• When using Heart Rate Monitoring on the Health app, does it pause HRM readings whenever the watch is motionless (e.g. set on a table) and the accelerometer goes into idle/low-power standby mode?

    As far as I can tell from reading the Health app's boot.js, there's no attempt to pause HRM readings when motionless. I've tried searching these forums and didn't find any remarks on it, either. But I may be missing something in the underlying Espruino firmware.

    Aside: Yesterday, I got my Bangle.js 2, and so far, it's been fantastic! Thank you to everyone who has contributed.

  • My question is: Why should it pause? Without any human body under the sensor it will not give any HRM event and with it no HRM reading.

  • Good point!

    My reason for wanting it to pause is to conserve battery whenever I take the watch off for a while. If the trigger to try to read isn't fired or the power impact of trying without a body under the sensor is negligible when the watch isn't worn, I'm happy with the current behavior.

  • http://www.espruino.com/Bangle.js2#power­-consumption says that power consumption of HRM is +0.7mA. Health does turn in on for 3 minutes, it is probably even less since the LED is not constantly on. I would say its not a big deal.

  • The Health app doesn't turn off the HRM when the watch is motionless, BUT the HRM itself (in Bangle.js 2) detects when it's not in contact with the skin and goes into a low power mode (you'll see if doesn't flash green unless it's very close to your skin) - so actually the power consumption is tiny if the Bangle is just sitting on your desk.

  • Ah, that makes sense why I couldn't see any code for this - it's implemented at a lower level (hardware or HRM integrated firmware). That's pretty cool.

    Thank you for explaining!

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Does Health app pause HRM when watch is motionless (like accelerometer)?

Posted by Avatar for digitalcircuit @digitalcircuit

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