I don't seem to have much luck with HRMs, they just seem to break. I've been bought a nice Garmin HRM Dual (Ant+/Bluetooth) as a gift.
I couldn't get it to connect to my Oregon out of the box but noticed that it would connect to my PC and android devices over Bluetooth. With a quick Google I discovered that reversing the battery to factory reset the unit, so I tried this and it connected to my Oregon straight away.
The problem is that it doesn't seem to send any data, I just get a blank data field and that's it. The Oregon is old and temperamental, so I factory reset it with no effect; I've changed the battery, factory reset the HRM a few times and tried a different strap (from an old HRM) with no change. Strangely Garmin don't provide an Android App to read the Dual and it's not recognised by Garmin Connect (although other Garmin HRMs are) and I haven't been able to find an Android App that'll just display data from a Bluetooth HRM, so I don't know if data is being sent via Bluetooth.
Any ideas of anything else I can try before it goes back?
Strava android app will connect to Bluetooth HRMs
Have you unpaired it from those other devices?
And have you tried wetting the back/inside of the strap where the 4 pads are before fitting it?
Yes, I drenched the pads and tried all sorts but to no avail. Following @tomnavman 's suggestion of using the Strava app and I'm getting the same problems over Bluetooth as I am using Ant+ (so needn't have had the hassle of factory resetting the old Oregon).
I basically get a blank data field on the Oregon with the occasional flicker of a reading before it goes blank again. I've noticed that if I push my thumbs hard into the back of two of the strap pads really hard I might get a reading for slightly longer, but even then in soon returns to a blank field.
I've tried the head unit on an old Wahoo strap and a third party strap with no signs of life, so I don't know if the Dual specifically needs a Garmin strap.
I guess it's faulty and will need to go back (I've spent a fair few hours trying to get it to work). The Wahoo and Decathlon units both worked faultlessly from the off with dry pads, but neither lasted particularly long thereafter. I'm beginning to think that I might just give up on HRMs.
