Chris,

Is there a list of compatible devices from Polar? DCR has a good start to one, but it would be great to have an official list from Polar.

I took it to swim for the first time and this is what I noticed:

I set it on the "triathlon" profile as I have a sprint coming up in a couple of weeks. I tried to simulate it as closely as possible.

I waited on the side of the pool and I saw my heart rate displayed.

I jumped in the pool and lost my heart rate reading. After a short period (less than a minute) it registered again.

I saw 250yds and stopped. It appeared to have good HR reading through the swim. However shortly after stopping (with watch underwater) I lost HR reading again. I waited for it to establish a connection again. I then swam 5 sets of 100yds and when I stopped I kept the watch further from me which seemed to keep the connection up.

My last 250yds was good as well. My guess here is that when you stop and the watch is closer than normal, it will switch back to bluetooth (from gymlink) and temporarily lose connection until it goes back to gymlink? Is there a way to aways use gymlink instead of allowing it to connect via bluetooth?

The last thing I noticed. I simulated a 2 minute bike ride (with transitions between the swim-bike and bike-swim). I really like the way polar implemented this as if you press the wrong back button on a new leg, it makes you hold it for 3 seconds before it ends the session. (so if you accidently press the wrong button you will not have messed up your tri session).

The weird thing is after I hit back on the run, it didn't say I was done. Not being sure I ended the run leg, I pressed start again and ended up with another run leg. I would think at this point, polar wouldn't allow you to do that with the traditional triathlon profile.

All this was captured here: https://flow.polar.com/...ng/analysis/23132716

Thanks for listening...



==========

Hi,

I picked up my polar v800 last week and so far have mixed emotion about the watch.

My latest issue is trying to use a speed/cadence sensor with the watch. I bought the Jarv speed/cadence sensor which was able to be paired easily with the watch. However when I select the sports profile no speed nor cadence was displayed. I then used the wahoo fitness app and both values were displayed with no problems.

I called polar who promised me a call back (I received none). I then started to play around with the sensor and watch. I deleted the pairing and re-paired the sensor which worked and I was able to display values. However when I stopped pedaling, the last values displayed never dropped to zero. I waited 5+ minutes with no change. When I started to pedal again, the numbers began to update. This did not occur on the wahoo app.

Next I walked away from the bike without ending my session (simulating a stop for water). When I came back the speed and cadence values were ---s. Starting to pedal again, these numbers never changed. When I ended the session and started a new workout, the values once again appeared. I am assuming this is not design intent. I really had high hopes for this watch, but reading some of the other posts I am not sure what to think now.

Larry

Hey Chris:
I'm confused on something with regards to the proposed August update of "power reading". Can you explain what they're wanting to implement with the ability to register power? Will it be ant+ as well as BTLE or will it only be BTLE? Obviously with most of the PM's out there being ant+, that's what I'm sure most folks would desire. With Polar's decision to lean towards BTLE, though, I'm sure you wanting to bump the industry that direction. I'm in the market for a PM right now and the only thing I see that is BTLE enabled is the Stages single crank arm power meter. Would be nice to have additional options. Oh, I have a V650 on preorder and the same power related question applies to that as well.

Thanks for the support!

The power will be simply updating the firmware in the V800 (&V650) to support the Bluetooth Smart power profile. It will support Bluetooth Smart power only. =)

That's great feedback. And almost everything on your list is planned. However, there are many moving parts to feature updates - the "big 3" and features that we've promised we're very committed to meeting those timelines, the "other" upgrades we have planned are dependent on how the "big 3" features are progressing. So we can't share timelines or anything of that nature on those. Hope you understand.

Just know we are VERY committed to listening to consumer feedback, adjusting timelines and priorities based on the feedback. So while we can't communicate and commit to timelines when you email us - the feedback is very much appreciated and is not falling through the cracks.

Yes - for sure. Working hard to iron that out ASAP. I'll keep you updated here.

I'm having a problem with my V800. It does not get a heart rate signal when I am on the bike in my aero bar. As someone mentions above, it seems the signal is just not strong enough to reach the watch when the arms are nearly fully extended. The watch also does not get a HR signal it I just hold the watch above my head.

I like the watch, and I can still exchange it from where I bought it, but it sounds like this behavior is expected. Is that true? If so, that is a deal breaker for me and I will return the watch.... (Sigh, I do like it. But no HR in the aero bar is not an option. I even tried moving the watch closer to my elbow, and that did not always work. Plus, then the watch slides down my arm when I climb.)

---

2015 USAT Long Course National Champion (M50-54)

hi paul,
i had the same problem in the beginning because i forgot to pair the watch and the heart rate sensor over bluetooth. the V800 also transmits without pairing over bluetooth and even this other mode worked for me for running but I had the same issue on my bike. after bluetooth pairing everthing worked well on the bike and during swimming.

martin

Martin,
Thanks for that. I didn't realize that the watch had a mode besides Bluetooth for communicating with the HR sensor. I remember doing the pairing once, and I thought the watch must have remembered, then found, my sensor each session.

