Discussion: Garmin AR mode

Next step for Garmin - create a watch that runs this (for ~100 hours) that doesn't cost the better part of a mortgage payment...

Mark L used this in our race on Saturday.

It is just Beta now so I suspect it will be available for more (including lower-end) watches in the not too distant future.

I got 36 hours out of my 745 and Mark said he has gotten 70+ out of the Enduro. Neither of which are cheap watches though. I was fortunate enough to get the 745 for >60% off.

Interesting and useful for Orienteering as well.

But Adventure Racing mode might be a bit of a misnomer as to me it's more of a racing mode. To me an Adventure Racing mode would last a long time and it would be cool if it could record multiple sports--the likes of biking, paddling and running/trekking, i.e. the common Adventure Racing disciplines.

I used the Garmin Enduro in Exp Oregon at 1 sec GPS accuracy with full HR data and a custom power mode that I created to minimize consumption. The watch lasted just under 102 hours without a recharge. I also customized one of the hot keys to allow me to switch activities so I have split times for each discipline and all the TAs as well.

Should access to a GPS-corrected altimeter and a GPS-based compass also be disallowed in Adventure Race mode? On a normal high-end Garmin unit with a barometric altimeter, the GPS altitude data is being used to constantly correct the changes in pressure due to approaching weather. This gives it an advantage over a regular ABC (altimeter, barometer, compass) dumb watch, in that the wearer never has to worry about drift due to weather.

Does a Garmin Edge cycling computer locked in a similar AR mode, that only shows GPS-calculated distance and speed, now qualify as an approved improvement on the mud-prone magnet-in-the-spokes cycle computer we now use?

Dan, the AR mode removes any gps correction and gives you the functionality to manually adjust.

I used AR mode for Nationals, BUT, stowed it in my pack because I didn't have the confidence that it wouldn't turn off and thus DQ our team. Mike made it very clear that while it's hard to stop the watch, a team would be DQd if it did. After having it in my pack, I am confident that I could use AR mode in the future.

We used Garmin AR mode during Nationals with Erl's Enduro watch. I was a bit nervous but he wore it on his wrist and it worked great. He liked the front screen that also showed time of day.

@silky, Not sure if this would have come up in WI, but do you know if you have access to barometric altimeter in AR mode? That would be the ideal AR watch setup I think (long battery, time of day and altimeter)

Never mind, this was addressed in the DC rainmaker review - yes, you get time of day, time elapsed, altimeter and HR (gotta monitor those training zones!)

Haha yes we joked at one point where we were a bit unsure of location about “hey Erl check the altimeter” but obvi it didn’t help in WI.

my first experience using it on Fenix6 was great until the battery ran out after 20h23m, in spite of starting fully charged with "59h" battery life.