Garmin friends

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Baddogbeanie
Baddogbeanie Posts: 210 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I have the Garmin Vivosmart HR and am looking for connections that like to step. I love a challenge and the more steps you take the more motivated I become. Add me Baddogbeanie and lets step out together...
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Replies

  • CM_73
    CM_73 Posts: 554 Member
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    You're welcome to ad me, but I don't often meet my step target, I use it more for tracking mileage on the bike.

    CM_73 if you want to.
  • davepete57
    davepete57 Posts: 33 Member
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    add me DavePete57
  • Baddogbeanie
    Baddogbeanie Posts: 210 Member
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    Thanks guys, done..
  • kxbrown27
    kxbrown27 Posts: 769 Member
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    Added you.
  • Baddogbeanie
    Baddogbeanie Posts: 210 Member
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    When I look at the challenges and I am not in first place even though realistically I might not be able to do it. It motivates me to try harder.. I walked the graveyard today in the rain twice and got almost 800 steps.. not much but better than none. Thanks for the help.
  • Baddogbeanie
    Baddogbeanie Posts: 210 Member
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    Not sure how accurate my Garmin is when it comes to Calories burned, anyone else question it?
  • kxbrown27
    kxbrown27 Posts: 769 Member
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    Baddogbeanie wrote: »
    Not sure how accurate my Garmin is when it comes to Calories burned, anyone else question it?

    Yeah, which is why I don't use their calorie burn aside from a recorded workout. The "rest of the day" calories I ignore.
    Sometimes they release buggy software. For instance, right now there is an issue with counting stairs climbed. I somehow did 54 flights yesterday on the treadmill. According to the forums I'm not the only one.

    I mainly use to track steps and cardio workouts.
  • Baddogbeanie
    Baddogbeanie Posts: 210 Member
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    Seems like the fitbit is more popular than the Garmin, any reasons why?
  • pooky73
    pooky73 Posts: 11 Member
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    I'm Pooky73
  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,968 Member
    edited November 2016
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    kxbrown27 wrote: »
    For instance, right now there is an issue with counting stairs climbed. I somehow did 54 flights yesterday on the treadmill. According to the forums I'm not the only one.

    It uses a barometric altimeter to work out "stairs" climbed. And the motion sensor. Basically, the air gets thinner as you go up higher, that's why jets are pressurized and why most people need oxygen tanks to climb Mt Everest. Problem is, the air pressure changes for other reasons too, like weather. This isn't a Garmin bug, it's how all barometric altimeters work. Garmin uses some clever programming like they'll assume the pressure is changing because of weather (not stairs) if it doesn't detect any steps. But if you're walking while a front is coming through, the thing will get confused, it just doesn't have enough info to sort everything out, and its approximations work most of the time but break down occasionally.

    I don't know if that's what you're experiencing or not. But the other day I hit my upstairs goal walking down the stairs. Today I met it on flat ground. There's a storm passing through and the air pressure has been falling like a rock.
  • Briantime
    Briantime Posts: 175 Member
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    Add me: Briantime

    Bought mine to support my efforts running and am very impressed with it. I have the Vivoactive
  • kxbrown27
    kxbrown27 Posts: 769 Member
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    NorthCascades wrote: »
    kxbrown27 wrote: »
    For instance, right now there is an issue with counting stairs climbed. I somehow did 54 flights yesterday on the treadmill. According to the forums I'm not the only one.

    It uses a barometric altimeter to work out "stairs" climbed. And the motion sensor. Basically, the air gets thinner as you go up higher, that's why jets are pressurized and why most people need oxygen tanks to climb Mt Everest. Problem is, the air pressure changes for other reasons too, like weather. This isn't a Garmin bug, it's how all barometric altimeters work. Garmin uses some clever programming like they'll assume the pressure is changing because of weather (not stairs) if it doesn't detect any steps. But if you're walking while a front is coming through, the thing will get confused, it just doesn't have enough info to sort everything out, and its approximations work most of the time but break down occasionally.

    I don't know if that's what you're experiencing or not. But the other day I hit my upstairs goal walking down the stairs. Today I met it on flat ground. There's a storm passing through and the air pressure has been falling like a rock.

    But I was indoors, in a climate controlled room. I'm no meteorologist but I find it hard to believe the barometric pressure would change enough to count 54 flights of stairs in 30 minutes. Also, many people on the Garmin forums are experiencing the same thing. It just started happening after most recent software update. One user said they brought it to tech support and was told it was a known issue being worked on.

    Most of the time Garmin puts out good software updates but occasionally something like this comes up and is a disaster. It's calculating calories burned based on stairs I didn't climb.
  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,968 Member
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    I could surely be a bug, but being indoors doesn't rule out changing air pressure. Especially in fall and winter when air pressure is more volatile. Here's a thread on a hiking forum where people are using the error in their watches to measure the severity of a storm.

    For sure, Garmin makes software with bugs too. IMy Fenix 3 usually does a good job with this, but the last several days it's been very wonky, and in my case that's because over the past few days the sea-level pressure has fallen from 1,019 mb to 1,000.2. When I've stopped moving, the storm alarm has come on a few times.
  • Baddogbeanie
    Baddogbeanie Posts: 210 Member
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    Briantime wrote: »
    Add me: Briantime

    Bought mine to support my efforts running and am very impressed with it. I have the Vivoactive

    I tried but you are set to private, try to add me Baddogbeanie
  • Baddogbeanie
    Baddogbeanie Posts: 210 Member
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    Briantime wrote: »
    Add me: Briantime

    Bought mine to support my efforts running and am very impressed with it. I have the Vivoactive

    Got your challeng and accepted and added a few people.. thanks, love challenges.
  • laffercat
    laffercat Posts: 902 Member
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    I have the original vivofit. Its been wonky the past few weeks, setting my step goal at over 30,000 steps everyday. Needless to say I have not met that goal. :p
    Anyway I like challenges if anyone wants to add me its LeighAnnFrye.
  • BayleighPaws
    BayleighPaws Posts: 24 Member
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    I'm BayleighPaws. None of my friends have a garmin so I am looking for some friendly competition! and motivation!
  • willie0915
    willie0915 Posts: 6 Member
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    How do I add anyone to garmin friends
  • Tacklewasher
    Tacklewasher Posts: 7,122 Member
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    Baddogbeanie wrote: »
    Not sure how accurate my Garmin is when it comes to Calories burned, anyone else question it?

    You have the Vivosmart. I gave up on mine and my wife now uses it just to count steps. Software for that one is particularly bad.

    Have a Vivoactive now and it seems much more accurate when compared to a chest strap. Still over but only by about 20-25%.

    Have no clue on the Gamin Friends thing though. I'm just not a friendly person :)
  • rks581
    rks581 Posts: 99 Member
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    I just got a Polar H7 heart rate belt and, if it's placed directly at heart level, the belt is within about 5 bpm of the watch. The belt is always higher. That belt doesn't sync with the Vivoactive... the Polar belt is Bluetooth and 5 kHz Polar. Garmin's belt is ANT+ and Bluetooth. The Vivoactive uses ANT+, smartphones use Bluetooth mostly, and gym equipment (older stuff anyway) largely uses 5 kHz. Because I want that magic heart rate detection on cardio equipment, I'm ok with being able to use the Polar belt without the (already accurate) watch.

    Feel free to add me, I may not talk much though. My name is the same as on here. I'm under my step goal a lot this winter but, hey, I won the 5k step challenge twice!

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