Messages

I was not able to reestablish connectivity by clearing data and cache of various apps / services as you suggested. While before that action Locus itself still worked with the old version, now it also has no more connection to the phone-counterpart.
The phone Wear OS app (of course, after deleting its data) does not know the watch any longer and it cannot be re-registered there too. So only possibility would be to do the watch reset / reinstallation as it seems.

I guess I will wait for next-gen now for that, sell the old one. As it happens snapdragon 3100 was presented today.
Lets see how fast new models are available, and for what prices..

Nice to hear there would be another fix ready, however I currently dont get it on the watch.

No problem with Locus probably, just Wear OS (again) got into some strange state. I put on WiFi and Bluetooth on the phone, Bluetooth on the watch, but it shows on the watch that it is not connected in Bluetooth settings, and crossed cloud symbol. Turning off/on Bluetooth did not help on both sides, even re-connecting. Wear App on the phone shows connection, it can do a screenshot or error report, so somehow the connection is there. But no connection in play store to get updates.
If someone has an idea what I could try else.. I currently dont plan to again completely reset the watch and start everything from scratch. That Wear OS really is still not very mature..

As for button switch map/dashboard by button3-long-press: works!
Just two details that could be improved:
1. whenever you switch back to dashboard it starts with first page again, page where you left is not remembered (that is the same if switching is done using touchscreen)
2. following the switch after a long-press there always is a button3 short/normal press recognized, too - that means going to dashboard you always go to page 2 at the moment (and if last page would be remembered it would spoil that), or everytime going to map an unintended zoom-out follows. Should be possible to suppress that short-button-event.

But thanks again until here, it gets better and better.

Putting the map/dashboard switch on a button long-press sounds perfect, just did not think about that possibility. Looking forward to get it on lower button (button 3 / second user button as it seems to be called).
Short press -> scroll through dashboard, long press -> go to map (and back).

Btw. which watches have 4+ buttons? I have never seen one with more than 3.

When I wrote about configurable I just had in mind a simple switch to decide about button 3 to switch dashboard pages or between map/dashboard. Of course, a fully flexible user configuration about every detail of (e.g. button-)handling is always best, and everyone who really wants/needs something will gladly go through a bit of configuration, be it on the watch or the phone. But also of course thats nothing with a high prio, and at least for me with 3 buttons (altogether) there currently seems to be no further need for such a thing, if the above noted switching will be implemented. It might be more interesting then for people with only one or two buttons to decide themselves what to do with them.

OK, got the beta.
At first I always had bluetooth connection error messages. As not everyone has auto-updates active on the phone: it should be noted that next to the Locus app on the watch also the counterpart on the phone "Wear for Locus" needs a (probably beta) update. And I also had to kill Locus app on the phone to get the new version active, at least only after that everything worked on the watch (Wear OS 1.5 / Home app 2.15).

I did not yet try in a real activity, but from what I can see sitting on the couch, all interesting data can now be configured to the dashboard, and the 4 pages should be enough for all one needs. The one page with only two and thus slightly bigger fonts should be helpful for running / being able to read it while running.

I am just (really) missing one thing: you still cannot switch between map and dashboard using a button, a third button (if existing) that is. Without this, the app cannot be used touch-less. The third button is currently used redundantly in both dashboard (switching pages can also be done with rotating the main button) and map (zooming can be done with rotating) - provided the main button is rotatable of course.
And even if you prefer a button press over turning for switching pages, one direction is enough to easily reach the 4 pages (of course that does not apply to the zoom).
Any chance this can get configurable? (so the one single option in new configuration dialog is no longer that lonely - btw. I wont use this, the Q Explorist does not have its own HR, so I hope the dashboard element will show HR from the phone as long as this option is unused.

Thanks for the update.
If I find new aspects in real use I will check back.

[Edit: of course in dashboard there _is_ only one button to switch pages, the other one is used for pause/start/stop - no idea why I always get confused with this. But it could be used to switch to map as main button rotation can switch dashboard pages, that stays the point.
HR from phone (from belt connected to phone) was shown correctly.
Energy value stays zero all the time (probably on the phone too where I do not have it in the dashboard). At the beginning I always had an energy value in my .tcx tracks, but since quite some time this field is no longer set there, probably the same thing. Dont know how it was calculated when it still was. ]

Oops - seems I not really tested that Sorry! (got the touch-lock usable just shortly before and no occasion for real use yet; yes I also found a lock-function in the standard system settings now, but indeed not very practical).

