Smart watch to broadcast heart rate

[vbplease]

Hi all,

Does anyone have recommendations for a smart watch to broadcast HR to a smart trainer, or head unit on outdoor rides?

I'm having no luck broadcasting my HR with a Garmin vivoactive 3..

Thanks

[Zippy7]

Seems the Wahoo Rival will send the optical heart rate to your wahoo elemnt bike computer, and will control your kickr as well...

[AUbicycles]

Optical sensors are not considered to be particularly accurate. Is a chest strap an option?

Wahoo would appear to have a well integrated system but could also be a closed ecosystem... so may not be easy easily broadcast from an optical sensor.

Typically you are looking for an ANT+ as bluetooth can often be a single channel ... so a watch could connect to a smart phone or another bluetooth device but may not have the capacity for multiple bluetooth connections. ANT+ broadcast can usually be picked up by multiple devices.

[squareznboxez]

I am using a Garmin 245 watch to broadcast HR to my Garmin 530 computer, what head unit do you have?

[Andy01]

Optical sensors are not considered to be particularly accurate. Is a chest strap an option?

Wahoo would appear to have a well integrated system but could also be a closed ecosystem... so may not be easy easily broadcast from an optical sensor.

Typically you are looking for an ANT+ as bluetooth can often be a single channel ... so a watch could connect to a smart phone or another bluetooth device but may not have the capacity for multiple bluetooth connections. ANT+ broadcast can usually be picked up by multiple devices.

From what I have read it depends on the optical sensor.

A lot of watches have either 1 light or 3 lights and the Polar OH-1+ armband sensor has 6 lights. Obviously the more lights it has the better the accuracy. The Polar OH-1 was tested directly against chest strap HRMs and found to be just as accurate for most activities. The area where it was a bit less accurate was for really fast paced FiiT and interval training activities where things were changing dramatically very quickly - this doesn't generally apply to cycling.

I bought a couple of Polar OH-1+s for the wife and I and they have been great. Plenty accurate enough for cycling and comfortable to wear - not having large arms means we can wear them on the bicep instead of the forearm and they sit just under the shirt sleeve. Far more comfortable (especially for my wife) than a chest strap monitor. It can also be used completely stand-alone as it can store up to 12 hours of data on the monitor and the data uploaded into Polar Flow when it is put in the charging dock attached to a computer. It can also be connected to the Polar Beat app for use with a phone or obviously connected to bike computers via Ant or BT. For those that swim, they also come with a "bracket/holder" that clips on to the swimming goggles strap.

[vbplease]

Seems the Wahoo Rival will send the optical heart rate to your wahoo elemnt bike computer, and will control your kickr as well...

Yes, the Rival looks like a great watch, although after reading a review it seems to miss a few key features.. the cost is a bit prohibitive as well.

[vbplease]

Optical sensors are not considered to be particularly accurate. Is a chest strap an option?

I'm currently using a wahoo chest strap, but its falling apart (it's probably a few years old now I guess). Now that I'm on an indoor trainer and see how much I sweat, I think the sweat (after many rides) is contributing to the sensor pads delaminating..

Since I have a wrist based HR monitor i thought that may be an easy way to get zwift rides legitimate.. accuracy isn't a huge issue.

Typically you are looking for an ANT+ as bluetooth can often be a single channel ... so a watch could connect to a smart phone or another bluetooth device but may not have the capacity for multiple bluetooth connections. ANT+ broadcast can usually be picked up by multiple devices.

Yes, my mate recommended this as well.. not sure how to change the settings to broadcast from Ant+ instead of Bluetooth, and how Apple TV can pick up Ant+ ? This would require a dongle? Not sure how I can get a dongle attached to Apple tv?

[vbplease]

I am using a Garmin 245 watch to broadcast HR to my Garmin 530 computer, what head unit do you have?

