External sync through Sports-Tracker

ColdBeer

I want to testing SA in my Android phone, but I don’t want to lose the power of having my workouts in MC IN ANY WAY.

The facts:

I own a license of SyncMyTracks Android app
SyncMyTracks lets sync with MC, Sports-Tracker and a bunch of other services
I always had problems with dual use of MC and SA on the same phone
As workout analysis on the phone is not an option for me, it doesn’t matter how briefly could I do that job
I think I could uninstall MC, using just SA, which uploads data to ST, and sync from there to MC cloud (with SyncMyTracks) to maintain analysis capacity on the desktop

CONS:

I know I’ll lose notifications (I can’t live with all the notifications on the watch, so preferred option is to disable this)

DOUBTS:

I’m not sure ST data uploaded from SA and exported through their original API would be COMPLETE, as I need it includes the whole data values the watch can register: cadence, power, steps, altitude. All of them are a must and needed for me.
It’s not important for me that SA shows data badly, but it’s CRITIC than exported data coming from the watch, and later exported from ST is not adulterated neither by SA nor ST.

I need a serious answer for those concise 2 doubts before make the changes. So, please, answers with words like “supposedly”, “maybe” or “why do you want to do this” are not welcome.

@ColdBeer That’s what I do for now. I’ve just enabled ST synchronization in Movescount, and all my activities appear in SA. I can’t test a large part of SA functionality this way, but at least I can look at how my runs appear in the app. All metrics seem to be propagated including Ascent, Descent, PTE, Cadence, Recovery Time, etc.

Brad_Olwin

I am on iOS so this may not be applicable. Sports-Tracker sync with RunGap (similar to SyncmyTracks) has many issues from the Sports Tracker side. Inaccurate elevation data, no power and other issues. I think even with a free Training Peaks account you can download .fit files. My sync to TP is perfect, intervals are synced, the Endurance and Ultra modes are handled properly and no issues with elevation, power, etc. So a bit cumbersome but you could try SA to TP (free account), download fit and import to whatever service you want.

ColdBeer

@silentvoyager Thanks for your quick answer but some times Dimitrios said we can’t trust on information delivered from MC to ST as it’s not complete and that’s the reason they are developing an MC to SA import utility.

Mff73

@ColdBeer said in External sync through Sports-Tracker:

I need a serious answer for those concise 2 doubts before make the changes. So, please, answers with words like “supposedly”, “maybe” or “why do you want to do this” are not welcome.

No serious answer here, but nobody can have the whole truth ! But if you want some help, I dare to use some non-concise words

Some way to explore for you, and ask for @Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos confirmation :

Link SA to Strava, then go to Strava and open an activity. In the URL you can change to get the original FIT file send to Strava by SA, and it should be complete.

eg https://www.strava.com/activities/1908779292 then append to the url the export_original
Like so: https://www.strava.com/activities/1908779292/export_original

ColdBeer

@Brad_Olwin Your answer is welcome too. The only con I see here is that I need to trust on third party services. And at the really end, the process seems a bit crazy: to sync between a Suunto service and another Suunto service, do I really need a third party web service where I must transfer all my history training records? Really, Suunto?

It’s an option if no other exists, of course but no really confident for sure.

ColdBeer

@Mff73 Hi dear! 2 cons in your trick: third party services dependence and the big one: a hard manual work for every workout. No way for this one at all, but thanks a lot.

@ColdBeer Seems complete to me, at least for activities that I do that include only running, trail running, and some gym activities. I use the sync only to evaluate / test the app so I didn’t look too close.
When it is time to do the official import I’ll probably just recreate my SA account and start from scratch.

Dimitrios Kanellopoulos

short and sweet. Any 3rd party tool that pulls data to other services should not use ST as a source. You can let SA sync to Strava for example and do the sync from there.

So Sa->Strava -> 3rd party -> where you want your data to go

cosme.costa

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos said in External sync through Sports-Tracker:

short and sweet. Any 3rd party tool that pulls data to other services should not use ST as a source. You can let SA sync to Strava for example and do the sync from there.

So Sa->Strava -> 3rd party -> where you want your data to go

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos , with all the respect for the job done till now, that I know that is a lot even if it doesn’t look like, but I hope all you see that after Suunto kills MC and without alternative yet, if we have to do all this to do a proper analysis of the workout is not acceptable?
If the gear was very cheap I could accept the downsizes and the necessity of doing tricks to get the files where I want but not with Suunto prices and more if your direct competition are giving you what you already have. If Suunto/Amer wants us to use only an mobile app, I do not agree but Suunto should present us the best mobile app, not the one that we have now, we should have something that really makes us doubt if it is enough only with it. Right know is not the case and in my opinion we are quite far, I really hope that Suunto proves me wrong.
Regarding the 3rd party apps, most of us have started slowly or we train for fun at respectable level without the need of intervals, training plans, etc. Some of us have started to lose some weight, then fun and now we start to look for more technical training. So at the beginning we do not need the most advanced metrics or analysis tools but we need some basic features, and this should be supplied by Suunto not for 3rd party app, then in case I want/need better tools then its time to go for the 3rd party apps. I been around for a while here and I even follow some of you and I can see why you (@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos) or @Brad_Olwin need better analysis tools but not all of us need them, at least yet.
For me the problem is that I see Suunto quite lost that they are asking us what we want instead of “I will give you till here, do you agree or need more?”
I’m trying to be constructive here, In my trainings I’m in the point were I’m trying to understand all the data and apply changes to my way of running but I can do a proper analysis in MC not in SA (at least until there is a web version). I have tried to do it in SA but forgetting the fact of the size of the screen I do not have graphs for everything (cadence, temperature, etc), I can’t overlay multiple graphs only altitude, pace and HR in a tiny proportion (1/5) of the mobile screen).