So yes, turning the button does scroll and zoom - nice. But the other buttons do the same (except some start/pause as it seems in dashboard). I would prefer one button to switch between map and dashboard. And another maybe toggle between current position (in map) and advance a bit in current direction or so - maybe to near the border of the map depending on current zoom level - just an idea. Given this, nearly all functions (except moving map freely) could be used completely touch-less, right?

In the system settings of Explorist, I only find the possibility to put apps to start on the additional buttons. So nothing configurable that could possibly have influence on button use in apps like Locus. The Wear OS itself does not use the buttons very well: turning the main button also scrolls through settings e.g., but nothing can be selected by button. So no button-only use possible there.

[touch-lock]

As for my problem with unwanted touch-events with sleeves and/or when sweating.. (also occurred in the mountains recently as soon as there was some rain and putting on a jacket) - there is one solution: display-lock (or to be precise touch-lock).

With the Bubble-app, you can have such a function (even if the app is quite huge / lots of functionality, nothing else of which I use): a long press on the main button locks display, another long press unlocks.
There is such an option in the Bubble config - and another option in advanced config to disable fallback to deactivate the lock by screen (not a good idea I think - but introduced because of the following problem: for a while the Google app, which is on that long-press by default, spoiled everything by putting a dialog in between to choose Google or Bubble - thus making it impossible to deactivate the lock again - but since Google app version 8.4 this is fixed).

Of course, it would be very nice, if Locus Wear app would support some button navigation then (I am sure any app can react to button events - if they exist - the Q Explorist has 3 buttons and the main button can be turned). Like:
- turning button to scroll between dashboard pages or zoom in/out in map view
- button 2 press to switch between map / dashboard
- button 3 to pause or stop/start (long press) in dashboard, jump to own location in map view

And of course I still hope to get some more dashboard values (if not configurable, then predefined) for different situations.

But I see there is not really much traffic here and you probably get the impression the Wear app is not really a very "hot" topic. And indeed: if not for Locus, I have not really a good use for the watch, that would justify the constant need to charge, be connected with phone and phone with mobile network. Thats only for people with lots of communication / notifications.. maybe not the biggest part of Locus users.
Anyways, thanks for maintaining the Wear app at least a bit.

[Update:]

My problem (see 4 above) did not go away. After a phone reboot the Wear-for-Locus app/service now has an active "force stop" button in the app details, but that did not help either.

How can I debug this? Why does the Wear OS Locus app always say there is no connection?

(Wanted to use for a mountain hike, even as I guess an absolute altitude field is still missing?)

Update: I set back the watch to factory defaults and re-connected/installed everything. All other things looked identical before and after that, but finally Locus on the watch can be started again.

Had a short look into the code from github before, it was the "middle" connection error message, the one associated to the API not delivering any "node" with status "nearby" (just from what can be read there, do not know anything about it). As I said, any other locations told me "connected" (like the watch settings or the Wear OS app on the phone).
Somehow Wear OS seems not really stable..

Update2:
In the mountains, the map on the watch is very useful.
You can have a look at the track at any time, without getting/opening/unlocking the phone - also saving energy there probably (Bluetooth costs less than screen I guess).

Having the possibility to see the time on the map would be nice. So you do not always have to switch to the watch face for that (and then back). On the other hand, it is probably a good idea to not have the map open all the time - a Wear watch just does not have the endurance for a 8 hour activity.
And of course everything could be a bit smoother / faster / responsive - if it could.. Seems the hardware that is faster and needs less energy lies a few years in the future..

Since beginning of April (wanted to try for a bike ride, might have occurred earlier but did not try) my Locus on watch does not connect to Locus on phone.

The watch is definitely connected: in Bluetooth settings it shows "connected", the crossed cloud-icon shows or not according to Internet connection on phone disabled or active, apps can be installed from watch's play store.

But when I start the Locus app on the watch, it shows up for a fraction of a second and then switches to message that watch and phone are not connected. I shall connect and try again. The refresh-button can be pressed as often as I want, does not change anything.

Locus main app had some updates since then, no difference.
Wear OS on the watch had an update meanwhile, no difference.
I uninstalled/reinstalled the app on the watch now, no difference.
I reinstalled the Wear for Locus on the phone too, no difference.

