Several swim issues and questions
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@Pat-Fennell Ah, yes, thank you for the suggestions, but I myself am content with total activity time, total distance and the ZoneSense data screen to put a ‘brake’ on my (often) too hard efforts. What I’ve tried to find with these posts are a solution to the original poster @Cinzia-Araosta and the wish to simplify the swimming experience even more. From what I understand is that when the OP for example sets out to do 50 lengths in a 25 metres pool, they want to see a counter going up from 1 to 50 - not having to think and compute that 50x25=1250. Having gone through all the configuration options in the Swim section I must conclude that it can’t be done - unless we stop and rest at each 25 metres wall and thus create an ‘interval’ that the watch can count as such.
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Hi all, this post as an update to the “swim issues” situation.
I used several customized Sport Modes to check all data that is possible to add on screens, and I guess LAPS data are the only ones useful for me.With my old Garmin I used to press a button to switch on “rest” mode and back again in “swim” mode, so I will keep this behaviour, closing a lap every time I stop my interval and keep the time counter going which I guess it will add the rest time to the next lap. Interval data are completely useless, I don’t swim very fast and it seems like it detects stops even if I’m swimming, not cool.
Still having major issues with correct distance detection (which is related to the interval topic before), it adds so many meters because it seems to detect change of swim styles (I never change in the same interval), or decides that I arrived at the end of the pool even if I’m still in the very middle of it (so it registers 25 meters in 13 seconds, I wish…).
Anyway, I’m so very disappointed.
I switched to Suunto because the accelerometer in my old Garmin abandoned me and customer support was not helpful at all, but I’m not happy with my decision.
I know Race S was not built specifically for swimming, but still, this is not an excuse for such an expensive watch.Thank you all for your help, anyway!
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@Cinzia-Araosta said in Several swim issues and questions:
Anyway, I’m so very disappointed
Mi spiace… And we can only hope that Suunto refines the Swim mode in future firmwares (as has been rumoured they’d like to do).
Suunto Race S
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@kriskus
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@Inge-Nallsson changes in the swim algorithms are being tested, and more changes have also been hinted/promised. But I do not swim, so have no idea about the improvements.
Watch: Suunto Vertical Ti
Blog: isazi's home
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@isazi Thank you for the heads-up. I’ll look forward to any and all improvements!
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@Cinzia-Araosta
Old Ambits good specially for swimming. They are bulky, thats the only problem. But they learn swimming techniques and there are drill mode for all you need from swimming. I dont know why Suunto cut this things from all last watch. -
While browsing the Garmin forum postings for their latest watch, the Instinct 3, I saw a former Instinct (1) user complain about the poor lap counting both on the old and now on the new watch:
“Pool Swimming lap counting: PLEASE make it better!”
[…]
“It happens under specific circumstances. In my case, if the swimming pool is crowded and I unfortunately have to slow down, it ends up counting double (or triple) laps”
[…]
“Now I bought an Instinct 3 Solar, and had high hopes this would be better, just to figure out it’s just as bad… I understand the tips (have a clear push from the wall etc [1]), but there is no excuse to not make this algorithm better!”The poster then goes on with suggestions of how the programmers should enhance the length detection, and it all sounds reasonable enough. Though when also reading the noted Garmin tips, I shiver with the complexity:
“Tips to Improve Accuracy of Pool Swim Activities”
https://support.garmin.com/en-US/?faq=iS2KcmGiVb4djrE1lri8i7
Programming using simple ‘while’/‘if’/‘for’ etc language entries suddenly feels totally inadequate. It seems to be a nightmare of trying to catch the exceptions.
No doubt my own good experience with pool distance counting comes from simplistic circumstances, where I can maintain an even speed without disruptions. Also, my push-offs are always followed by three to five metres of underwater glide. Easy-peasy detection stuff…
I do not envy the coders in this specific counting case. Though, that’s why they are so highly paid
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Hello, I have now had my Race S for a couple of weeks. I bought the watch for looks, size, plotting walks and swimming. The latter I am very disappointed in. I
am getting on, so I am quite relaxed about wayward stats. However, I did have some basic expectations for swimming that have been covered in this discussion. I am just surprised they have not been addressed by Suunto.All I wanted from a swim watch was a function that counts laps whilst swimming with the display that only shows the lap number in a colour that stands out in the swimming pool. Very surprised this function is not there.
In relation to lap counting the gyro in the watch should be able to recognise a turn. I follow the advise by having a consistent stroke and a good glide on the turn. On today’s swim, from a 70 lap swim (short pool) it missed 10 laps. When doing sets of two laps with an interval it failed to register a set that I did.
I can live with inaccurate times but missing whole laps is pretty poor. Missing 10 out of 70 laps makes the pool swim function pretty redundant.
In the app my breaststroke is always recognised. My front crawl tends to be registered as back stroke. As I never swim back stroke not too concerned about this.
Where the watch fails to recognise a turn, this cannot be corrected in the app. Even more annoying than this is the App measures laps in average time per 100m. I just want to see how many seconds the lap took. I admit I am pretty rubbish on Apps, but I cannot see an option to change the displayed stats.
I almost bought the Garmin Swim, but indifferent reviews and no mapping meant I splashed out on this watch. Kind of wished I did not bother. I hope future software updates address these expected basic functions.
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I have worked out how to show lap times on the App. Numpty moment by myself.
