For those considering buying a Polar product that syncs via morse code to windows sound capture, then requires that you upload it to a polar account, I strongly urge you to explore other options.
The sound capture interface is extremely difficult to use - I have tried capturing the chirping with my USB headset, a professional Samson USB microphone, and have played with gain and volume settings on both. I run about 20% success on getting the audio set so the program will receive.
Prior to getting the audio levels adjusted correctly, you need to time the start of the chirping on your watch and the “Listen” button on WebLink. I have the most current version 2.4.10.452.
Finally after getting a full 100% captured, it is now stalling on upload. It is hanging on “Sending selected items to web”
Just getting the account set up and downloading the software was frustrating enough. After spending 30 minutes and still not able to see my data is pushing me over the top.
Polar are you listening? Hopefully you have a better interface and open data capturing options planned in the future?
Meanwhile I am definitely saving my pennies for a Garmin.
I have never had problem using it. I think it comes down to your computer skills. Not the Polar product -sorry not personal.
And the webbased training diary - Its pretty good - www.polarpersonaltrainer.com. I love the Challenges part.
But anyway - I’ve notiched that the product is replaced by another new product - RS300x:
i note in your responses to various threads that you’re advocating the retro approach. i feel your pain. but it’s a new world, steve. you and i probably don’t know how to use 5% of what our cell phones offer us. but that’s not the way of the next generation.
if you can click a couple of buttons on your wristwatch, and your speed, distance, elevation gain, the map of your route, temperature, barometric pressure, all automatically uploads to your computer, which appends to your online training log next time you log onto it, and others can see what your training is, what your route is, and then can run or ride your route because it’s a route unknown to others in your area, well, that’s what’s coming, and on the client side it’s pretty simple to facilitate.
LOL. I almost thought this thread was a joke. Morse Code? Through a microphone? Seriously are you sure this isnt a joke? Or is it a leftover product from 1993?
Yup there are some bad products out there! I just unloaded a Timex bodylink Triathlon GPS. After 3 days of studying the manual, I still could not get the thing to work properly and realized you cant even download data to a PC with it. No wonder Garmin now has 55% of GPS users according to Slowman’s most recent survey. Hey Timex and Polar, you folks are seriously losing ground to better technology!
I just posted to the Polar yahoogroups forum that I was done with Polar. They make a great product… when it works. Which, at least in my own circumstances, it has failed to do consistently. I have more stories of training for weeks with no problem and then the morning of a race - it dies. Or fails to upload files, or finds some new way frustrate me.
I’ve gone to a wired powertap and Garmin 205. Both are mature, tested, far-from-cutting edge products that do everything I want, and more.
The only thing they are missing is sex appeal but sex appeal gets you nowhere when your sexy new gadget dies 1/2 way through the race.
I have never had problem using it. I think it comes down to your computer skills. Not the Polar product -sorry not personal.
Not taking it personally, but it is not my lack of computer/integration skills. I was building PCs in college in 93. I was sending email in 89. Started a network security company in the Bay Area in the middle of the dotcom boom. My first digital camera in 99, etc., etc.
The above list was not to toot my own horn, just to clarify that this is NOT a user friendly product, even for a pretty savvy tech user. An audio data transfer (hence my morse code comment) that lots of users complain about, a proprietary interface and a mandatory external companies web based service is just wrong on so many levels.
From your reply, I looked up the Flowlink - looks like they are feeling the pain and figuring out a new transfer method - still not sure I would try Polar again the next time around.
http://www.polarusa.com/...accessories/flowlink
The new RS300x as well as others download by placing the watch on the FLOWLINK. The FLOWLINK download to our webservice is how we see more units downloading.
sorry… but this is exactly why I stopped using polar.
they make a product which works well in a lab at a competitive price point. said product fails to perform in “real world” applications. they make another bandaid product to get the original product to work as it should have in the first place. you end up spending more, for inferior performance, than you would have if you’d just bought a better product to begin with.
2 years later they release a NEW product claiming that all the problems with the previous product are fixed… only to be riddled with new problems.
See 625x → 725x
or RS800 → CX800
or Polar Power → Polar WIND Power
All of the above have had problems out of the box that were eventually solved by having to buy the new product. Compare that to Garmin, or other products, which allow you to update firmware with patches for free.
