Data recording smart vs every second

Practical benefit is that you get all the data that is available to you. Useful for Strava for most accurate segment times. Useful if you want to examine your GPS track in the most detail. Useful if want to import into a 3rd party app.

It won't however effect the distance the watch records nor the pace it shows you.

So if you are into your data then use every second, otherwise no great advantage.

Basically it will only change the points logged, not the actual data... I guess I'd use smart for a marathon (I'm actually leaning towards smart in general nowadays, even though for my usual 10k runs it doesn't really matter).

But for a marathon I can imagine the filesize getting quite big, dunno if that might cause issues in the end but wouldn't want to risk it I think. I ran a half marathon with 1sec without issues btw but that was less then 1:30.

Anyway, smart also delivers a good enough track and indeed, if you aren't planning into analyzing everything in depth I think it;s more then enough. (And again, it won't change anything wrt recorded pace and all that stuff... jsut the visualization part.)

I take up this opportunity to ask myself some questions on this smart vs. 1sec in relation to storage:
- Is there really a limited time you can record with 1sec recording for one single activity? For example, can I record 12-13 hours with 1 sec recording?
- Do you need to delete old activities yourself or will they get overwritten automatically as storage gets scarce? How long will it take to get the storage full when doing 8 hours of recording a week?
- If storage is full, will an activity recording be interrupted or will old data be overwritten? I am somewhat afraid I am doing the coolest tour on earth and don't have a track because in that very tour my storage gets full :p
- Is this similar with waypoints/position savings? Do they also get overwritten? I use them frequently at certain spots during my hikes as I provide my tracks to friends to follow.

Sorry for the many questions, but I am back to Garmin and these are the things I am constantly wondering about. :o

On my 935, a 2 hour run with 1s recording, running dynamics, and 2 connect IQ metrics takes up 466 kb, or slightly less than 0.5 MB. So about 0.25 MB per hour (or even less if you don't use a datafield that records 2 extra metrics).

For perspective, the amount of space on a 935 is 54 MB. On my watch, everything but activities takes up 5 MB. (I do have a bunch of apps and watch faces). So that's 49 MB for activities, or enough space for roughly 200 hours worth of activities.

The watch should automatically delete old activities when it starts to run out of space, according to the manual. I've never taken a close look at how this is done in practice. (i.e. How many activities are deleted and at exactly what point?)

Have no idea what the upper limit in file size would be. Theoretically the FIT format (and the filesystem on the watch) should be able to handle file sizes of up to 4 GB (which is obviously too big to fit on your watch and would represent a really long ultra), but maybe there's some much lower practical limit in the watch software.

To me the main practical disadvantage of using 1-sec recording is bluetooth syncs are pretty slow.

For comparison, I checked a 44 minute activity from my old FR210, which lacked 1s recording. (The only extra data was HR; no cadence or running dynamics.) That activity was 19kb, or about 26k (0.025 MB) per hour. Not sure how big a smart recording file would be on the 935, with all the running dynamics and additional sensors.

From a practical perspective, you will never do an activity long enough for that to matter.

For example: a situation it could matter is if you wanted to do, say, a 30 day hike where you recharged the watch every night but never uploaded the activities until the end and had hundreds of hours of GPS data.

I've done every second recording tests of around 24 hours with other devices and no problems.

More practically done up to about 3 hour bike rides with a 935 and been fine.

I usually keep about one month's worth of activities before manually deleting them but in reality could have several months on there. If the space runs out then the oldest activities should be deleted automatically.

True that BLE uploads are slower with every second recording but not such that I get overly I mpatient. If you do need it quicker use WiFi or GE if possible or even personal hotspot if out and about.

OK, I understand. Thanks a lot for your explanations.

So, does anyone know for sure if old data gets overwritten automatically or if one needs to erase it manually?
Does it behave the same with waypoints/position saves?

Can't be absolutely certain as not tested it on a 935 but it has always worked this way before

Will locations pretty sure you will need to delete some to add more but forget what the limit is. Is it 500 on here. Has been 100 in some previous devices.

One that can catch you out is that you can only have 20 entries in sensors & accessories and you definitely need to delete one if want to add a different one and are at the limit.

So, does anyone know for sure if old data gets overwritten automatically or if one needs to erase it manually?

I don't have the 935, so cannot confirm 100%, but other garmin devices overwrite oldest data. And you will get a warning well ahead before running out of space.

Does it behave the same with waypoints/position saves?

Most certainly not. Those are preserved until you remove them manually (or a malfunction occurs :)).

Thanks!! I would guess Garmin kept it the way as with other watches.

I just use the wrist HR and a foot pod on the treadmill. That's it, so I should be fine.
No problem with deleting the waypoints either (wasn't it 1000 on the 935?).