Heart rate monitor

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Reasonably priced Bluetooth heart rate monitors are beginning to enter the 
market, for example the Zephyr HxM Bluetooth @ $99:
http://www.zephyr-technology.com/9600.0112.html

Some other apps, like SportsTrackLive, already have support for these 
monitors:
http://www.sportstracklive.com/help/android

Would love to see Bluetooth HxM support in My Tracks.

Original issue reported on code.google.com by joeell...@gmail.com on 14 May 2010 at 12:41

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I think Sandor already had plans in this respect. Assigning to him.

Original comment by rdama...@google.com on 18 May 2010 at 2:25

• Changed state: Accepted
• Added labels: OpSys-Android, Priority-Low, Type-Enhancement

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that'd be awesome

Original comment by arnout.engelen on 1 Jun 2010 at 6:49

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Bluetooth sucks my friend. If you want any kind of vitaldata, ANT+ or something
similar is required. Bluetooth is not a choice when battery life matters... 
Think
about a bike tour of 3 hours... with BT - no way.

Original comment by steffen....@gmail.com on 3 Jun 2010 at 8:52

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The real world says differently. My Zephyz HxM BT hasn't run out of power on me 
yet. 
Zephyr claims up to 26 hours of use on one charge, although I have yet to go 
near 
that long on a single workout:-)

I leave BT active all the time on my phone and still go a day before I have to 
charge. The battery is much more sensitive to streaming 128Kb Internet radio 
and 
following me on Google satellite map view while I'm working out.

BT telemetry is definitely the way to go. BT HxM for people and BT OBDII for 
vehicles 
both work great.

Original comment by joeell...@gmail.com on 3 Jun 2010 at 11:06

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@joeellet. Actually, I have not touched the Zephyr so far. I'am very interested 
in
this and I'am glad you answered and corrected me about this device. When talking
about power consumption, I did not meant the Zephyr itself - this device may 
stay
alive for a couple of hours like an external BT-GPS device with internal 
battery. I
was thinking about the mobile itself - with GPS and BT enabled, I bet the 
mobiles
battery will be the weakest part. And, if you want live maps and use e.g. GPRS 
or
UMTS too, it is getting more difficult. 

Anyway, I would love to hear from you about your experiences using the Zephyr. 
Can
you tell us what mobile phone(s) you use and what kind of software? Can you 
tell us
about your focus? Are you running and do not need the display/map during the 
workout
or are you cycling and need the map etc. I think it is necessary to understand 
the
goal/environment/kind of sport/workout type, when discussing this 
functionality. E.g.
If you "only" run 10km you'll be back within an hour... if you go sailing 
you'll be
back after a couple of hours.

I'am looking forward to hear from you.

Steffen 

Original comment by steffen....@gmail.com on 5 Jun 2010 at 12:55

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I'd like to report my experiences as they are probably similar to joeellet's. I 
am
currently using the Zephyr with the sportstracklive app on my HTC Desire. I 
have so
far only used it for running, max 50 minutes per run. After this, the battery 
is just
noticeably drained, maybe around 10% lower. This is with display off, but GPS, 
wifi
and bluetooth on. Music playing on my bt headset during the entire run (this is
probably the big drainer). There is no significant amount of wifi or mobile data
traffic during the run as I don't use the map or stream music.

Original comment by stefan.l...@gmail.com on 5 Jun 2010 at 9:12

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My routine - usually around 2 hours "running" which is interval training, pace 
varies 
from jog to sprint to keep the heart rate where I want it.

I listen to streaming internet radio most of the time I'm exercising although 
if I'm 
in an area that doesn't have good 3G coverage, I'll switch to the music player. 
I use 
corded headphones when I exercise, so there's no Bluetooth load there.

