Troubles with a BLE Heart Rate Monitor and a LG G7

Started by morci, March 07, 2019, 07:32:19 PM

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morci

I have a trusty Geonaute BLE chest strap that works just fine on OruxMaps on an old Honor 7.

Now I'm switching to a LG G7 and I've found no way to have the HRM working.

The strap does work with other apps (like Locus) but with OruxMaps the behaviour is always the same: I get the "connecting..." message, after a while "Connected to Bluetooth device" pops up (so far so good) but after about 5 seconds a new message informs me: "Bluetooth connection lost!  Retrying in 30 seconds".

Now I can wait or restart the HRM monitor, the results does not change: no heart beat is ever acquired.

Suggestions? Similar experiences? Is there a log that I can examine to check what's going wrong?

morci

#1
Update: I bought a cheap strap (this one: https://www.amazon.it/dp/B078715WKZ">https://www.amazon.it/dp/B078715WKZ) and it works (but the measures seem less precise than the geonaute's ones). So it's not the phone, but it's not the old strap either, given that it works with most other apps.

My guess is that the old strap is some kind of slow in sending back data to the app on Oruxmaps uses a timeout that is too short. Or it needs a couple of retries, something that the other apps do and Oruxmaps does not.

In the last few years a bunch of people complained here about Ourxmaps and BLE devices. I do understand these are hard-to-debug issues since they depend on combinations of different factors but I would ask Orux to try the two workarounds I suggested. In the case I'm willing to test the outcome with the old and the new BLE HRMs.

Alternatively I could try, if they exist, some open source BLE HR monitor apps and check if they works. If they do, Orux could try to see what's different with respect to his implementation...

morci

#2
Further update: the new belt does work with my G7 but does not with the Honor 7 (whereas the old belt did): it connects but then it's a stream of disconnection errors.

So, again, it seems very obvious to me that Oruxmaps has issues with BLE Heart Rate Monitors, it did since the feature has been introduced. If you're lucky and you have the right mix of belt/phone it MAY work for you.

Now Orux, I do understand you're getting very little out of this app and as users we probably get much more than you do (a very competent app essentially for free, I bought the donate version but these are still peanuts) but I have to admit that sending bug reports to /dev/null is discouraging. I would rather pay some 20 euros for the app but have someone willing to assist users when they need it.

Just think about my situation right now: I use the app for mountain biking and I need a reliable HRM function. Should I start buying all the cardio belts at Amazon until I find a supported one or should I switch to a different App altogether (which is something I would rather not do since I love Oruxmaps)? Or should I wait for a fix that could never come?