Sunnto 7 Sensor Support

[isazi]

@Bulkan said in Sunnto 7 Sensor Support:

Correction: Some moderators, which are people which opinion. I always defended the support of exrternal HR and stryd.

But you only answer @isazi.

And I already said in the past sensors support is the reason why I keep using my S9

[brotzfrog10]

@Bulkan that’s a completely valid point, but That moderator for whatever reason continued to question the validity of Bluetooth connected hr sensors being more effective then the built in wrist based sensors, especially in certain use cases. For whatever reason. Yet he himself uses the S9 because it allows sensor support so go figure.

[MavRaven]

@brotzfrog10 said in Sunnto 7 Sensor Support:

Then my initial comments about the sensor support were met with criticism saying that the Suunto 7 was geared more for soccer moms from the moderators and HR sensors weren’t important. Which again was disappointing for the reasons I already mentioned.

Why hate on people that dont care about the chest strap by taking the example of soccer moms, maybe just accept that there are people who use it for running/walking/hiking who focus on having a smartwatch with good fitness features which fits the Suunto 7 perfectly.

Even if there was a 100% proven 10% difference with the heartbeat readings from the OHR Sensor most of the more “casual” users probably don’t care.

It’s not completly black and white, some people have different requirements and different expectations and thats fine. I can understand that its a must have feature for you and thats fine but that is not true for everyone.

There are different marketing strategies, and the extreme fitness enthusiast is not the unit mover you make them out to be, the suunto 9 for example beeing a great device with good sales in its niche is still not a mass market device, if suunto orientied the 7 to more mass market then i can understand that they have different priorities than pleasing the hardcore crowd.

I would rather have sleep tracking first then strap support for example.

If they do release strap support in the future as an option then that will be nice for anyone who wants to use it, but it would be insane if they had to change anything big in the design of the watch for example, if it increases the battery drain by 50% for example then i would probably never use it.

[pilleus]

Test 2, S7 on the wrist, Ghostracer running with wrist heart rate measuring, setup the same as yesterday.

Battery usage with wrist heart rate: 96 - 66 percent in 2:27 h = 12,25 percent per hour
Battery usage with external Polar OH1: 16,65 percent per hour

From previous tests I know, that wearing the watch on the wrist in very cold conditions (today -3 °C) is less battery using than mounted on the handle bar.

I think that the battery usage when using an external sensors (BLE) is less than the measured 4 percent per hour.

[aeroild]

I just did a test with my Suunto 7 running Ghostracer in stand alone mode connected to my Polar OH1 to track HR when I went cross country skiing. In Ghostrace I selected running (running and cycling are the only choices), enabled barometer and external sensor. Screen turned off after a few secs and I activated the screen only 5-6 times during my 1.5 hour exercise. Outside temperature was -10 degrees celsius. Battery usage was around 30 percent, which would mean about 20 percent per hour. In other words, Ghostracer could have recorded about 5 hours of activity before going out of battery. The tests done by @pilleus indicated that it could go even longer. In my opinion, Suunto has no reason not to add support for external sensors!

[isazi]

@brotzfrog10 said in Sunnto 7 Sensor Support:

@Bulkan that’s a completely valid point, but That moderator for whatever reason continued to question the validity of Bluetooth connected hr sensors being more effective then the built in wrist based sensors, especially in certain use cases. For whatever reason. Yet he himself uses the S9 because it allows sensor support so go figure.

My goodness, you either can’t read, or you are a top tier troll. And because I now believe you are a total troll, I’ll avoid wasting my time replying to you.

[brotzfrog10]

@isazi That is fine with me. All you’ve done is be insulting anyway.

[brotzfrog10]

@MavRaven I respect your opinion. As I mentioned in a previous post I feel Suunto missed a huge opportunity by not adding their full Suunto app experience into WearOs. I’m far from the only person to think that. I also get some don’t care if Bluetooth sensor support exists on the watch. That’s fine and I get it. My earlier point was I don’t see adding it putting anyone off from buying it but not having it certainly stops some people from buying it. Now if the architecture of the watch or how Suunto loaded their software on the watch prevents it then so be it. It’s still a big missed opportunity in my opinion (again being clear my opinion).

I agree with you also in regards to sleep tracking. It’s something that google hasn’t developed anything in that vain but with the Fitbit acquisition being finally official maybe they will finally be able to add some of those features into WearOs.