Sometimes I use mytracks and sometimes I use another product that supports the 
Zephyr. In either case I start recording and then head off. I have my phone 
strapped 
to my arm with a Tune Belt for ease of access but I haven't found a phone yet 
that 
has a screen thats useful in bright sunlight so I let the display go dark. I 
don't 
explicitly turn off the map, and I always have WiFi and Bluetooth active, so I 
know I 
could save some juice if I turned off WiFi before a run. Needless to say, with 
a 
Bluetooth HxM I can't do the full airplane mode thing:-)

I use a T-Mobile myTouch that's upgraded to Android 2 so I can use the 
Zephyr... if 
T-Mobile ever releases an official Android 2, I'll unflash and unroot and move 
to 
that so I'm back under the support umbrella... or if T-Mobile stops at 2.1 I 
may move 
to a 2.2 flash to get that sweet new JIT... I don't have any home screen 
replacements 
or other nonterminatable battery sucking software.

I also tried a friend's Droid briefly, but 1) it's too big to strap on my arm 
comfortably, 2) the GPS sucks compared to the myTouch and 3) it still doesn't 
have a 
screen that I can see in bright sunlight. Experiment over after one run, but 
the 
battery usage seemed comparable.

I'm pretty sure I could get a full morning or afternoon (4 hours) out of my 
phone but 
all I can tell you is that the battery is about 40% down after 2 hours.

By the way, I have something that looks like a stick of chewing gum with a USB 
connection that's an add-on battery for an old iPod shuffle. I'd like to find 
something similar but with a bit more capacity to use with my phone. Does 
anyone know 
if there's a small, light weight external battery that would fit in a Tune 
Belt, Fuel 
Belt or pocket... something that looks like a trail bar would be great?

Original comment by joeell...@gmail.com on 5 Jun 2010 at 10:19

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Adding my Zephyr HxM experiences to the thread. I wrote a review about it on my 
blog runningdigital.com 
http://runningdigital.com/2010/06/01/zephyrs-hxm-bluetooth-heart-rate-monitor-re
view/ I'm currently using an HTC Desire, SportsTrackLive and the HxM hrm with 
great results. Bluetooth isn't as battery-hungry as many people suggest here 
and in other forums. Accessing your screen often to check the stats of your 
workout draws far more from the battery than what Bluetooth takes. Starting my 
workout with a complete charge, a recent 2hr 14min run with the HxM, listening 
to podcasts throughout, phone in normal mode, mobile network connected (mail, 
Twitter, Facebook, updates, etc. all available) took 30% from my battery. 
Screen was accessed four times during the run.

On the subject of BT heart rate monitors, I've also used a Polar WearLink+ BT 
hrm made for Nokia for over a year, nearly every day usage, including runs 
lasting over four hours. (Nokia N79 Active Edition) Similar battery usage 
statistics with that setup. (The Polar BT hrm is only compatible with the 
Sports Tracker app)

Original comment by djh.sthlm on 28 Jun 2010 at 11:09

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http://www.highroadsports.com/news/612-High-Road-Sports-and-Google-Announce-New-
Marketing-Agreement

Just thought I'd mention this :) This is also the reason why we've not given 
much attention to My Tracks lately. So basically, it's done - it'll be 
integrated back to the main app :) We've implemented both ANT+ and bluetooth 
support (since few phones have ANT+).

Original comment by rdama...@google.com on 1 Jul 2010 at 8:57

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That's excellent news, especially since this enhancement has been marked at low 
priority. Another Google 20% project that makes it big time.

What will be the lowest Android release this will run on? Will the new My 
Tracks release continue to be compatible with Android 1.6? The SDK for the 
Zephyr HxM mentioned that it required release 2 or above.

It looks like Garmin, Nordic and others make USB ANT+ adapters. Will those be 
supported? Would probably make a lot of people who already have expensive body 
monitors very happy:-)

Original comment by joeell...@gmail.com on 1 Jul 2010 at 10:26

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My Tracks will continue to be compatible with Android 1.5, though some features 
are not available at 1.5 and 1.6, such as voice announcements.

