bump the topic back to the top of the page (but still below the sticky threads). :) Now I need to go bump the thread where some guy thinks having martial arts as an event type for wrist-worn fitness trackers is important and deserve more visibility and attention from Garmin…

I scanned this and read a single line of the second post before realising immediately that it follows a similar pattern to all your other posts.
Sure enough, it's you.

If you can't say anything constructive or helpful why bother?

If you can't say anything constructive or helpful why bother?

Because this is a discussion forum about Garmin products and services. It's not premised only on helping, servicing or satisfying other users, as if(!) inherently they are of personal concern to me or their interests are worth promoting. Go read my other posts. Sometimes I offer help or information, especially if it's a simple information gap to close and the person asking the question is new or just hasn't looked hard enough. Sometimes I offer retorts or rebukes. Sometimes I just like to discuss things philosophically about what we have on hand. It amuses me to do so. Occasionally I learn something new from others about the products, services and features through the back and forth.

We're not friends or even acquaintances, and you and they are not my customers. Goodwill and solidarity aren't warranted or to be assumed. However, there is nothing wrong with exchange of information and ideas even in the absence of goodwill, whether that is confronting or otherwise.

In other words, “This is my hobby horse, and I want it to gain more visibility and look more important, than is inherently warranted by the normal processes of fellow forum members creating and participating in topics and threads that are relevant to their interests. Please don't let it fall off the front page even if nobody else cares enough”?

There you go. I just unwittingly helped you bump the topic back to the top of the page (but still below the sticky threads). :) Now I need to go bump the thread where some guy thinks having martial arts as an event type for wrist-worn fitness trackers is important and deserve more visibility and attention from Garmin…

Wow, really?

The guy noticed an issue, has done some research and notices it isn't just him (or his wife). He already contacted Garmin the usual way, getting (how surprising) no real help and is now trying to get it through in one of the few possible other ways. I don't see any yelling, crying, anything insulting. Just a request and intentions (and it's up to the forum admins to either grant or deny his request about stickying).

While these forums aren't the official way to contact garmin, they are one of few ways to actually get opinions and support from fellow users and to get something under some attention from Garmin. To get a userbase supporting a case. And even though we might 'just be customers' we surely are allowed to voice our opinions and give it our best shot to get something done and under their attention. It is clear what your idea and opinion on this is, but that doesn't mean everybody just lives with the bs the companies sometimes give them.

No, you're not here to make friends or whatever... That's not necessary at all either. But it does sometimes comes across as if you're trying to do the opposite or have some Garmin-fetishism in the way you actively oppose users and support Garmin...

About the issue, this IS an issue and even though I haven't suffered from it yet (hardly any actual races so far) it makes no real sense to do it Garmins way. How often would you need to go through the proces of connecting a first time, where you actually would have to pair your sensors. This is usually once for each sensor (and only needs to be redone if you buy a new one). After that, sure... pair away automatically. But it shouldn't be just pairing to all sensors close enough.

Hell, if you're a guy 2m tall and it has to pair to your footpod, the distance has to be big enough for it to also pair a 1.5m tall woman's FR235 to the footpod of the person next to her.

It's as if you're phone would start pairing to all bluetooth speakers closeby enough, makes no sense and you don't want that.


As mentioned, haven't had the issue yet but would hate it to happen when I actually start to join more races.

Let's all play nicely here! ;-) it's definitely an issue that could happen, although I do parkrun every week with 200 other people I have yet to have an incident with pairing with others heartrate straps. ASmugDill does have a point though, you can't sticky the thread to prioritise it above others as who's to say it is more important. I would, however, have put my opinion in a slightly different way!

By the way, I know Tim (the moderator who has a channel back into Garmin) has reported this issue so it's been highlighted to 'the powers that be' but I'm guessing we need really evidence that paiting is a wide spread occurrence and as I say above, I for one am not seeing it despite being in race conditions at least once a week.

CW

I don't see any yelling, crying, anything insulting.

Nor do I.

Just a request and intentions (and it's up to the forum admins to either grant or deny his request about stickying).

Of course. I have no intention of interfering with, let alone usurp, moderation decisions. However, obviously he thinks – and has expressed an opinion – that the issue is worth remaining on the front page for continued visibility. I called that out for discussion. Is that a problem?

… we surely are allowed to voice our opinions and give it our best shot to get something done and under their attention. It is clear what your idea and opinion on this is, but that doesn't mean everybody just lives with the bs the companies sometimes give them.

Exactly. Through people like him, KR17, you, and people like me – there's more of a sense of balance of voiced opinions, instead of turning this forum into a customer advocacy or gimme-more requests channel only.

