Hi All,
Just sharing what I have found thus far to get my Ionic to match the Polar H10 strap. My workouts consist of an indoor rower (concept II) and fast walking, half of which is all at varying degrees of incline all up hill out doors in one direction. On my walks I return the same way I came so half down hill as well. My heart rate according to the Polar H10 ranges between say 115 and 156 depending on how steep the incline is up/down hill.
When I exercise indoors I have to use the generic "workout" exercise since there is no indoor rower option. As long as the Ionic stays stable and snug against my arm it matches pretty much exactly the H10 for rowing.
On outdoor walks I was using the "walk" exercise mode. This showed serious inaccuracies when in certain areas. In short I tried a lot of things and in the end abandoned the "walk" exercise altogether. When I used the generic "workout" exercise for my walks it matched the H10, again, nearly perfectly. I also use a wrist sweat band to keep the watch from coming loose while my arms are swinging. I use the band for rowing as well. So here is the workaround:
1) Use the generic workout exercise mode.
2) Loosen the Ionic strap enough to push it up the width of the wrist sweat band. Pull the strap of the ionic snug but not overly tight to make it restrict blood flow or make it uncomfortable but enough to keep it from moving. Use the sweat band to keep it in place even when swinging your arms.
This is not a solution because I'd like the altimeter and GPS to work on my walks but my main concern is to get accurate feedback as to what my heart rate is when I walk . Note I don't do intervals or much like that, but the nature plateaus and incline changes along my route do something of the kind anyway and it tracks the H10 well through out. I only had one place where I have to stop and open/close a gate that the Ionic heart rate measurement starts climbing a bit where the H10 (and I feel) that my heart rate is steady. But it is short and only in that one instance where there is a major change. On another walk this behavior was not exhibited.
Speculation: Why is this behavior happening? For Fitbit technical people I offer the following speculation:
1) Using all the sensors, altimeter, GPS, and heart rate saps the processing power of the low power CPU such that it can't keep up and makes errors.
2) The algorithm is different in the two workout modes where the walking mode is flawed.
Suggestion: Add a custom workout mode that we as users can build by choosing sensors used (GPS, ambient light, altimeter and anything else that's relevant) and algorithm (walking, workout, running, etc ...). Also perhaps a custom algorithm where the user can play with parameters such as filter time constants/coefficients and the like (engineer here).
Hope this helps anyone who has been frustrated by not being able to get the accurate heart rate feedback you are looking for.
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