Garmin Edge 520 on the bike, but mainly wanting to broadcast to Apple TV.. I've read that some Garmin watches broadcast fine, others don't? You may be lucky with the 245

[AUbicycles]

Apple TV would see the bluetooth... And doesn’t accept ANT+... simultaneous ANT+ data can still broadcast and be received by other devices. Not sure of dongles for apple tv... maybe consult DC rainmaker who did a writeup on it.

https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2017/11/zwi ... tv-4k.html

Thanks for the info on optical sensors, they do have their place and advantages.

[Andy01]

Optical sensors are not considered to be particularly accurate. Is a chest strap an option?

I'm currently using a wahoo chest strap, but its falling apart (it's probably a few years old now I guess). Now that I'm on an indoor trainer and see how much I sweat, I think the sweat (after many rides) is contributing to the sensor pads delaminating..

Since I have a wrist based HR monitor i thought that may be an easy way to get zwift rides legitimate.. accuracy isn't a huge issue.

Typically you are looking for an ANT+ as bluetooth can often be a single channel ... so a watch could connect to a smart phone or another bluetooth device but may not have the capacity for multiple bluetooth connections. ANT+ broadcast can usually be picked up by multiple devices.

Yes, my mate recommended this as well.. not sure how to change the settings to broadcast from Ant+ instead of Bluetooth, and how Apple TV can pick up Ant+ ? This would require a dongle? Not sure how I can get a dongle attached to Apple tv?

Not sure about others but my Polar OH-1+ armband monitor just switches seamlessly from broadcasting to my bike GPS via Ant to my iPhone via BT - I don't have to do anything (as long as they were connected previously). I don't think I have tried sending to both simultaneously though so I don't know if that works.

[Zippy7]

I'm currently using a wahoo chest strap, but its falling apart (it's probably a few years old now I guess). Now that I'm on an indoor trainer and see how much I sweat, I think the sweat (after many rides) is contributing to the sensor pads delaminating..

Since I have a wrist based HR monitor i thought that may be an easy way to get zwift rides legitimate.. accuracy isn't a huge issue.

The cheapest option is to buy a replacement strap from ebay...
In my experience, cheap and works with the generic garmin replacement straps.

[foo on patrol]

I have an Ebay strap that only cost me $29 I think, back 3 or 4yrs ago and it never played up like the genuine Garman strap that was $80 to replace, so don't be frightened about trying the Ebay ones and yes, it still works when I use the 510edge head unit.

Foo

[henno]

+1 To the comments above about just getting a cheap replacement strap. I bought a pair of cheap no-name HRM straps off Amazon to replace my more than 10year old HRM strap that had fallen apart, and the first one is still going strong after over a year of use, as well as being handwashed a bunch of times. Still have the spare sitting in the spares box.

$15 each delivered.

[vbplease]

Hi guys, I'm after some advice regarding this issue again..

I ended up getting a new strap off ebay for my bluetooth hr strap.. It worked for quite a while then stopped working, bought a new wahoo strap from 99bikes, it works for a minute then dies - I think the heart rate device is dead.

I'd prefer to throw all chest strap accessories in the bin and just use my watch since this connects to my Garmin 520 with ant+ for outdoor rides.

JetBlack have just announced that the Volt will now pair with an Ant+ heart rate device.. Woohoo!! But what has me stumped is how I pair my watch to the Volt with their app, when my iphone doesn't accept Ant+ ??? Will I have to get some sort of Android device which accepts Ant+ to pair the two?

Or is there some other way I can pair the watch to the Volt using another app? Fulgaz, Zwift etc

edit: I just checked the JetBlack app is only available for the Iphone, Ipad, and Itouch.. surely they don't expect us to get an Ant+ dongle and an adaptor to fit the dongle to an Iphone?

[foo on patrol]

You have done a factory reset on it, haven't you?

Foo

[vbplease]

thanks for the reply. I made sure I had the latest firmware update, and the latest app on my phone.

I just got the answer from JetBlack.. apparently I need a dongle attached to my phone to establish a connection (in bluetooth) from my watch (broadcasting Ant+).

It's a shame I can't connect the watch direct to the smart trainer (both Ant+ compatible), but through an app on the phone (bluetooth).. first world problems, lol.

