Suunto and Concept 2 indoor rowing

SamuelP

New app just released Can’t wait to try it out

peringmar

@SamuelP
It’s a really good start, tried the app yesterday. If the developer reads this, really cool that you took on the project, much appreciated!

Connecting to the Concept2 was really smooth, as is the continous data synchronization.

Little feedback in case you read this:

Please store the data [Power, speed, stroke rate] so that they can be viewed in the graph on the mobile app.
Change s/500m -> minutes:500m, as a rower the s/500m cannot really be interpreted hehe
When exceeding 10000m distance turns to --.

raven

@peringmar said in Suunto and Concept 2 indoor rowing:

@SamuelP
It’s a really good start, tried the app yesterday. If the developer reads this, really cool that you took on the project, much appreciated!

Connecting to the Concept2 was really smooth, as is the continous data synchronization.

Little feedback in case you read this:

Please store the data [Power, speed, stroke rate] so that they can be viewed in the graph on the mobile app.

Change s/500m -> minutes:500m, as a rower the s/500m cannot really be interpreted hehe

When exceeding 10000m distance turns to --.

I always refer to pace as (time/500m) instead of (minutes/500m), partly as I feel it’s more accurate, and also my faster pace is under 2:00/500m (e.g. 1:42/500m) so it’s not multiple minutes.

Would storing pace and power graphs even be possible, or is that a limitation of the Indoor Rowing mode not having those data fields?

peringmar

Yeah you are right, with minutes/500m I meant what the Concept 2 is displaying, minutes:seconds, just like the 1:42/500m is 1 minute and 42 seconds.

runomatic

I just did a quick test with ErgSync.
I can either connect the iOS app to the rowing machine or ErgSync to the watch. Both don’t work at the same time. Is that right?

Then I rowed 500m for the test. The PM5 shows 500m, while the watch shows 620m. Conclusion: Well, it’s not quite there yet. But it’s a good start!

raven

@runomatic said in Suunto and Concept 2 indoor rowing:

I just did a quick test with ErgSync.
I can either connect the iOS app to the rowing machine or ErgSync to the watch. Both don’t work at the same time. Is that right?

Then I rowed 500m for the test. The PM5 shows 500m, while the watch shows 620m. Conclusion: Well, it’s not quite there yet. But it’s a good start!

Correct. The PM5 only has one bluetooth connection, so using it for either the watch or an app (ErgData, EXR, etc.) means it is not available for the other one.

I don’t know if this is possible, but if the watch could “rebroadcast” the signal (like some non-Suunto watches can broadcast HR), then in theory one could connect PM5 to watch, then watch to an app. Otherwise, you’d need to petition Concept2 to put out a new monitor that supports dual-bluetooth connections.

As for the watch showing 620m vs 500m, if the watch is using the internal accelerometers for pace (rather than a connection to the PM5) then that would explain it. Suunto always overestimates. I just did a 6km row a bit ago and Suunto thought it was 6.88km. Note you can edit distance in the session record.

TonyG

@raven I am not sure this is correct, my Garmin connects to the PM5 and at the same time I connect ErgData on a mobile and have a HR Belt connected to PM5. multiple devices connected using Bluetooth, i can also select between Ant + or Bluetooth for the HR but tend to just use Bluetooth. unless some strange bunny hopping of devices is happening, hence the “not sure if this is correct”

edit: after some reading the Garmin Watch may be using Ant+ and its likely the HR monitor is also using Ant+, please discard my comment above

runomatic

@raven said in Suunto and Concept 2 indoor rowing:

As for the watch showing 620m vs 500m, if the watch is using the internal accelerometers for pace (rather than a connection to the PM5) then that would explain it. Suunto always overestimates. I just did a 6km row a bit ago and Suunto thought it was 6.88km. Note you can edit distance in the session record.

I thought one of the purposes of ErgSync was to ensure that the distance matches the ergometer. Otherwise, what’s the point of the app?

Martin Lillepuu

Hi,

I am the developer of ErgSync and also on-and-off indoor rowing enthusiast for many years. I rented RowErg with PM5 for 3 months for home office to develop the SuuntoPlus app and also to accrue some rowing meters in the process. The plan is to add a Suunto watch as additional data recording option for rowing enthusiasts in addition to existing ErgData phone app (which I am also using for testing and comparing the results).

I mainly use Strava but Suunto platform also supports dozens of other sports and health platforms and services including their own built-in activity visualization and analysis features.

I am currently reviewing the initial feedback from you and will publish new version of ErgSync app soon. I already enabled logging for 4 main sensor readings from PM5 and updated ui to use icons in the dev version. I will keep you updated.

with best regards,
Martin

raven

@TonyG The HR connection to the PM5 is different from the FTMS (FiTness Machine Service) connection that gives rowing data. It’s the latter I believe can only be used by one thing. When people use the EXR app, for example, they can’t also use ErgData, but EXR can write to the C2 logbook.

If I’m wrong on this, then I’m happy to be corrected.

Some Garmin watches can get rowing data from the PM45 by ANT+ but not bluetooth as I understand.

raven

@runomatic said in Suunto and Concept 2 indoor rowing:

@raven said in Suunto and Concept 2 indoor rowing:

As for the watch showing 620m vs 500m, if the watch is using the internal accelerometers for pace (rather than a connection to the PM5) then that would explain it. Suunto always overestimates. I just did a 6km row a bit ago and Suunto thought it was 6.88km. Note you can edit distance in the session record.

I thought one of the purposes of ErgSync was to ensure that the distance matches the ergometer. Otherwise, what’s the point of the app?

Note I’m just guessing on “why” the discrepancy. It is likely simply a bug of some kind, but a bug of “writing the acceloremeter data not the PM5 data” seemed to make more sense than “taking the PM5 data and changing it”.

For me, the point of this app would be getting power data, not distance. I treat rowing like cycling, doing power targets for time durations, and have rowing power zones I pay more attention to than pace, and likewise, cumulative kJ rather than meters.