Surf Tracker2
· v3.15
About
The ORIGINAL Surf Tracker: Track your surfing sessions in real time! This data field estimates the number of waves ridden using speed, time and distance thresholds to mark the start and end of a wave ride. Detailed info: https://forums.garmin.com/developer/connect-iq/f/showcase/521/data-field-surf-tracker
**This is a data field not an App...this means that you add the data field (ConnectIQ - Surf Tracker) into an existing Activity (SUP, Paddle, etc) and set it to 1-field layout (ie. 1 page).
Info shown (left to right):
- the total number of waves ridden and the total wave ride time (minutes:seconds)
- the number of Left and Right wave rides. This is determined using the "Beach Facing Direction" in settings. It is the direction the beach is facing i.e the direction you are facing when looking at the water.
- for your latest wave ride: wave ride time (seconds), maximum speed during the wave ride (km/hr or mph) and the distance covered (meters or yards).
- the numbers in red show the maximum values during the activity for the wave ride time, speed and distance.
- the top line shows the time of day and the bottom line shows the elapsed time.
NOTES:
1) This data field must be used in a 1-field data screen inside an activity (or App). I use an Activity - Other - Paddle, but any activity with GPS ON should work. Open water swim will work but the GPS tracks are noisier since the sampling rate is lower. Some activities will smooth the speed data more than others and will give less accurate results (eg. a walking activity will not work as well as paddling or cycling). Vivoactive users try the Cycling activity, the Run activity will smooth the speed values too much to even out the Pace and this won't work well with the wave detection.
2) The summary stats and a speed/time plots are saved to Garmin Connect once the Activity is ended and saved. The stats from each wave ride can be saved to a text file using the instructions at the bottom of the page (advanced users only, unsupported).
3) This has been tested many times with standup paddle surfing. It has taken a while to get the thresholds working accurately. See the forum link at the top for info on changing the speed, time and distance thresholds using the Garmin Connect Mobile app.
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To save each wave ride to a text file on your device, place a *.TXT file in the /GARMIN/APPS/LOGS folder on your device, where * is the name of the .PRG file in the /GARMIN/APPS folder. Look for a file that is ~12 kilobytes. On my device it is 69SI5820.PRG, so I would create an empty file in /GARMIN/APPS/LOGS/69SI5820.TXT
To find out the filename, uninstall Surf Tracker, make a note of the *.PRG files in the /GARMIN/APPS folder, install Surf Tracker then note which PRG file is new.
Sample output format:
Wave# TimeofDay WaveRideTime(sec) WaveRideMaxSpeed(kph) WaveRideDistance(m)
1 07:26 20 28.8 113.4
I copy and paste the details into the notes section of the activity on Garmin Connect. The file will be appended to until it gets too big (10KB), then it will be overwritten. I had 3 days of sessions saved and it was only 1.8KB
What's new
v3.15 Added FR955
v3.10 updated with SDK4.1.1 and added lots of devices. USE A SINGLE DATA FIELD setup for all except Instinct2 where you should use a 2-field setup.
v3.01 updated with SDK3.1.7 and added new device Venu
v3.00 support for lots of new devices
v2.95 support for new devices
v2.90
- add Beach Facing Detection measurement as a option before hitting START (calibrate compass, then point watch 12 hand at waves, perpendicular to beach, then go to data field page and get a stable/reliable heading, then hit START)
- updated to latest SDK, added permission for using location to fix crash/no data written
v2.80
- add more dir segments to Beach Facing setting. Fix Beach Facing setting output.
Instructions: Set watch compass to True. Stand on the beach and face the water and read the watch compass setting
v2.70
- change RightDir to Beach Facing Direction eg. if you used (N 0 deg) before, use (E +90) deg now
"Beach Facing Direction" the direction the beach is facing i.e the direction you are facing when looking at the water
- fix output of distance for more than 255m (uint16)
ver 2.60
- added support for new watches 645, 645m and Descent Mk1, SDK 2.4.2
ver 2.50
- Added 3 field layout option for all watches. Set up SurfTracker as middle field and use the top/bottom fields for extra fields (eg. sunrise/sunset)
- Added startup screen showing settings (if set as 1 field layout)
- Added output for all App Settings to Garmin Connect
- Added Left/Right wave counter to display and to GC output. Enter approx Right hand direction of wave rides before surfing (eg. South)
- Added speed spike removal for bad GPS data. Enter max allowable speed in settings (eg. 40 kph)