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Garmin Connect services were down

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Re: Garmin Connect services were down

#21

Post by [deleted] »

vincnetas wrote: post #15
hbbio wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unlike the Apple Watch, or Fitbit (Google), the Garmin watches function properly without being tethered to a phone. You can setup a watch without a phone and without ever activating the online services. They are here only for backup and additional features like social sharing. You can also backup locally with open source software if you want. That's why I chose one and it's one of the best products I ever had.

This makes me wanna buy from garmin. Do they embrace opensource tools or are they reverse engineered and Garmin just does not fight them?

[deleted]

Re: Garmin Connect services were down

#22

Post by xattt »

briandear wrote: post #16
redleader55 wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Last time this happened, there were two effects: on one hand people making fun of not being able to upload their activities to Strava and on the other hand, and more seriously, people not being able to use their aviation navigation systems. Can someone comment if the Garmin aviation devices are affected?

Garmin glass cockpits don’t depend on Garmin services at all. Perhaps updating charts but that’s a monthly thing generally and it’s not done while airborne. The “not FAA approved” isn’t a thing — there are devices that go in uncertified (experimental) aircraft, but those also don’t depend on live connections to Garmin services.

How would an aircraft be able to reliably “stream in” maps while in flight?

That argument makes no sense, other than a red herring saying “durr, glass cockpit bad”.

Re: Garmin Connect services were down

#23

Post by tallanvor »

mvdtnz wrote: post #4
0x000042 wrote: post #2

All Garmin Connect services are currently down. This affects most (all?) Garmin fitness products such as the popular Fenix watches. The Garmin Connect app seems to be completely useless without the Garmin Connect servers being up. It is not even possible to see local data on the phone. I guess this also means that at some point in the future when Garmin discontinues the servers an enormous amount of watches becomes u…

My Connect app (Android) still shows current steps, heart rate data, body battery etc. Only the online portions are affected.

Yeah, it seems they've finally added some local caching to the app. Previously when their services were down the Connect app was completely useless, but now even though the graphs aren't updating, I can still see a lot of information.

Re: Garmin Connect services were down

#24

Post by jimmydoe »

hbbio wrote: post #8
teleforce wrote: post #5

All wearable devices should implement local-host functionality and capability by default, failure to do so it's not acceptable from the perspective of Murphy's Law [1], [2]. [1] Local-first software: https://localfirstweb.dev/ [2] Murphy's law: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murphy%27s_law

Unlike the Apple Watch, or Fitbit (Google), the Garmin watches function properly without being tethered to a phone. You can setup a watch without a phone and without ever activating the online services. They are here only for backup and additional features like social sharing. You can also backup locally with open source software if you want. That's why I chose one and it's one of the best products I ever had.

great, hopefully they stay so after a reminder like this.

Re: Garmin Connect services were down

#25

Post by zackangelo »

truefossil wrote: post #19
teleforce wrote: post #5

All wearable devices should implement local-host functionality and capability by default, failure to do so it's not acceptable from the perspective of Murphy's Law [1], [2]. [1] Local-first software: https://localfirstweb.dev/ [2] Murphy's law: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murphy%27s_law

I remember that some Garmin employees gave talks on CRDTs at some event. That was 2015 or 2016, so I can not recall any details.

Was it at Strangeloop by any chance? I think I remember that talk too!

Re: Garmin Connect services were down

#26

Post by blackbear_ »

0x000042 wrote: post #2

All Garmin Connect services are currently down. This affects most (all?) Garmin fitness products such as the popular Fenix watches. The Garmin Connect app seems to be completely useless without the Garmin Connect servers being up. It is not even possible to see local data on the phone. I guess this also means that at some point in the future when Garmin discontinues the servers an enormous amount of watches becomes u…

> an enormous amount of watches becomes useless worldwide

Not necessarily, some (many?) of these watches are usable without being connected to a phone. Besides being a funcional watch, including timers and alarms, all the fitness tracking and activity recording features work fine, even those that use GPS, at least on my Venu 2.

Re: Garmin Connect services were down

#27

Post by stevesimmons »

vincnetas wrote: post #15
hbbio wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unlike the Apple Watch, or Fitbit (Google), the Garmin watches function properly without being tethered to a phone. You can setup a watch without a phone and without ever activating the online services. They are here only for backup and additional features like social sharing. You can also backup locally with open source software if you want. That's why I chose one and it's one of the best products I ever had.

This makes me wanna buy from garmin. Do they embrace opensource tools or are they reverse engineered and Garmin just does not fight them?

I've just started exploring analysing runs from my Garmin watch. In summary:

- Attach watch to laptop via USB-C -> opens like a USB drive, showing all the config and activity data files. You aren't locked into Garmin Connect or Strava or any other platform.

