PostRunner
PostRunner is an application to manage FIT files such as those
produced by Garmin products like the Forerunner 620 (FR620),
Forerunner 25 (FR25), Fenix 3, Fenix 3HR, Fenix 5, Fenix 5+ or Fenix6.
It allows you to import the files from the device and analyze the
data. In addition to the common features like plotting pace, heart
rates, elevation and other captured values it also provides a heart
rate variability (HRV) analysis. It can also update satellite orbit
prediction (EPO) data on the device to speed-up GPS fix times.
Unfortunately, the download mechanism for CPE files used by the
devices with GPS chipsets from Sony is still unknown and hence
unsupported. Postrunner is an offline alternative to Garmin Connect.
The software has been developed and tested on Linux but should work on
other operating systems as well.
Installation
PostRunner is a http://www.ruby-lang.org application. You need
to have a Ruby 2.4 or later runtime environment installed. This
application was developed and tested on Linux but may work on other
operating systems as well. You can either install it as root for all
users on the computer or as a particular user for just this user.
System-wide installation as root user
$ gem install postrunner
On some Linux distributions using sudo might resolve in permission
problems as the installed packages are not readable for normal users.
This typically results in 'cannot load such file' type error messages.
Installation as non-privileged user
gem install --user-install postrunner
This will install PostRunner and all dependency packages in your .gem
directory. You then need to add the binary path to your PATH variable
in your .profile or .bashrc or .whatever file. The path is typically
.gem/ruby//bin. Watch out, on some Linux distributions the
version number of ruby gets added to the binary name, e. g.
postrunner.ruby2.7. You can use a symbolic link or alias to safe some
typing.
Usage
Mounting the watch
Watches that expose their data as FAT file system. Typically after connecting
your garmin watch, they are mount automatically if you have installed the
udev package.
For watches that expose their data via MTP (Media Transfer Procotol). For
Debian buster running sudo apt install jmtpfs mtp-tools
will install the
needed packages.
mkdir /tmp/forerunner; jmtpfs /tmp/forerunner
This has been tested with a Garmin Forerunner 945.
For more information about MTP under Windows have a look at the
Garmin FAQ
Importing FIT files
To get started you need to connect your device to your computer and
mount it as a disk drive. Only devices that expose their data as FAT or MTP file
system are supported. Older devices use proprietary drivers and are
not supported by PostRunner. Once the device is mounted find out the
full path to the directory that contains your FIT files. You can then
import all files on the device.
$ postrunner import /run/media/$USER/GARMIN/GARMIN/ACTIVITY/
The above command assumes that your device is mounted as /run/media/$USER.
Please replace $USER with your login name and the path with the path to
your device.
- for MTP (assuming you mounted it as described above)
$ postrunner import /tmp/forerunner/Primary/GARMIN/Activity
- Note
Files that have been imported previously will not be imported again.
Viewing FIT file data on the console
Now you can list all the FIT files in your data base.
$ postrunner list
The first column is the index you can use to reference FIT files. To
get a summary of the most recent activity use the following command.
References to already imported activities start with a colon followed
by the index number.
$ postrunner summary :1
To get a summary of the oldest activity you can use
$ postrunner summary :-1
To select multiple activities you can use a range.
$ postrunner summary :1-3
You can also get a full dump of the content of a FIT file.
$ postrunner dump 1234568.FIT
If the file is already in the data base you can also use the reference
notation.
$ postrunner dump :1
This will provide you with a lot more information contained in the FIT
files that is not available through Garmin Connect or most other
tools.
When you upload your FIT data to the Garmin Connect site using WiFi or
Garmin Software, your device will be updated with 7 days worth of
Extended Prediction Orbit (EPO) data. The GPS receiver in your device
can use this data to acquire GPS locks much faster during the next 7
days. To fetch the current set of EPO data, just use the following
command while you have your device mounted via USB.
$ postrunner update-gps
This was tested on the FR620 and FR25 and will probably also work on the FR220.
Other devices may work, but you use this at your own risk. This
feature will download a file called EPO.BIN and copy it to
GARMIN/REMOTESW/EPO.BIN.
Viewing FIT file data in your web browser
You can also view the full details of your activity in your browser.
This view includes a map (internet connection for map data required)
and charts for speed, pace, heart rate, cadence and the like.
$ postrunner show
This will open an overview of the most recent activities in your web
browser. It will use Firefox by default. You can overwrite this by
setting the BROWSER environment variable.
To view a specific run directly, you can use similar specifications
like those explained above.
$ postrunner show :1
Contributing
PostRunner is currently work in progress. It does some things I want
with files from my Garmin devices. It's certainly possible to do more
things and support more devices. Patches are welcome!
- Fork it ( https://github.com/scrapper/postrunner/fork )
- Create your feature branch (
git checkout -b my-new-feature
) - Commit your changes (
git commit -am 'Add some feature'
) - Push to the branch (
git push origin my-new-feature
) - Create a new Pull Request
License
PostRunner is licensed under the GNU GPL version 2.
The distribution includes third party components that are licensed
under different OSI compatible terms.