I wonder how to check if the phone part is "active"? Going into app details on the phone for "Wear for Locus", it shows no RAM usage, no battery usage. And the "force stop" button is not active, so does it run? If not, how to start - there is not even an icon for this "app" (more of a background service I guess - but how to check status of such ones - up and running? How about a little status widget?)

Thanks for reading.

I am quite new to smartwatches / Android Wear and do not use another fitness/running app.
Some people may have less problems with that, others more, but there must be a mode as robust as possible for this, or it will never be usable for some people. And the easiest and maybe most effective solution might be to not have the buttons on screen most of the time.

The more info on one screen the better of course - and I think the space that is there should be used for the value to show, not labels and icons (at least optionally). Maybe a small icon, labels shown on tap, but usually one knows what is where very soon. Then the font can be much much bigger on a 2x2 field too!

I tried to use it twice for running now.
Sorry to have to say that but.. current state is pure disaster, not usable.

Next to the info I am missing, the numbers are far too small to be easily read while running (if you do not have Eagle's eyes). My watch has not the biggest screen you can get, but definitely not a small one either. There is room to make them bigger, and alternatively one could only put 3 or 2 values on one page.

While in that economy mode (ambient or not ambient, I never got that) there seem to be extremely slow updates of the values shown - when "activating" the distance jumped by nearly a km. If the app goes into that mode, it should still be a bit more dynamic, at least if a recording is active.

But the real big problem is, that the track recording was constantly stopped, restarted or paused..
In the end, I had a lot of single track fragments and also missing track parts (and of course no usable track progress while running).
While the hardware might play a role in this, and my sleeves (and even my sweat), this definitely must be implemented in a much more robust way.
Perhaps the stop button should not wait to be canceled by another tap, but auto-canceled if a constant-tap is interrupted. The pause button needs the same.
Perhaps it would be a good idea to not put the buttons on a page with values you want to watch while running, but on a separate page only opened at begin and end - so they cannot get toggled by accident (as long as the page ist not opened by accident..)

Hope there will be considerable improvements, will not use again until then.

Sorry again, but that was my experience.

I had a first ski day recently. For this activity (skiing) the map is not too very helpful. It simply is very small - but at least it was mostly too close (zoom) for me. Or is the default zoom according to what was last selected on the phone? Then I think it should not be the "same pixels" as on the phone, but about the same area covered (with less resolution) - so you have the same overview. But other people may think different, so it should be configurable.
Zooming out was quite tedious, often not recognized, or activating the wipe-down (maybe locate them left and right?) (I have a Fossil Q Explorist). And of course is not too fast - maybe the reason why the usual pinch-to-zoom is not supported?

More than the map I would have liked the dashboard - but as said would be interested in some more/other values like absolute altitude, max speed or (when wearing belt) HF rate.

So looking forward to tap more of the full potential soon 
Thanks for reading.

@Milan
Thanks for the reply - I am very much looking forward to that (configurable dashboard - hopefully multi-page to get more than 4 values).
For me it is at least as important as having a little look onto the map. Most time I have to open the phone is when I want to see certain dash info like speed (but km-time not km/h), how high am I and gain (mountains), was there a new max-speed (skiing), how much distance behind etc. This of course only makes sense if all available info from the phone can also be viewed on the watch.
At the moment when running I use the audio coach mostly, but that of course is not nearly as flexible as if you can have a look whenever you want to (and sometimes surroundings are so loud you miss the coach speaking).

As for the battery drain, sounds reasonable, we will see. At the moment I still have a S6 with first battery, certainly has seen better times. BT4 is available, sure.

There are a lot of screenshots in the Play Store app page:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.asamm.locus.addon.wear
The third shows a 4-element-mini-dash..

You can also see some profile selection..

All of a sudden, my interest in an Android wear watch is back.

However, can the little 4-element dashboards shown in the screenshots be custom configured?
I would like very different values to be displayed if..
.. running (dist, km-time avg, heartrate)
.. mountains (dist, altitude, ..)
.. skiing (dist, max-speed, altitude, alt-lost..)

And I wonder if having Bluetooth on at the Smartphone constantly will drain a lot battery.. (tracking a ski-day usually gets very close with battery anyways.. even if one will have a few less looks on the display thanks to the watch).