- You can also use the Garmin Connect API and go via the web service. I tried that first. But since discovering the raw data is available directly on the watch, I don't anymore.

- Activity data files are in the FIT format. Garmin has an SDK on GitHub in languages including Python, C# and a few others. I've tried the Python one.

- There are a couple of projects on GitHub for decoding FIT files. I've just started writing my own as I want to output modern Pydantic models. (And the Python code in the Garmin SDK is not the most efficient or idiomatic).

I've had my Garmin watch for 10 months now, and rate it as my best ever purchase for improving my fitness and performance, and for overall motivation to be more active. Having easy access to the raw data files is a huge bonus that I didn't originally consider.

Re: Garmin Connect services were down

#28

Post by jagermo »

maxerickson wrote: post #13
teleforce wrote: post #5

All wearable devices should implement local-host functionality and capability by default, failure to do so it's not acceptable from the perspective of Murphy's Law [1], [2]. [1] Local-first software: https://localfirstweb.dev/ [2] Murphy's law: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murphy%27s_law

The watches don't need the server to function (I'm wearing one), which seems to satisfy what you are saying. I think the only major impact is that "coached" activities won't be available, but everything else in the watches works without a network connection. Data history isn't hugely available on the watch either, but that's just an inconvenience.

same. All of the data should still be stored on the watch and the app, since that works local via Bluetooth. Sync to other services like strava or trainingpeaks should happen once the services are online. Even the external sync on the watches should work, i just updated my deezer playlist on my epix 2 without issues and with connect down.

It might be annoying, but it still works. Without a note in the app, i would not have noticed.

Re: Garmin Connect services were down

#29

Post by speedgoose »

vincnetas wrote: post #15
hbbio wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unlike the Apple Watch, or Fitbit (Google), the Garmin watches function properly without being tethered to a phone. You can setup a watch without a phone and without ever activating the online services. They are here only for backup and additional features like social sharing. You can also backup locally with open source software if you want. That's why I chose one and it's one of the best products I ever had.

This makes me wanna buy from garmin. Do they embrace opensource tools or are they reverse engineered and Garmin just does not fight them?

I got one for Christmas. The OS is a bit unique and very much not open source.

They let you develop apps with an API and a proprietary programming language called Monkey C that looks a bit more like JavaScript / ActionScript. It runs in a bespoke VM that has been reverse engineered but I don’t think anyone ported another programming language or LLVM to it.

There is a small open source community.

Overall it’s not that different than developing open source apps for Apple, but with much fewer people.

Re: Garmin Connect services were down

#30

Post by jdblair »

vincnetas wrote: post #15
hbbio wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unlike the Apple Watch, or Fitbit (Google), the Garmin watches function properly without being tethered to a phone. You can setup a watch without a phone and without ever activating the online services. They are here only for backup and additional features like social sharing. You can also backup locally with open source software if you want. That's why I chose one and it's one of the best products I ever had.

This makes me wanna buy from garmin. Do they embrace opensource tools or are they reverse engineered and Garmin just does not fight them?

To answer your question, there is no "embrace of opensource tools" and I'm not aware of any in existence. They could exist, I haven't looked for them.

Here's a quick writeup of my experience:

I'm a very happy Garmin customer. I'm on my 2nd watch, a Venu 3. My favorite feature: the battery lasts multiple days, usually a week, w/o a charge (depending on how I use it).

The watch provides access to its flash storage using MTP (Media Transfer Protocol). This allows me to access the contents and update the music on it using my Linux computer.

I manage the other watch features (tap-to-pay, custom watchfaces, apps) using the Garmin Connect and Garmin IQ app on an Android phone. These are not open source, and I don't know of clones.

The watch UI itself is a pretty clunky, menu-driven design. It took quite a bit of tweaking to configure it to my tastes, but the combination of "glances" and "shortcuts" let me access the features I want within a few swipes, taps, or button presses.

Configuring apps and custom watchfaces requires internet access, as these use javascript-based applets running on your phone inside the Garmin app to do the configuration. This is annoying. Everything else works offline, or with a bluetooth connection to an offline phone (for example, I have a habit of changing the time to my destination timezone when I'm on a flight, this works once I update the timezone on my phone with no internet).

There is a desktop Garmin program for updating firmware, but it is terrible. It is designed to work with every Garmin product (not just watches) and has a definite "design by committee" feel. Luckily, I don't need it. I think I would need to use it if I had one of the larger watches that supports offline maps.

The features I use the most:

- the clock

- sports tracking, step & stair tracking

- tap-to-pay (this is so nice)

- pulse

- the compass (sometimes I just want a cardinal direction when I'm disoriented)

The sleep tracking is interesting, though I don't need it (mostly it says I don't sleep enough).

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