Firmware 4.3

Strange, my watch is (almost) always connected to my Android phone and I doesn't have any problems with bluetooth and restarts. There are so many different problems affecting some user and other not that it seems we are talking about different devices. It must be very difficult for Garmin to address so many issues affecting different users...

Since updating to 4.3, I am encountering a new problem with Bluetooth: when my phone is connected to some Bluetooth device, for example my car hands free set, the FR235 will reboot every few minutes, resetting HR readings. This seems to happen only when the phone is connected to a BT device. Am I the only one with this problem?

Apparently not (per the reply you got above), but for what it's worth, I usually run with both my FR235 and my Bluetooth headset connected to my Android handset (Samsung Galaxy S5 mini, running Android 4.4.2). I've run twice since updating my FR235 to firmware v4.30, and have encountered no issues with the watch rebooting or otherwise behaving in a strange and unexpected manner.

Garmin is fooling its customers

We all know that since the 4.2/2.60 updates, HR monitoring during runs is even worse than it was before. For general activity tracking, they've tried to fool us and I'm pretty certain the 4hour HR graph, that's supposed to look like it's sampling more often since 4.2, is actually just "FAKE RANDOM NOISE". It's not real HR data and sampling rate is not really increased. I'd bet it's still on a 15min - 1hour trigger. In fact, the only thing that could be real HR data is the stupid, clearly wrong, massive spikes that you now get several times a day.

As for HR sensor turning on with movement. BULLCRAP! Either they've messed this up as well or they're fooling us here too. When the LEDs are off, if I remove my watch and shake it all about at various movement frequencies to simulate anything from a light walk to intense exercise, the LEDs simply don't come on. I remember several updates ago, this feature, whilst not sensitive enough, still did respond to this kind of movement and turn the oHR sensor on.

Garmin are clearly trying to simulate what the watch should actually do with shabby and fake behaviour. It's all fake and misleading and customers have been short-changed with respect to what is resonably expected of the watch and what Garmin has actually delivered (and continues to [not] deliver).

Their engineering team should be sacked. The lot of them. Sometimes, in product development, senior engineers need to challenge project managers with regards to releasing bad software like this. Managers will always ask for it earlier than it is ready and it's a balance between getting it out there ASAP but with minor bugs and releasing utter crap!

I work in product development and some things, as an engineer, you're not too happy about releasing ahead of time but they are not fundamental features of the product. With Garmins sports product group something is terribly wrong there and they are making poor decision after poor decision and making the platform worse.

Quick update guys. I powered off my watch, powered back on (this is well after resetting back to defaults, not a master reset though) and my HR behavior seems to be closer to what it was before. Not all the way back, but pretty close. And I even gave it another chance on a run yesterday and it actually worked well (no crazy spikes above my max). But I was pushing a jogging stroller so I'm not sure if it was entirely accurate as I rarely run that way. I will find out today on my lunch run when I run at an easy pace (I wore my Scosche armband yesterday, and when the watch was goofing up, it was 20 beats higher than normal so I switch to my working HR monitor). I'm not sure if powering it off and on truly fixed stuff but it did something to stop the high/false HR readings I was getting.

Their engineering team should be sacked. The lot of them. Sometimes, in product development, senior engineers need to challenge project managers with regards to releasing bad software like this. Managers will always ask for it earlier than it is ready and it's a balance between getting it out there ASAP but with minor bugs and releasing utter crap!

I work in product development and some things, as an engineer, you're not too happy about releasing ahead of time but they are not fundamental features of the product. With Garmins sports product group something is terribly wrong there and they are making poor decision after poor decision and making the platform worse.

I share your frustrations with the sketchy updates (see my not-so-nice posts in the past), but those are some pretty harsh accusations. As a software engineer myself, I know what you're getting at, but I don't think it's fair to totally bury the engineers without having actual insight into their development process. I wish I could be a fly on the wall in their dev department, though.

Can somebody explain

I bought the 235 on the advertised fact that it measured heart rate 24/7. What does this mean ?