This does seem to fix the problem. Again, thanks.
Paul

---

2015 USAT Long Course National Champion (M50-54)

Anyone want to buy my V800 from me? Black, I like the blue one that just came in better. It's in the CLASSIFIED section. (click that link i just made)

Hi all,

I've reviewed the V800 for my website (in french: http://nkn.li/PolarV800) and I have also read the past 13 pages of this thread. There is one thing I'm quite surprised with the V800:

In triathlon mode, there is apparently no way to display the total time. When you enter transition, you can see the total time (swim + t1 during t1 and Swim + t1 + bike + t2 during t2) but not during bike and run... Or I have missed something somewhere...

One other question: is it planned to have the ability to configure activity profiles (pages and data fields) using the watch itself or the mobile app ?

All the other wishes I have regarding the V800 were already posted (smart notifications / training load on the mobile app...)

Thanks everyone !

You just need to add the data field 'Total duration'

Go into display settings on Polar Flow - add a row to a display with Total Duration. That'll do it.


On the automatic calibration question above - someone asked about the details of how/when it works.

The V800 needs 6 satellites to be locked in, the reference points are 400m. If the distance is +/- 12m (3%) from the stride sensor the GPS based factor is used. This happens every 400m as long as 6 satellites are locked in the entire 400m.

I like the V801 idea too, but what I'd really like to see is some kind of standard method for communicating the data to such a lightweight device, so you can use whatever you want. Maybe it's a new BTLE device type in that standard (isn't Polar in the BTLE working group?) or maybe it's just an agreement between the few companies likely to make them. But the idea would be something like a where you can bring whatever heart rate monitor or speed/cadence sensor you wanted, only this would be a standard external display protocol.

Looking at dcrainmaker's preview of the Ambit 3 they are doing something similar with the Ambit 3, only with the iPhone as the external display while cycling. It's a good idea kind of along the same lines, but I'd rather have a lightweight, smaller and weatherproof device on my handlebars then my iPhone. But I think it makes the case that this kind of second screen is a feature at least Suunto thinks people would like.

I currently use an RCX5, and basically the V800 has everything I need in my next watch.

However, I do use the following features of PolarPersonalTrainer.com.

1) The Progress page. Especially the ability to track cholesterol and various other values (even custom ones), and overlay them on f.ex. weely mileage, average heart-rate etc.
Through my employer, I can get a body-age test that uses Polar equipment to measure all these values, and I can also measure some of them myself using a body-composition monitor.
I also have some custom values, such as body muscle percentage.
2) Endurance training programs (I understand that some form of training programs are coming to Flow).
3) The training load view. I haven't been able to find such a view on Flow, but maybe that is because I don't (yet) have a V800?

Any chance that these (especially 1) ) will be implemented in Flow at some point?

BR. Kenneth Johnsen.

Love the V800. I was surprised that the HR strap works with my spin bike at the Y. The bike is not bluetooth so was that was an added bonus. I would like to the light activated be the flick of your wrist. Like the Motorola watch did. Also, love the ability for to use the count down timer on a run while tracking the auto mile splits, but would like to auto record each count down split as well. One more thing....how do you clear the history on the stop watch????? The three second back back hold doesn't work?

Press and hold the light button ;0)

Great thanks.....seems like you would hold down the back button for three seconds...:) but, it works.

Hi Chris,

Jumping the gun a bit here, but are we still on for and August release of power meter support?

(I suspect you can't say, but worth a shot ;) )

Chris: was there an update that came through Thursday? After plugging in last night, on todays ride I found my GPS kept dropping. Same route I've done many times with zero issues. Even though the watch kept saying "there's no gps signal" it still measured the approximately correct distance, although i'm not sure my pace was correct. The altitude / profile seems to be correct and I notice in the map route on polar.flow my route looks like it scatters around a bit and doesn't stay on the road - thus it's obviously not dropping the gps points correctly.

Any ideas why?

I’m having trouble the the gps data too today :(

I had the same GPS dropping issue also. Never before has this happened. About 500 m into my run the GPS was lost and the route in the map shows that the GPS signal was never found again during the run. I didn't care about this as I use stride sensor.

GPS problems for me as well. Started on yesterday's run when it lost connection, and didn't reconnect. Some problems earlier today when it couldn't get a fix (went up to 90% at best), but seems to be working now.

Same here today. GPS went on and off. :((

you have to start the update manually when there is new firmware. AFAIK no update is made automatically and hidden.

Thanks. Then I wonder why so many of us had GPS issues. I've only been prompted once for updates since I bought the watch in June so I thought "weekly updates" were just happening when you synced.