Sole F80 Treadmill Operation Questions

Triathlon Forum
1

I have a few questions about using the F80:

  1. When adjusting speed, can you hold down the + / - button to continuously adjust speed, or do you have to do a separate button push for each 0.1 mph adjustment? There’s a quick speed button for 5 mph and 7 mph, but what if you need want 6 mph? I’m trying to figure out how much of a pain that kind of adjustment will be.

  2. Is there a way to program custom workouts? My wife does a run / walk, so it would be nice to program say 9 minutes at X speed and 1 minute at Y speed, repeatedly.

Thanks!

2

I have an F85.

You can press and hold on the buttons on the control board that I have, but if controlling manually, I would usually hit the closest instant speed button and then hit the plus/minus the number of 0.1 increments I want.

There’s a custom workout option but I’ve never tried it. (Page 17 of this user manual: https://www.soletreadmills.com/manuals/sole_f80_83_85_2009.pdf )

If you’re handy with electronics, or want to learn, you can wire up some connections to the control board and do lots of cool stuff with a microcontroller. I set mine up with an ultrasonic distance sensor to automatically adjust speed based on my position on the treadmill belt, and a phone/WiFi interface to select my most used paces, and control grade.

https://youtu.be/d1m3ercrrOA

This video was the first iteration- need to swap the relays for transistors for fast/quiet action, and demonstrate how to use the Zwift api to mirror in-game running grade and workout pace via calls to the microcontroller over the network…

Overall, I like it and the price I paid used was awesome, but it is a little annoying how long it takes to get up to speed or slow down, which makes fast intervals frustrating.

3

I have an F80.

  1. You can hold these down, but I find it faster to tap-tap-tap. There are convenience +/- buttons on the railing and I hit the closest button to the desired speed, like ia_triguy said, and then tap these. Keep in mind that it takes quite a while for the speed changes to take effect. Shorter intervals are always kind of a guesswork with this thing. I also find that any speed adjustment will result into a few seconds of easier pace, i.e. you run at 7.5 and hit 9 and it will actually get easier for the first ~3-5 seconds.

  2. Haven’t bothered with that.

Overall, I’m more than happy with it. It’s dumb and from the past and it’s annoying (even the timer is off on mine! It reaches 30 minutes in about 29), but it’s been solid for the price. Lots of time and miles and copious amounts of sweat on it over the last ~15months with zero maintenance, and it’s still going strong.