Having read some of the above comments I had a look and the three lights on the back on my watch were not on. |Thus HR not being measured.....so its not really 24/7 is it !!

What is the default sampling rate for heart rate ??? I can tell it switches on when you select the HR graph........

So all of this LOW and RHR is only when sampled..........

and what does RHR mean ...RESTING Heart Rate or RECOVERY Heart Rate which is mentioned in the web manual (the heart rate graph isn't!)

Its the lack of meaningful info from Garmin that gets my goat !

I share your frustrations with the sketchy updates (see my not-so-nice posts in the past), but those are some pretty harsh accusations. As a software engineer myself, I know what you're getting at, but I don't think it's fair to totally bury the engineers without having actual insight into their development process. I wish I could be a fly on the wall in their dev department, though.

While I think he/she is being overly harsh as well, I will say it seems like Garmin's health device team launched way too many new products in way too short of a time frame. Three new Forerunners, three(?) new Vivo devices, the Index Scale which is apparently a steaming pile of crap, new Garmin Connect software... it seems like a lot for their software team to bite off at once; it certainly looks like it, given all these devices had teething pains.

I love my 235, but I certainly won't be buying the 245 until 6 months after launch if Garmin's tendency to release extremely half baked products continues.

RHR stands for Resting Heart Rate, both in the watch's firmware and in Garmin Connect

I bought the 235 on the advertised fact that it measured heart rate 24/7. What does this mean ?

It means – assuming the feature is enabled in the firmware settings, of course – the user's heart rate is being sampled continually, 24‑hours a day, seven days a week; the measurement process is not designed to cease or be interrupted, while the watch is operating normally and in the absence of user intervention (e.g. altering the relevant settings).

It does not mean the HR is measured continuously (i.e. the opposite of having discrete samples taken at intervals), in the way an analog speedometer in a car would measure speed continuously. It does not mean the measurement process will use a fixed interval consistently around the clock, such that captured data points are evenly spaced. It certainly does not mean (or imply) that the watch will necessarily do what you want or expect as the user, or be guided by your preferences; you get what you're given in terms of the non-user-accessible parameters governing that feature.

Having read some of the above comments I had a look and the three lights on the back on my watch were not on. |Thus HR not being measured.....so its not really 24/7 is it !!

Again, the process runs continually 24×7, but not continuously in the fashion of an analogue measuring instrument. Even if a digital measuring instrument took readings every second consistently, it still would not be measuring continuously over any interval.

What is the default sampling rate for heart rate ???

You can ask, but the collateral (e.g. product data-sheets, owner's manual) published by Garmin does not state, then you and I aren't in a position to know – and there is no implied entitlement as customers to be advised of that parameter, if it was (or were) indeed a scalar quantity.

and what does RHR mean ...RESTING Heart Rate or RECOVERY Heart Rate which is mentioned in the web manual (the heart rate graph isn't!)

Any time you see the initialism RHR on the watch's screen or in Garmin Connect[SUP]†[/SUP], it refers to Resting Heart Rate. The FR235 also measures the Recovery Heart Rate – which is a different metric – if you let it. Since you already know where to find the relevant pages in the owner's manual, I'll let you work out what the differences are.

Its the lack of meaningful info from Garmin that gets my goat !

Well, that's too bad for your goat.

† Actually, I don't recall seeing RHR used in Garmin Connect; it's either fully articulated as Resting Heart Rate or abbreviated as Resting HR.

While I think he/she is being overly harsh as well, I will say it seems like Garmin's health device team launched way too many new products in way too short of a time frame. Three new Forerunners, three(?) new Vivo devices, the Index Scale which is apparently a steaming pile of crap, new Garmin Connect software... it seems like a lot for their software team to bite off at once; it certainly looks like it, given all these devices had teething pains.

They've had a busy year, that's for sure. Hopefully there are some lessons learned.

For what it's worth, I have the Index Scale. No issues so far.. fingers crossed!