[pisoyi]

Hi all,

Does anyone have recommendations for a smart watch to broadcast HR to a smart trainer, or head unit on outdoor rides?

I'm having no luck broadcasting my HR with a Garmin vivoactive 3..

Thanks

AI Spammer - content removed

[Mr Purple]

It all sounds too hard! My Wahoo Kickr just broadcasts cadence and power to the AppleTV directly via one bluetooth channel, and my Wahoo Tickr fit goes directly to the AppleTv via the other. Has never given me an issue.

The Tickr Fit also uses ANT+ for the Wahoo Bolt head unit, so covers both issues. It is optical but I've never experienced any accuracy issues (that you'd notice). my old Tickr chest strap used to get extremely unreliable at about half battery life and show the HR at 225bpm. So it's better than that. Also rechargeable.

[vbplease]

I just buy a TACX Neo 2T and want to use my Fenix 6 Sapphire to broadcast the Heart Rate to the app (Zwift or TACX), but:

- If I broadcast the HR it stuck at the first value the optical sensor read

- If I use virtual run to broadcast HR it doesn't display the heart rate (only - - is visible on the watch). When I close the activity, on the watch face the heart rate takes a couple of seconds to be displayed.

Does anyone find a solution or this is a bug present on the 11.10?

If I did any other activity, HR works perfectly (also with HRM-run)

It's likely that your Fenix only broadcasts in Ant+ and not bluetooth?

That was the case with my Vivoactive.. I have since got a Forerunner 245 (music) which broadcasts in bluetooth.. awesome watch except it doesn't have garmin pay, can't track outdoor swimming and won't read a bike power meter..

I think Garmin get a kick out of manufacturing a million different watches with slightly different features, just to mess with us. They probably think, lets make the perfect combination of features, but cut one vital feature out, so the user has to upgrade to a more expensive model than necessary.

[g-boaf]

I just buy a TACX Neo 2T and want to use my Fenix 6 Sapphire to broadcast the Heart Rate to the app (Zwift or TACX), but:

- If I broadcast the HR it stuck at the first value the optical sensor read

- If I use virtual run to broadcast HR it doesn't display the heart rate (only - - is visible on the watch). When I close the activity, on the watch face the heart rate takes a couple of seconds to be displayed.

Does anyone find a solution or this is a bug present on the 11.10?

If I did any other activity, HR works perfectly (also with HRM-run)

It's likely that your Fenix only broadcasts in Ant+ and not bluetooth?

That was the case with my Vivoactive.. I have since got a Forerunner 245 (music) which broadcasts in bluetooth.. awesome watch except it doesn't have garmin pay, can't track outdoor swimming and won't read a bike power meter..

I think Garmin get a kick out of manufacturing a million different watches with slightly different features, just to mess with us. They probably think, lets make the perfect combination of features, but cut one vital feature out, so the user has to upgrade to a more expensive model than necessary.

Although not an active watch like the Garmin ones, I recently got the Apple Watch Ultra and I'm very, very happy with it and how it integrates with my phone and the apps on the phone, my computers as well. I use Strava on the watch when I'm out walking - which I have to do quite a lot as part of my recovery. It does a lot of health monitoring as well which I currently don't need, but it's useful to have it (ECG, etc). It's good for tracking your sleep as well.

I can answer a phone call on it without getting the phone out, can send quick text messages through voice. Having Apple Pay on the watch is super practical.

Supposedly it can go underwater but I wouldn't try it and it also pairs up with Zwift for heart rate (I'm on a Mac desktop). This replaced a lower end Garmin watch which was getting past its usefulness.





Middle one is strava, last one SNCF L'assistant. I was initially dismissive of these sorts of watches but now I have one, they are useful.

[Andy01]

In my experience Bryton units will pair easily with almost anything (Rider10, 330, 410 & 420). I have use a few different Polar OH1+ and Verity Sense optical HRMs with all of those Brytons.

I don't have an iWatch, but my iPhones have paired directly with the Brytons and Polar HRMs, as well as a couple of different cadence sensors.