Does anyone know if a Powertap API exists? I am lazy and want to just plug my PT into my laptop and have it update various logs with the data.
Others must be interested, 45 views and no responses.
I sent an e-mail to Saris to ask them also.
I’m not sure, but looked and didn’t find anything a while back. Garmin does (or did), but I didn’t do anything with it. At the time, I was hoping to be able to get the data from the foot sensor so I could calculate foot strikes / time. I thought it’d be easy & available since you’d think foot strikes would be part of calculating pace off the foot probe. But, this went the way of many of my ideas - in the pending folder.
If Saris does, can you post this after you find out?
thanks,
Chris
It would be fantastic if they had a publicly available API, but I’m wondering/guessing they charge for it. We do some development work for systems that use handheld IR scanners, and all of their APIs are “pay for use.”
Why do you need an API?, surely you can just write a Perl script to parse the Powertap data file ( csv ) and put it into the format you want.
You might find this useful;
http://rick.mollprojects.com/power_meter_tools/csv_format.html
I’ve done this before with the .hrm files from my Polar.
I’ve e-mailed Saris on this and never got a response. I’d like to pull my data in and manipulate it the way I want (I’m a programmer).
Same thing goes for the forerunner.
The powertap connects through a serial port but I’m not sure how to pull that stuff out. I’m a web developer more than a desktop guy.
If you find it out please repost and reply to pm me :).
You could look at the Golden Cheetah source code and see how it talks to the Powertap.
Here’s the driver api: http://www.ftdichip.com/Documents/ProgramGuides.htm
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I say again, why not just use the Saris software to pull the data off the Cervo computer and then write a little app to parse that file?
Accessing the serial port and getting the data yourself is an unnecessary layer of complexity.
Does anyone know if a Powertap API exists? I am lazy and want to just plug my PT into my laptop and have it update various logs with the data.
No API or documentation, no. I’m very familiary with the Powertap over serial. The key points are the protocol and the format of the data. A lot of people have been able to reverse engineer the protocol, it’s not too hard. The format of the data though is much trickier, there is some weird math in there. As another poster suggested, your best bet is to look at the Golden Cheetah source, particularly where it decodes the packets coming from the device.
The newer Forerunners are similar (I’ve been working with a 50 over ANT) but not as difficult. There is a very active community on the Garmin developer forums as well.
I’ll actually have a new PowerTap soon, with ANT, and will be working with that at some point.
I say again, why not just use the Saris software to pull the data off the Cervo computer and then write a little app to parse that file?
Accessing the serial port and getting the data yourself is an unnecessary layer of complexity.
Will probably do that for now but the other way is more fun.