Heart rate readings collected in "continuous" bursts with errors
I get some strange heart rate readings from Notify. I'm using Android Pie with a Mi Band 4.
STRANGE RESULTS
Below is the sort of result I get on Notify. As you can see, the readings in one group of 4 are one second apart and the groups are about 1 or 2 minutes apart. Sometimes one group of readings is just completely different to a reading taking a minute or two earlier and must be incorrect.
79,78,77,77, 95,94,94,94, 76,76,75,74, 95,94,94,94, 86,86,86,85
See screenshot at https://i.postimg.cc/vTXgBKD9/4lo-4hi-4lo-4hi-4lo-continuous.jpg
102,102,101,101
79,78,78,79
See screenshot at https://i.postimg.cc/qvNhJjrh/4ho-4lo-continuous.jpg
142,141,141,141, 71,71,71,71
See screenshot at https://i.postimg.cc/pTfnNrHs/142-141-141-141-71-71-71-71.jpg
SETTINGS
In Notify, I use a 5 MINUTE interval and never use CONTINUOUS monitoring.
The Mi Fit app's heart rate monitor is OFF (although I also get strange results with it on).
I used various heart rate settings on Notify ("Mi Fit only", "Notify only" and "both") but get these results on all of them.
I tried with and without "Improve Results" on Notify and also with and without "Track Activities".
WHAT'S WRONG?
The Mi Fit app's own chart records heart rate as expected, even though the Mi Fit heart rate monitor setting is OFF! Presumably this means the Mi Band 4 is working okay and there's no hardware fault.
What's going on? Unfortunately, I can't fix this by filtering out bad high or low readings because they're within my normal range.
Does anyone else ever get this or is it just me? Any advice? Anyone, please?
Comments
I am the original poster. Since I posted my qiestion, I have noticed there's an old thread which discusses some of the same issues.
http://forum.mibandnotify.com/discussion/352/heart-monitoring-while-sleeping/p1
There is also this thread too:
http://forum.mibandnotify.com/discussion/456/continuous-heart-monitoring-bug
This problem does nto seem to be due to a faulty Mi Band. I tried a new Mi Band 4 and it had the same problems as described above. The app seems to be doing something strange.
Does anyone have any futher observations?
I have sort of solved this by doing the following:
(1) In Notify, I disabled all data collection for heart rate. This means having the setting for "heart rate monitor" OFF. For what it's worth, I have the "Heart Rate Monitor Mode" set to "Use Mi Band only" but this setting should not make a difference as the Notify Heart Rate Monitor is switched off.
(2) In the Mi Fit app, I have set "Heart Rate Detection" to "Automatic Heart Rate Detection" and I choose a time interval of 5 minutes. The time interval is chosen here and not in the Notify app.
At times, this doesn't work and I get those rapid multiple data reports for each time the heart rate is measured, which I mention above. When this happens, I "force stop" the Mi Fit app in Android's "App Info" menu and sometimes I will also use the "re-pair" option in the Notify app. It's a bit hit and miss.
I have the impression the Mi Band stores instructions and that the Mi Fit app and Notify can each overwrite one other's instructions. Somewhere in the Notify help text, it says Notify can't access stored readings on Mi Band but my experience seems to suggest it can,
It's still a bit of a mystery to me and any comments or observations would be welcome.
I too have noticed this. I need the hr tracker on for sleep.
I assumed that Notify was getting a series of multiple reading to ensure that the readings were correct. A self check so to s pl eack (other apps do this) and then just present 1 measurement.