Dimitrios Kanellopoulos

@cosmecosta I am confused.
I think this is not a MC thread and MC is not yet dead. What do you mean?

I just tried to help @ColdBeer

cosme.costa

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos Yes yes, you are right!! I think it should be on “important news concerning our…” But I started to write about all the tricks you have to do to export the data and finished with the long post…my bad!

As I said before, I do respect all the job done and I’m trying to be positive but I have mixed feelings about the money that I have spent in the watch and how it is going to end eventually. Sorry man!!

Dimitrios Kanellopoulos

@cosmecosta Hey man! It’s 1.5y. In this time I would as a Spartan/S9 owner

Use the features/App I like now.

If in 1.5y we don’t have the things we like and corect, I my self will exit this situation.

I think it’s pretty much tooooooo pushing at this moment to get a bad feeling. We are just in the start of this jurney.

cosme.costa

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos I hope you are right and “In Suunto we trust”… Except if my SSU breaks, and then I will have a big dilema, I will be around and I will see “the transition”.

ColdBeer

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos said in External sync through Sports-Tracker:

short and sweet. Any 3rd party tool that pulls data to other services should not use ST as a source. You can let SA sync to Strava for example and do the sync from there.

So Sa->Strava -> 3rd party -> where you want your data to go

So, finally, Suunto is not offering any kind of solution to -even technical users- sync SA and MC databases (and then could test SA with no fear for lost data), just using external, third party, paying solutions. Is this the true?

And everything is because ST database (and open api) is not right. Doen’t it?

Dimitrios Kanellopoulos

@ColdBeer I did not understand well what you mean.

So, finally, Suunto is not offering any kind of solution to -even technical users- sync SA and MC databases (and then could test SA with no fear for lost data), just using external, third party, paying solutions. Is this the true?

You mean sync from SA to MC?

And everything is because ST database (and open api) is not right. Doen’t it?

What does this mean?

ColdBeer

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos said in External sync through Sports-Tracker:

@ColdBeer I did not understand well what you mean.

So, finally, Suunto is not offering any kind of solution to -even technical users- sync SA and MC databases (and then could test SA with no fear for lost data), just using external, third party, paying solutions. Is this the true?
You mean sync from SA to MC?

Sure, pal! Is valid to sync my watch with SA (which supposedly uploads my workouts to ST), and using the SyncMyTracks utility sync them to MC?
Any other valid option that doesn’t pass through external services (which could modify data in they middle)?

And everything is because ST database (and open api) is not right. Doen’t it?
What does this mean?

As you said several times, ST records are not valid for exporting/evaluation of our workouts, as it could change some data (and there are reports it doesn’t save altitude, power…). Is possible to make ST just SAVE workouts as they are (without modifying anything) so we could use that platform (which is from AmerSports) and has got a known and widely used api as our trampoline to still analyze our trainings on the trustworthy MC platform while testing SA?

Dimitrios Kanellopoulos

@ColdBeer I dont get it again .

I think it’s quite clear why Suunto does not want to sync SA to MC. Even if MC was to stay after all this wave of loud comments, I don’t think Suunto would like to add more workload to the past

In regards to ST , ST API is another API from SA.

ColdBeer

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos I don’t want to bother you, friend, but please, let know Suunto managers this:

Even if Suunto wouldn’t like to add more workload to MC, I (a suunto user who bought two Spartan Trainers one year ago) will save their whole workout load to MC in some way. And I’ve got two options here:

I could stay using MC until the last day (so workload will be there whatever they want)
I could test SA beta app and help in its development while syncing in any other way (using external utilities) to MC and maintain my workout analysis homework as prefered, in a trustworthy and great platform

As you see, sometimes clients do whatever they want (just as Suunto is doing). Jajajaja!!!

Dimitrios Kanellopoulos

@ColdBeer haha ok fair point. Then what I suggest to try for NOW (it will be better when 3rd parties wake up a bit).

Create a strava /TP account

Use syncmytracks to get the data from there to where you want them. I bet syncmytracks will support SA as the app is , to be honest so bad (been there since start) and already has made tons of money with SA / MC )

What I mean:
SA -> Strava -> data ok
SA -> TP -> data ok
SA -> ST -> data not ok dont pull from there.

Makes sense? This is what I suggest as a user to you NOW .