But it does sometimes comes across as if you're trying to do the opposite or have some Garmin-fetishism in the way you actively oppose users and support Garmin…

No. I like to – and try very hard to – find the line between what is customer/consumer entitlement that ought to be upheld and defended, and what is I-want-more that is best left to market dynamics to sort out. I advocate taking companies to task in the most uncompromising way when they breach consumer law provisions, industry regulations, technical standards, etc. I also think that consumers should be shown very clearly the limitations of their entitlement and leverage – to the point of “putting them back in their box” – equally unceremoniously. I'm not a friend of Garmin or TomTom, or Apple or Microsoft, either.

About the issue, this IS an issue and even though I haven't suffered from it yet (hardly any actual races so far) it makes no real sense to do it Garmins way.

I think it's an issue in practical use of the device, and you haven't seen me making disparaging comments in the other threads. I'm even prepared to acknowledge that it's obviously important to certain individual users, such as LeanMeanGreen13. However, it also bears pointing out that important to him and/or his wife does not mean it deserves more support or visibility than any other issue being discussed in this forum, compared to instituting martial arts as an event type that can be used for wrist-worn wearables (which I think is an ill-considered idea, but hey, obviously someone else cares enough about it and more than the sensor pairing issue), or the watch face getting changed to something else after charging on a USB port. You might even say that's ‘respecting’ other users and their issues and putting LeanMeanGreen13's grievance back in line with how I regard everyone else's.

On Topic:

Weekend just gone I run a 30 km trail run, I always use a HR strap and on this occasion my son followed me with his mountain bike. He was interested in the data that I always collect so I gave him my wife's Garmin 230 so he could record his ride, he never used the HR strap. Once back home we uploaded the data to Garmin connect only to find my HR data was associated with his ride.

My wife's watch has never been paired with my HR strap since she had her own, so this is definitely not an isolated problem to the 235!

Going into her settings for Sensors I also noticed a Foot Pod and a 3rd HR strap!

I have now removed any additional sensors :mad:

So what is the workaround?
Do we need to always use our own chest strap and pair it first if running around other runners?
It does seem slightly barmy, cant see the issue with pairing something manually once. Even do it the same autodiscovery but only if you set an option to autodiscover whilst alone for 60 seconds.

Nor do I.

Of course. I have no intention of interfering with, let alone usurp, moderation decisions. However, obviously he thinks – and has expressed an opinion – that the issue is worth remaining on the front page for continued visibility. I called that out for discussion. Is that a problem?

Exactly. Through people like him, KR17, you, and people like me – there's more of a sense of balance of voiced opinions, instead of turning this forum into a customer advocacy or gimme-more requests channel only.

No. I like to – and try very hard to – find the line between what is customer/consumer entitlement that ought to be upheld and defended, and what is I-want-more that is best left to market dynamics to sort out. I advocate taking companies to task in the most uncompromising way when they breach consumer law provisions, industry regulations, technical standards, etc. I also think that consumers should be shown very clearly the limitations of their entitlement and leverage – to the point of “putting them back in their box” – equally unceremoniously. I'm not a friend of Garmin or TomTom, or Apple or Microsoft, either.

I think it's an issue in practical use of the device, and you haven't seen me making disparaging comments in the other threads. I'm even prepared to acknowledge that it's obviously important to certain individual users, such as LeanMeanGreen13. However, it also bears pointing out that important to him and/or his wife does not mean it deserves more support or visibility than any other issue being discussed in this forum, compared to instituting martial arts as an event type that can be used for wrist-worn wearables (which I think is an ill-considered idea, but hey, obviously someone else cares enough about it and more than the sensor pairing issue), or the watch face getting changed to something else after charging on a USB port. You might even say that's ‘respecting’ other users and their issues and putting LeanMeanGreen13's grievance back in line with how I regard everyone else's.

Calling that out for discussion is not an issue, the way you do it is. Comes across as the 'Smug' part in your name... Maybe not intentionally so, but that's how it feels.

There is also a difference between new feature requests (such as martial arts activities) and problematic behavior in current functionality. Companies want you to 'help them make their products better' right? And these forums are simply a way to get the user base needed to actually do or get attention to something...

And whether or not one point is more important then another totally depends on this user base and what Garmin thinks is important, other then that it's pretty subjective indeed.

But again, it's not so much the 'opposing voice' which is rubbing the wrong way but the way it is voiced imo...

But again, it's not so much the 'opposing voice' which is rubbing the wrong way but the way it is voiced imo...

and mine, and it isn't based purely on this one thread.