My Garmin Forrunner gave up the ghost the past week. Look like I'm getting it fixed by warranty, but it made me look at other options. I only use the forrunner for running or cycling, I never use it with the erg as I'm happy just keeping track og my heart rate on the PM4. But, I would like something to make note of my day to day activities, like walking my kid to and from school, or working outside building our new porch. I need something that can keep track of and display my pulse, that's my nr. 1 need so I guess most would work there.
I see Garmin has a VivoSmart HR that dont need the pulse belt to keep track of the pulse. It seems like a good procduct, but does anyone have any experience on how well it keeps up with the HR? I don't see any use for it if it's not accurate at all.
Alot of my friends have been using these for a long while, but as most was unable to keep track of my rowing I did not see much use in them. Does anyone here use a tracker that also works somewhat with the erg? I'm not sure if I would spend time manually adding my erg sessions, but that options is atleast better than not having any way of tracking it at all.
Activity trackers
Re: Activity trackers
this is my forth activity tracker (garmin vivosmart HR).
1)i had a polar loop which was nice, hated recharging it every few days - didnt like the display (but it was readable at night)
2) a garmin vivosmart (which i still have) unreadable at night - connected to the garmin heart strap (yeh!) and tracked everyday stuff - needed a new battery about every 12 months (yeh!!!)
3) a polar a360 which looked neat. hr measuring was well off, looked neat but basically nothing new - sent it back
4) current: garmin vivosmart HR. I like the garmin connect interface- all my cycling i do is logged there from the edge, so it was basically everything in one spot.
the hr was at first - "wanting" a firmware update improved it, but i find it still varies between the cheststrap - it hates quick changes and will sometimes just display weird stuff - i have checked it whilst using ant & bluetooth cheststraps and it varies sometimes immensly. that said it is ant compatible, so you can broadcast your hr directly to the pm device without a cheststrap (yeh!). it is readable at night (yeh!) and only requires recharging about every 5-7 days (grumble). if you could connect it to a chest strap (currently not possible, but its a software thing) i would say its great...
alternatives maybe a microsoft band2
1)i had a polar loop which was nice, hated recharging it every few days - didnt like the display (but it was readable at night)
2) a garmin vivosmart (which i still have) unreadable at night - connected to the garmin heart strap (yeh!) and tracked everyday stuff - needed a new battery about every 12 months (yeh!!!)
3) a polar a360 which looked neat. hr measuring was well off, looked neat but basically nothing new - sent it back
4) current: garmin vivosmart HR. I like the garmin connect interface- all my cycling i do is logged there from the edge, so it was basically everything in one spot.
the hr was at first - "wanting" a firmware update improved it, but i find it still varies between the cheststrap - it hates quick changes and will sometimes just display weird stuff - i have checked it whilst using ant & bluetooth cheststraps and it varies sometimes immensly. that said it is ant compatible, so you can broadcast your hr directly to the pm device without a cheststrap (yeh!). it is readable at night (yeh!) and only requires recharging about every 5-7 days (grumble). if you could connect it to a chest strap (currently not possible, but its a software thing) i would say its great...
alternatives maybe a microsoft band2
Dean
2020 Season: 196cm / 96kg : M51
Training Log - ʕʘ̅͜ʘ̅ʔ -Blog
~seven days without rowing makes one weak~
2020 Season: 196cm / 96kg : M51
Training Log - ʕʘ̅͜ʘ̅ʔ -Blog
~seven days without rowing makes one weak~
Re: Activity trackers
got a fitbit charge HR at a discount from work because I was curious and a huge data nerd.
HR on that thing is next to useless.
I really doubt that any other company's wrist-based HR sensors are any more accurate. they all use the same tech, and it's just not good enough yet for serious athletic training.
compared to my chest strap (far more reliable tech than optical sensors) the HR on the fitbit was constantly 10-40bpm LOW. any kind of wrist motion could throw it off which is guaranteed on an erg. also, sweat throws it off too (seriously... sweat... on a fitness tracker).
the optical sensors also take longer to stabilize so if you are doing activities like weightlifting or calisthenics, the spikes in HR are too narrow for it to really detect. not that HR is terribly important for lifting, but my chest strap measures it just fine.
only time it worked was when i was at rest or walking/hiking. but even hiking, once i got too sweaty it was all over the place.
Altimeter feature was cool and surprisingly accurate (once you figure out it's conversion factor from "flights of stairs" to "feet"). I liked that it auto-tracked my resting HR. the calorie counting software on fitbits website is good, but still less straightforward than MyFitnessPal, which is free. Step and distance tracking is not really accurate, it's only good enough for getting a "general idea" of how much you walked on a given day. you cant really use it to track the length of a run, for example, it could be off a mile or two in either direction even once you calibrate your stride length.