We really haven't tested heart rate monitoring at anything but 2.1 so far, 
that's one of the tasks for bringing it into the main app :)

We haven't added support for USB ANT+ yet (not sure if there's a way to plug 
them into an Android phone), but we did add support for bluetooth ANT+ adapters.

Original comment by rdama...@google.com on 1 Jul 2010 at 11:12

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GREAT! Tell us more! I'am really looking forward to use it. Can you tell us 
when these incredible changes will be available? Excellent! (Tomorrow, I'am 
going to buy a new phone - my HTC Tatto / G1 are a little bit outdated :)

Yippi!

Original comment by steffen....@gmail.com on 1 Jul 2010 at 11:20

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USB female to USB mini male adapters and cables are as cheap as $5. That should 
connect an ANT+ stick to most phones.

Not sure what you mean by voice announcements only available at Android 2, 
since My Tracks announces my stats every few minutes even when I'm using my 
myTouch, currently a 1.6 phone. Are announcements getting enhanced?

Original comment by joeell...@gmail.com on 2 Jul 2010 at 2:07

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Yes, but Android by default is configured to act as a usb device, not as a host 
(that you can connect devices to).

Android TTS (text-to-speech) is available since API level 4, which is Android 
1.6 - meaning it's not available in Android 1.5. Likewhise, Bluetooth support 
for applications is only available since API level 5 (Android 2.0).

Original comment by rdama...@google.com on 2 Jul 2010 at 3:02

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(since few phones have ANT+)
Could you tell me which phones support ANT+, I would like to replace my nexus 
one later...
Thanks!

And to joeellett: most phones does not support USB host or USB OTG, which is 
needed for the USB ANT+.

BTW: Are there any bluetooth ANT+ adapters available on the market?

Original comment by binbi...@gmail.com on 2 Jul 2010 at 6:21

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We're using the HTC Legend for this so far, I'm not sure which other phones 
support it.

And yes, there are bluetooth ANT adapters, I'm not sure on the exact make or 
model, I'll let Sandor comment on that.

Original comment by rdama...@google.com on 2 Jul 2010 at 7:51

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The High Roads Sports announcement says, "The read only API can be accessed 
through the contacts listed below", but I'm not seeing them. Can you provide a 
contact or link?

Thanks,

David

Original comment by djh.sthlm on 2 Jul 2010 at 8:47

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I think this is what you want: http://www.google.com/mytrackstour - it's the 
page that uses the API. If anyone wants to use the raw data for another site, 
please contact me at rdamazio at google.com or Tasha Danko at tashad at 
google.com

Original comment by rdama...@google.com on 4 Jul 2010 at 8:22

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Hi 

Can someone please clarify the situation re Ant+ and interoperability with the 
phones? 

Are the phones (eg HTC Desire) able to receive Ant+ signals? If so, how?

Can someone give an example (url) for the "bluetooth ANT adapters" mentioned 
above?

thanks
J.

Original comment by arbitraryuser@gmail.com on 12 Jul 2010 at 2:04

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Hi 

Can someone please clarify the situation re Ant+ and interoperability with the 
phones? 

Are the phones (eg HTC Desire) able to receive Ant+ signals? If so, how?

Can someone give an example (url) for the "bluetooth ANT adapters" mentioned 
above?

thanks
J.

Original comment by arbitraryuser@gmail.com on 12 Jul 2010 at 2:04

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Any anticipated release date for the BT HRM functionality?

Original comment by atpatter...@gmail.com on 12 Jul 2010 at 6:05

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The Texas Instruments WiLINK 6.0/7.0 standard based chips utilize the ANT+ 
protocol.  Phones with the TI chips will be able to be a head unit for ANT+ 
transmitting devices such as power strain gauges and heart rate monitors.  The 
software would need to be able to interpret the data being sent to it for 
interoperability.  This is the Texas Instruments press release back in February:

http://newscenter.ti.com/Blogs/newsroom/archive/2010/02/16/ant-and-texas-instrum
ents-connect-proven-ultra-low-power-sensors-to-smartphones-337959.aspx

Another press release from TI and the ANT consortium indicated phones with the 
WiLINK will start showing up at brick and mortars around Q3/2010.  An example 
would be the Droid X which has the WiLINK 6.0 standard.

