Suunto 9: Turn off wrist HR sensor completely? And how to tell if Chest Strap is sending data?

Rich Price

Hello - I bought this watch to use it with chest strap HR sensor. I’m done with the wrist mounted ones since they are essentially 10-15 inaccurate in so many cases. I’ve got a few questions:

1 - Can I turn off the optical wrist sensor entirely. I don’t ever want to use it.

2 - I paired my Suunto Smart Sensor with strap last night, but today I can’t tell if that is the one being used in the menu, below the watch face—slide up. Is there some indicator that shows me when an external actually being used? I see it in the paired devices list, but I can’t figure out how to tell when the Strap sensor is actually connected. I might have missed that in the paring instructions.

I’m all ready for my first run with this and a little frustrated that I can’t use the strap with confidence. When I slide up to view the HR below the watch face, the optical green lights go crazy. Makes me think it’s not paired with the sensor. Certainly I don’t have to go through a 7 step pairing process fo each run right?

Thanks for any guidance here. I just want to run. Ha.

Rich

surfboomerang

@Rich-Price The watch will only use the strap during activities. So not on the HR watch display, sleeptracking, 24/7 hr monitoring etc.

You can see if it uses the strap right before you press “Start” to start the activity.
If it uses the watch HR sensor, you see a heart icon. If it uses the strap, you will see the same heart icon, but with a horizontal bar behind it.

There is no other indication.

Little downside is that the watch can’t switch sensors during an activity. If my belt suddenly stopped working during exercise, the watch won’t switch back to optical HR. Instead your HR won’t be recorded.

Dimitrios Kanellopoulos

There is a reason for the watch not switching back to OHR (it will switch back to belt if belt is lost though).

Many people blamed the belt , when belt diconnected and OHR took over

Maryn

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos maybe a good idea is to hide option for OHR under settings.
Example.
You are using polar OH1 during long ultra. After about 12 h OH1 is dead and then you can switch to OHR via settings.

Dimitrios Kanellopoulos

@Maryn That would not work if OH1 or some other belt is recording HRV

HRV is time and that would not play well with HR If I understand correctly.

Maryn

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos understood.

Vylli

I would also want to turn the OHR off entirely. For example if I go for a walk and don’t have the chest strap and want to save the route and the workout but not the OHR readings because they are always wrong and showing whatever and it messes up my recovery predictions.

Maryn

@Vylli said in Suunto 9: Turn off wrist HR sensor completely? And how to tell if Chest Strap is sending data?:

I would also want to turn the OHR off entirely. For example if I go for a walk and don’t have the chest strap and want to save the route and the workout but not the OHR readings because they are always wrong and showing whatever and it messes up my recovery predictions.

It is now possible. You can disable it for each activity.

Shrek3k

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos said in Suunto 9: Turn off wrist HR sensor completely? And how to tell if Chest Strap is sending data?:

There is a reason for the watch not switching back to OHR (it will switch back to belt if belt is lost though).

Many people blamed the belt , when belt diconnected and OHR took over

Are you really sure about this feature - which I would love! - because on my Suunto 9 heart rate this does not work.
If HR has been started with external sensor and the OHR has been deactivated accordingly, the OHR won’t take over and reactivate in case the connection to the external sensor has been lost.
I just checked it with the treadmill exercise, the Tickr Fit, and switched the Tickr Fit off … stable HR-number, because it kept the last number on the display. And yes - latest official firmware.

Dimitrios Kanellopoulos

@Shrek3k I am on second beer, but do you mean it didn’t reconnect?

Rich Price

@surfboomerang - Perfect thank you. This is close to the conclusion I was coming too also. I’ll look for that different hear icon with the bar next run. Thanks!

Rich Price

@Maryn - Yes, I noticed this possibility on and event by event basis. I would love to turn it off in general too. The bright lights when it sits in a bag is weird. I know it probably times out and stops doing that, but really I would love to simply disable it so that I can be sure it never records. It’s really not accurate at all from my experience.

Maryn

@Rich-Price so you mean switch off even if you go through the menu and want to check the altitude, for example?

surfboomerang

@Maryn I would love that.
I’m not using the OHR either, but it switches on automatically if I press the down button on the watch face. Even when I’m not interested in my heartrate.

Maryn

@surfboomerang what annoys me is that HR is first when I press the down button and sometimes causes slight delays when I try to get to altitude quickly.

Shrek3k

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos said in Suunto 9: Turn off wrist HR sensor completely? And how to tell if Chest Strap is sending data?:

@Shrek3k I am on second beer, but do you mean it didn’t reconnect?

Apologies … you are right, it reconnects with the formerly used HR-‘belt’!!!

Obviously I only read and understood what I wanted to see - when battery of HR-‘belt’ is empty (which is possible for Polar OH-1, Wahoo Tickr Fit and Scosche Rhythm 24), I would have loved to use OHR automatically.

Dimitrios Kanellopoulos

@Shrek3k no worries. I am asking also to know. There are intended behavours that can break…