HR on that thing is next to useless.
I really doubt that any other company's wrist-based HR sensors are any more accurate. they all use the same tech, and it's just not good enough yet for serious athletic training.
compared to my chest strap (far more reliable tech than optical sensors) the HR on the fitbit was constantly 10-40bpm LOW. any kind of wrist motion could throw it off which is guaranteed on an erg. also, sweat throws it off too (seriously... sweat... on a fitness tracker).
the optical sensors also take longer to stabilize so if you are doing activities like weightlifting or calisthenics, the spikes in HR are too narrow for it to really detect. not that HR is terribly important for lifting, but my chest strap measures it just fine.
only time it worked was when i was at rest or walking/hiking. but even hiking, once i got too sweaty it was all over the place.
Altimeter feature was cool and surprisingly accurate (once you figure out it's conversion factor from "flights of stairs" to "feet"). I liked that it auto-tracked my resting HR. the calorie counting software on fitbits website is good, but still less straightforward than MyFitnessPal, which is free. Step and distance tracking is not really accurate, it's only good enough for getting a "general idea" of how much you walked on a given day. you cant really use it to track the length of a run, for example, it could be off a mile or two in either direction even once you calibrate your stride length.
Re: Activity trackers
I have been using the Vivosmart HR now for about 4 months. The HR monitor seemed to work decent for a while and I did a fair amount of testing it to the PM5. It worked perfectly for about 2 rows, out of 40. I gave up on it and got a garmin chest strap, which of course works fantastic with the PM5.
Over the past month or so I feel like the HR monitor is flaking out and has become next to useless. Now even after rowing I try to compare it's readings to the chest strap and it does not even move up from 80, I am generally still around 130-140 at this point via the chest strap.
Over this same time it seems to think I am climbing a lot of phantom stairs throughout the day... I generally hit 10 flights, it's default goal, by noon. I may have done 3 by then.
Now all this said, I love that it is waterproof(perfect for outdoorsy/lake people like myself), the fact that you have to charge it every 5 days. I also wanted a smart watch for simple text, phone, and meeting notifications. It works perfect for this!
I would still recommend it if you are not really looking for an accurate HR monitor. It does everything else pretty dang well.
I also had a Fitbit CHarge HR for about 3 days. There is just no comparison between the two devices.
Now if I could just get my Garmin chest strap to talk to my phone and the Garmin Connect Ap!
Over the past month or so I feel like the HR monitor is flaking out and has become next to useless. Now even after rowing I try to compare it's readings to the chest strap and it does not even move up from 80, I am generally still around 130-140 at this point via the chest strap.
Over this same time it seems to think I am climbing a lot of phantom stairs throughout the day... I generally hit 10 flights, it's default goal, by noon. I may have done 3 by then.
Now all this said, I love that it is waterproof(perfect for outdoorsy/lake people like myself), the fact that you have to charge it every 5 days. I also wanted a smart watch for simple text, phone, and meeting notifications. It works perfect for this!
I would still recommend it if you are not really looking for an accurate HR monitor. It does everything else pretty dang well.
I also had a Fitbit CHarge HR for about 3 days. There is just no comparison between the two devices.
Now if I could just get my Garmin chest strap to talk to my phone and the Garmin Connect Ap!
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Livio Livius
- 1k Poster
- Posts: 136
- Joined: December 5th, 2009, 5:20 pm
Re: Activity trackers
Take iPhone + Painsled app + Garmin HR belt and your are ready.
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KevinConcept2
- Paddler
- Posts: 21
- Joined: April 4th, 2016, 10:44 pm
Re: Activity trackers
Garmin activity trackers that support some rowing movements (accelerometer only, no direct connection to erg), are the FR920XT, Epix, Fenix3, and Vivoactive. This is done through the "Rowing" workout mode (not a Garmin app).Hanzo wrote:Does anyone here use a tracker that also works somewhat with the erg?
http://garmin.blogs.com/my_weblog/2015/ ... e-app.html
Older Garmin watches (FR60, FR70, FR210, FR310XT, FR610, FR910) can connect directly to the erg using ANT+FE (you get almost all data the PM has).
http://www.concept2.com/service/heart-r ... h-your-pm4
All other Garmin models have nothing. The brand new FR235 and FR630? Nope.
Requires PM5 (because Bluetooth Smart). GarminHRM+PM5+iPhone+Painsled.Livio Livius wrote:Take iPhone + Painsled app + Garmin HR belt and your are ready.