[Brad_Olwin]

@MavRaven I think you nailed it. The target user for the S7 I think will care much more about sleep tracking and 24/7 HR than a belt. I know I do. For what I would want a belt for the battery would not least long enough anyway. Belt support in the current iteration I am not interested in. If Suunto could leverage the smartsensor to sync less often and not reduce battery life anymore than OHR I’d be for it.

[Jamie BG]

@aeroild I think a lot depends on person and activity. Lots of reviewers have noted that when it comes to running/cycling the S7 sensor can do a good job for most people, however same and different people/reviewers have all pretty much noted that strength training, HIIT etc (sharp movements, where HR may elevate/descend dramatically) it isn’t great - but then other than the Apple Watch sensor, most aren’t that good either.

This is why most fitness watches cater for external sensors and the S7 should too.

[Aleksander H]

I compared my S7 to the Polar OH1 doing intervals. For me, it worked. they kept within 1 - 2 beats of each other (I used DCRainmakers tool to compare). Only difference I noticed is that the S7 lagged behind the OH1 by maybe 1 second. So the optical sensor seems pretty good for me. That said, my main issue isn’t the accuracy. It’s the simple fact that I want to be able to wear it over my jacket sleeve during winter which, obviously, prevents any kind of optical heart rate sensor from working.

[aeroild]

@Jamie-BG The internal optical HR sensor works great for me when running and cycling in summertime. My wish is the ability to connect an external sensor during wintertime when I want to see the screen

[Egika]

@Brad_Olwin said in Sunnto 7 Sensor Support:

If Suunto could leverage the smartsensor to sync less often and not reduce battery life anymore than OHR I’d be for it.

And this is something with potential probably!!
The Suunto HR sensor is capable of data storage that will be synced after the activity, when no live data transfer is possible (eg. during swimming).
How about leaving the high power processor in sleep state and only wake it up every 10s or so for a HR data sync.
Possibly the time could be user selectable - some might only want it for analysis after the training. Then only sync HR once when training is stopped. Others might be fine with data every minute etc.

I love this idea that could be even more power saving than wrist heart rate

[Aleksander H]

@Egika Could be “activated” when raising the wrist, much like maps are. That said, I think it would be a bit confusing for people to have to have a specific hrm belt. Or is this kind of thing part of the BLE standard for HRM belts?

[Egika]

@Aleksander-H this is not BTLE spec - but it is a function already built in the Suunto HR belts. So no special needed.

[olymay]

As the weather here in the UK is getting colder and wetter, it would be hugely beneficial for me to have external sensor support, simply so that I can wear the S7 on the outside of my sleeve.

I am also considering getting back into cycling later this year, and it would be nice to mount the S7 on the handlebars.

External sensor support seems like a simple software update (this is just my opinion as I am NOT a software developer) and it is my only real frustration with the S7.

[pilleus]

Because it was discussed here.

Today I did a cardio test on the ergometer. Ten electrodes and cables, measuring all kind of data.

I started my S7 with the activity indoor cycling to have a comparison to the machine of the cardiologist. The doctor was very interested and astonished, that the difference of the Suunto 7 OHR at no point of the test was bigger than 2 bpm.

That’s indeed a great result and worth to report here in the forum.

[Jamie BG]

@pilleus would have been really interesting to have seen the result against something more challenging for the sensor i.e. a HIIT session.
I think based on most peoples experience the optical HR is good for hiking/walking, running and cycling (which will be fine for most) - but doesn’t distract from where an external sensor would be beneficial i.e. cold weather etc, HIIT sessions, swimming (though when I go a chance it looked fine, but difficult to tell as no comparison so basing it on feeling and how my body feels against other activities). etc.

[Brad_Olwin]

@jamie-bg I have dozens of HIIT Interval runs wearing an S7 and S9baro with smartsensor to compare. The S7 OHR does very well and well enough for me that it doesn’t typically matter which I post to Training Peaks. In winter if very cold out the OHR can be less accurate.

[brotzfrog10]

@brad_olwin I’m glad to hear you had success in the numbers matching. Mine wasn’t even close. During a CrossFit workout it was about 20 plus beats behind the Apple Watch 6 and 25 beats behind the H10 chest strap I had on. I would be in the 140s for the Apple Watch and H10 and sitting in the high 110s or low 120s with the Suunto. It was honestly one of the worst I’ve seen. Which doesn’t surprise me given the light arrangement and what appears to be much lower light output compared to the Apple Watch and even the Suunto 5/9.

I’m glad still it worked well for you but reviewing professional testing reviews it doesn’t seem like that’s the case the majority of the time.