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Body battery for 645

4709925
over 5 years ago

I recently bought the wife the forerunner 45 and find the body battery very useful. What I don’t understand why the 645 series don’t have this function, which is supposed to be a high end model.

Any chance we would see this, since we did receive 2 on the new released functions! Incident detection and assistance alert.

  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 5 years ago

    I would like to see this one too in 645

  • 0 over 5 years ago

    I would like to get it too. Technically it should be possible.

  • 0 over 5 years ago

    Yeah, strange to have this feature on the much lower end FR45 and not on the high end FR645. I could understand it if it was a hardware restriction, but I think the hardware of the FR645 should support this. The FR645 is just in his 2nd year.

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to pcraenme

    It might also be a licencing issue with firstbeat.  

  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 5 years ago in reply to jim_m_58

    FB should add these as widgets/apps we can pay for. 

  • 0 over 5 years ago

    It's more likely never to appear on the 645 due to hardware limitations. That is, it is related to the new heart rate and pulse ox sensors

    According to the manual, the latter is used to 'help you determine how your body is adapting to exercise and stress', which is presumably a big input into the body battery function. Perhaps also the HRV measurement is better on the new sensor, which would also be an input.  

  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 5 years ago in reply to George

    PulseOx has nothing to do with the Body Battery feature. It's purpose is to measure oxygen saturation in the blood to help you determine how your body is acclimating to higher altitudes.  Due to excessive battery drain, most don't even use the PulseOx feature, or only use it in the 4 hr window while sleeping.  Body Battery runs 24/7 and measures HRV, stress and activity to estimate energy reserves.  I believe the 645 has the hardware to perform these measurements, but as stated earlier, it's most likely due to licensing agreements with FirstBeat and Garmin's marketing with product differential as to why it hasn't been added.  As you pointed out, the newer watches have the generation 3 oHRM.  I don't know what generation sensor the 645 uses, but if it's an older sensor, that too may be a factor.

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to Former Member

    Sorry to upset anybody but I was just quoting what the manual said. What you 'believe' seems to be pure speculation... unless you have some evidence or reference to back that up?  As a 645 owner, I'd be delighted to be proved wrong btw! 

  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 5 years ago in reply to George

    Hi George. The evidence to back up TMK17 speculation is that the Forerunner 45 does not have the PulseOx feature but supports the body batter functionality. So, at least in this device, body battery does not use PulseOx as an input. 

  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 5 years ago in reply to George

    I'm not upset. I'm not sure what I wrote in my post to make you feel that way, but I have noticed it's a common practice on these forums to make that statement.  Someone makes a post; someone else corrects or disputes that post, and the first response is to say that person is upset or they need to relax.  Anyway, it's not speculation or any unsubstantiated beliefs on my part that the PulseOx sensor doesn't factor in to the Body Battery metrics.  It's documentation I read posted by Garmin and FirstBeat.  The only thing I'm guilty of speculating is why the feature hasn't been added to the 645.  Which manual are you quoting?  I'm interested where it's referenced that the PulseOx sensor is required for the Battery Body feature to work.  As dsotos pointed out, not every watch has the PulseOx sensor (my 945 does, but I have it turned off) and Body Battery works independently.  The Fenix 5 Plus has the PulseOx sensor, but doesn't support Body Battery.  Body Battery made it's first appearance in the Suunto Fitness 3 watches long before Garmin licensed the feature and that device also didn't have PulseOx.  But to answer your question about references, here's just a few and many others can be found doing an Internet search.

    https://support.garmin.com/en-SG/?faq=VOFJAsiXut9K19k1qEn5W5&productID=6079&searchQuery=body%20battery&tab=topics

    https://www.firstbeat.com/en/blog/5-reasons-your-body-battery-says-youre-running-low/

    https://support.garmin.com/en-SG/?faq=SK2Y9a9aBp5D6n4sXmPBG7&productID=6079&searchQuery=Pulse%20Ox&tab=topics

    Here's DCRainmaker's review of the two features when they were first released together on the Vivosmart 4.  There's a clear distinction on how the two features are independent of each other.

    https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2018/08/hands-on-garmin-vivosmart-4-now-with-pulse-ox-and-body-battery.html

    In closing, here's a quote from HermanB from FirstBeat in a 945 thread:

    "I mentioned this in another thread, but I'll mention it here again. To my knowledge, pulse-ox data is not currently used by Firstbeat analytics in any way, so don't worry about it on/off impacting your Body Battery,Training Status, Acclim, etc."