help menu

Join us on the Community Forums!

  • Community Guidelines

    The Fitbit Community is a gathering place for real people who wish to exchange ideas, solutions, tips, techniques, and insight about the Fitbit products and services they love. By joining our Community, you agree to uphold these guidelines, so please take a moment to look them over.

  • Learn the Basics

    Check out our Frequently Asked Questions page for information on Community features, and tips to make the most of your time here.

  • Join the Community!

    Join an existing conversation, or start a new thread to ask your question. Creating your account is completely free, and takes about a minute.

Not finding your answer on the Community Forums?

Cancel
Turn on suggestions
Auto-suggest helps you quickly narrow down your search results by suggesting possible matches as you type.
Showing results for 
Show  only  | Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Smart Track vs Bike activity mode HR

Replies are disabled for this topic. Start a new one or visit our Help Center.

‎03-04-2016 10:38 - last edited on ‎04-27-2016 10:57 by Moderator Alum

‎03-04-2016 10:38 - last edited on ‎04-27-2016 10:57 by Moderator Alum

Hi all,

 

Second post of the day while I'm on a roll.

 

I know of the issues around accuracy of the HR monitoring and recording but that aside does anyone in the know have any thoughts on this issue? I've mentioned it occasionally on some HR threads but not sure I understand what's going on.

 

If I cycle with Smart Track as I did the other day the average HR is 105. If I do the same route, same conditions in Bike mode my HR average is 145. I know the latter is the more accurate of the two as its closer to the Polar chest strap but I'm not specifically comparing accuracy with the Polar just now.

 

Why is there such a difference between the two activity modes? I know one is continuous monitoring and the other I think a 5 second average read but surely over a 90 minutes they should end pretty similar? Algorithms are clearly different but should deliver the same result? 

 

  

 

  

Best Answer
0 Votes
3 REPLIES 3

‎03-04-2016 15:00

‎03-04-2016 15:00

Weird. You would think that if Smart Track recognizes a ride, it would switch to 'bicycle HR tracking algorithm' and would be the same. I guess Smart Track isn't so smart, and must stay in a different HR tracking algorithm as its trying to figure out when the ride is over. Wild guess, just talking out loud.

Aria, Fitbit MobileTrack on iOS. Previous: Flex, Force, Surge, Blaze

Best Answer
0 Votes

‎03-06-2016 17:35

‎03-06-2016 17:35

I am pretty sure( perhaps someone can confirm) smart track works in the cloud not the device... This is why you don't see the activity the first time you sync after the activity... But do see thin the second. The activity data is analyzed for patterns after it is loaded to the Fitbit system...

As a result the device won't shift Into higher frequency HR mode since it doesn't 'know you are in an activity.

This all said the huge difference you are seeing surprises me- I guess they did a decent amount of work to optimize for biking HR!
Best Answer
0 Votes

‎03-07-2016 04:05

In response to SunsetRunner

‎03-07-2016 04:05

Hi, thanks for the reply....but I guess I'm still confused at the discrepancy. Surely the Purepulse being a physical device records the HR, an algorithm then translates that and gives us the info. If I took an average over an hour at 5 second intervals and one continuous the actual result at the end should be the same?

Also the HR charts record completely differently throughout the ride... I've no idea why the two are so different!

Best Answer
0 Votes