Original comment by spokeju...@gmail.com on 19 Jul 2010 at 1:10

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[deleted comment]

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I've been looking into this as well and got this reply from HTC when I asked 
which current phones use the TI WiLink chip:

"These are the phones that use that Texas Instruments Chip Set. Probably they 
also use this chip for WLAN but nothing we can guarantee. P3400i P3470 P3401 
P3400 P3301 P4350 P3300 p4300 p4351 s621 s320 S710 S620 S310 s411 Ted Baker 
Touch Touch 3G Touch Viva rest of our phones using the Qualcomm processor."

Another related ANT press release: 
http://www.thisisant.com/news/stories/ant-enabled-live-google-data-feed

-David
Runningdigital.com

Original comment by djh.sthlm on 19 Jul 2010 at 5:22

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Here's a really good write-up on the Tour De France effort.

http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2010/07/behind-scenes-of-team-htc-columbia-and.html

Unfortunately, it indicates that the  Team HTC Legend phones have a
custom firmware and that normal Legend phones have ANT+ disabled.

Original comment by joeell...@gmail.com on 19 Jul 2010 at 6:20

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Here's the TI press release that announces WiLink ANT+ capability. The phone 
needs either a WiLink 6.0 or 7.0 chip. To my knowledge there are no phones 
using 7.0 on the market yet.

http://newscenter.ti.com/Blogs/newsroom/archive/2010/02/16/ant-and-texas-instrum
ents-connect-proven-ultra-low-power-sensors-to-smartphones-337959.aspx

Original comment by joeell...@gmail.com on 19 Jul 2010 at 6:34

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There is a broken link within the press release of my last comment that is 
useful to keep an eye on. It's the ANT+ product guide. 
http://www.thisisant.com/modules/mod_product-directory.php  Hopefully HTC and 
other phone manufacturers will add to this list soon.

Recapping: Current phones using a WiLink 6.0 chipset are ANT+ capable, 
requiring a firmware update and of course an app. Phones with the WiLink 7.0 
chipset are ANT+ ready, again, with an app. 

MyTracks said ANT+ support will be added in a future release. (comment 9, 
above): http://code.google.com/p/mytracks/issues/detail?id=9#c9 

"Handsets leveraging the WiLink family of solutions supporting ANT-enabled 
technologies are expected to be available third quarter 2010" -from the Texas 
Instruments press release link (comments 22 and 26, above)

-David
Runningdigital.com

Original comment by djh.sthlm on 20 Jul 2010 at 9:41

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Is there any further information about the ANT+ Bluetooth Adapters? 

I know of a Taiwanese company that makes ANT+ SD Cards($450 or so for a dev 
kit), but I'm very interested in other options.

Original comment by nick.lot...@gmail.com on 6 Aug 2010 at 3:56

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Issue 154 has been merged into this issue.

Original comment by sandordo...@google.com on 10 Sep 2010 at 5:52

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Tour de France see 
http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2010/07/behind-scenes-of-team-htc-columbia-and.html 
had live data but My Tracks doesn't do live update to servers, only archival 
update. Therefore there must be another version with this feature. Can you make 
available a version with live updates please.

Original comment by kenep...@gmail.com on 20 Sep 2010 at 12:32

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I'm also quite interested in the version of MyTracks that was running on the 
phones in the 2010 TDF.

Original comment by dbear...@gmail.com on 20 Sep 2010 at 10:00

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If you want to follow along I am starting to submit bits and pieces of the TDF 
code to the main line.

