Blaze Bluetooth on/off toggle

[mbrett]

Does the Fitbit Blaze have a toggle in settings to turn bluetooth on and off?

This would be much appreciated as more and more companies a not permitting users to wear trackers with bluetooth permanently on at work. This is the same for many military installations across the world.

[Mckay1985]

Ok this makes sense cos I have my set to a walk today not a run....I walk and run could I still set it to a run if I walk during it too?

[mbrett]

Yes. The only downside is the it will be recorded as a slow run on the
Fitbit service.

[Mckay1985]

That's ok.....do you believe the blaze is pretty accurate??

Sent from my iPhone

[mbrett]

Yes, although I use a Surge.

[Rich_Laue]

I'm going to jump back up to the previous conversation.

The voice cues will only work when using the the apps GPS tracking function. It doesnt work with the Blaze because the app is not monitoring the GPS, but just sending data points to the Blaze. It Is on the Blaze than the processing and storing of the walk happens.

You mention arm movements may cause extra step, to limit this you can make sure the tracker is set for dominant arm. This setting helps weed out false steps. The pronlem comes from the fact yhe the tracker is mounted on the atm, and therefore is only able to look at arm motions. So wh3n an arm motion looks like you might be walking then  it is b possible to get steps.  To help combat this Fitbit does wait until it sees 5 consecutive steps before starting to count. That does v nit mean you lose those five. When it sees that 5th strp it starts counting at 5. Therefore 4 steps then stop, = no steps, 6 steps then stop = 6 steps. 

[Baltoscott]

---

@Mckay1985 wrote:
Is it true than the first 5 steps you take won't be counted if you say walk five steps then stop but if you carry on to the 6th step they will start getting counted and the 6 steps will also be added on too??

---

Pretty much.  

My experience the One, the HR, and the Blaze is that if you walk 3-5 steps and then stop, the step count will not increase. But if you keep going to 10 steps, say, and then stop, 9 or 10 will be counted.  It is really very hard to get the counter to stop on a particular number, but I was in a challenge where I was trying to make poker hands out of my step counts, so I practiced.  Just did a couple tests with the Blaze and I can get it to start counting at 4 steps sometimes, and usually at 5 steps (meaning that if I go just 3 and sometimes 4 steps nothing gets counted, but if go more, it all gets counted).  

Anyway, the reason for all of this is that fitbit algorithm is trying to sort random movement out of your step count, and one of indications of really walking is that normally you do it continuously for a while, as opposed to moving a few times in random ways.  

[Julia_G]

@Baltoscott and @Rich_Laue , thank you for that information on the Fitbit step algorithm!  I did not know that.  Very helpful to learn.

[Mckay1985]

Baltoscott thank you m. I had a Fitbit HR and it use to count the steps every step I took...eg 234 then 235 235 236 etc and now my blaze is sooo time lapsed it adds them all up in one bolus or counts like 345, 347,349 etc..... Do I need to take mine back and replace it???

[Baltoscott]

---

@Mckay1985 wrote:
Baltoscott thank you m. I had a Fitbit HR and it use to count the steps every step I took...eg 234 then 235 235 236 etc and now my blaze is sooo time lapsed it adds them all up in one bolus or counts like 345, 347,349 etc..... Do I need to take mine back and replace it???

---

@Mckay1985 -- It is probably OK.  Are you looking at the screen on the Blaze when you say that it is too time lapsed? If so, I've noticed the step count screen on the Blaze does not seem to update as fast as, say, looking at the screen on the app of your phone while you are walking. Nothing wrong it; It is still counting.  Sync it with your iPhone so that it says "connected."  Then walk about 10 steps.  The phone count will probably start moving when you get 7 or 8 steps into it.  The screen on the Blaze won't show movement until just before the screen times out.  At least that is what happens with mine.  

[Mckay1985]

So when I look at my blaze screen it's so time lapsed and so is the Fitbit app on my phone...I found this didn't happen on my HR. Also Iv put it as dominant as this may under exaggerate my steps as I feel like ther over exaggerated at the moment. Just wish I felt it was more accurate. Even the caleries shows I burn 2500 a day on an average of doing 13000 steps. I weigh 74kg and 171cm tall.

[Rich_Laue]

You could use a BMR chart to check the calorie burn.
My Blaze display does seem to not have a very fast refresh rate, but then neither does the Surge or Charge, Charge HR, or One. They all continue to count, if only to catch up, when i stop walking,
If you want to check the step accuracy do a atep count test. Take a walk while counting the steps in your head, then compare.

[Milo19]

My blaze bluetooth is always switching itself off, anyone know how I can stop this, soooo annoying.

[Julia_G]

Hi, @Milo19 , it is not possible to turn off the Bluetooth on the Blaze, so I think something else must be happening.  Can you descrive in more detail what problems you are having?  Is the Blaze itself switching off?  

[Milo19]

Whenever I go into settings my bluetooth says "off" I have to tap the screen for it to say "pair". Sometimes I get text notifications other times I don't that is when I look into settings to find bluetooth is off. I can't find away of locking it to pair.

Thanks for getting back to me.

Irene

[Milo19]

Hi, it appears my blaze is swichting bluetooth off, anyone know how I can stop this please, thanks

[Julia_G]

Hi, @Milo19 , your Blaze can't switch the bluetooth off on your phone. Something else is going on.

[Milo19]

Any ideas as to what could be altering bluetooth to "off" "pair" because I can't think why it is doing it.

[Milo19]

No Julie it is not switching it off on my phone, blaze bluetooth is the one that switches off by its self.

[Rich_Laue]

@Milo19, which Bluetooth are you referring to? Bluetooth Low Energy or Bluetooth Classic.
On the phone or the Blaze?
I've noticed when the Bluetooth Classic loses connection to the phone the only states it shows is pair and off.
My thought is when the Blaze loses connection for a long enough period, the BT Classic turns off. Putting it in pair allows the phone to connect, then it switched to on.
At least that is what I thought, until this past week.

This week it seems that I can leave the Blaze at home, go with the Surge or Charge HR, come home, pick up the Blaze and control the music. This tells me the Blaze is able to communicate and the BTLE must be on.
The only difference I know is the App has been changed.

Do I have an answer that can really help you? Maybe not, other than making sure the Fitbit app is up to date.

[Julia_G]

Glad to see @Rich_Laue stepping in here to help. But just to be clear, it is not possible to turn Bluetooth off on the Blaze. If it is off, it must be off on the phone, not the Blaze