You can see it here:
http://code.google.com/r/sandordornbush-release/source/browse

So far this only adds Bluetooth sensor support.  ANT+ will take a bit more time.

Original comment by sandordo...@google.com on 20 Sep 2010 at 10:50

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Sandor, your priority is perfect. I can get a bluetooth sensor (Zephyr) today 
that will work on virtually any Android V2 phone but Android phones with ANT+ 
support are rare to nonexistent. By the time ANT+-capable Android phones are 
widely available, I'm sure you'll have the support in place. Many thanks.

Original comment by joeell...@gmail.com on 20 Sep 2010 at 11:03

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Motorola's Droid X is ANT+ ready... with a firmware update.  The Droid X uses 
texas instruments WiLink 6.0 which supports ANT+ protocol.

Original comment by claytonp...@gmail.com on 28 Sep 2010 at 9:13

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Hi, Any news on when HxM support will be added into My Tracks ?

Original comment by barcelon...@gmail.com on 29 Sep 2010 at 10:21

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I'll give you an update but no eta.

I have uploaded code to my clone which can talk to a Zephyr hrm.  I can see 
that a number of people have made clones of this.  So a few people are probably 
playing with it.

Unfortunately the code is far from complete.
- I know it has bugs.
- It performs horribly.
- It has stability issues.
- The database format is not fixed.  So data created with this version will 
likely not be compatible with future versions.
- There are no tests for the new code.

I am on my second data model, but I am not at all happy with it.  Here are the 
design constraints:
- It should be compact in the DB and RAM for people who don't use sensors.
- It should perform decently for people who do.
- It should be flexible to accommodate future sensor types.  Currently I care 
about power, heart rate, cadence and temperature.  Other people like Rodrigo 
want to use this for pilots who have very different variables they want to 
track.

The first design added a few extra columns to the trackpoint db.  That is 
wasteful for people who don't use sensors.

The second design had two tables one for trackpoints and one for sensor 
readings.  Without an index the resulting join is painfully slow.

I think what Rodrigo and I decided to do was to add one optional string to each 
trackpoint.  The optional string will not cause much wasted space for 
non-sensor users.  The string will be a serialized protocol buffer.  Protocol 
buffers are good at being compact and easily extensible.

Since I have never used protocol buffers in Java or Android it will take me a 
little while to come up to speed on it.  I doubt anything useful until sometime 
next week.

Original comment by sandordo...@google.com on 30 Sep 2010 at 5:04

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"...publically available ANT+ enabled (yes, firmware and all) phones.  Check 
out the below pics showing it picking up a few ANT+ sensors that are out there. 
Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini (Android)[...] Yes, the platform will allow 3rd 
party developers to take advantage of the ANT+ chipset right from the start.  
It’ll also be the start of a family of devices, for example the X10 Mini Pro, 
which has a built-in keyboard."
http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2010/09/my-24-hour-trip-to-ant-symposium.html 

Sony Ericsson has also released LiveView, a small 1,3” OLED-display bluetooth 
gadget. The demo video shows it can present the heart rate from the phone. 
The big question is if the gadget is water resistant, like IP-rating IPx6 or 
IPx7 so you could have it mounted on the bike when you train in the rain. 
http://blogs.sonyericsson.com/products/2010/09/28/sony-ericsson-liveview%E2%84%A
2/ 

(I'm not related with any of the blog writers, so I only hope that the 
X10-phones already sold is capable of ANT+. But it still requires Android 2.x, 
wich unfortunately SE still doesn't have released for their mobiles.)

Original comment by ken.back...@gmail.com on 30 Sep 2010 at 11:08

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I have included a release apk if anyone wants to play with the Zephyr hrm 
pairing.  I have used it a fair bit and it seems to work fairly well.

That said we are not confident in the changes and want to stabilize the app 
before I go and break lots of stuff.

I want to stress that this is an experimental build.  If you choose to try this 
please backup your tracks before you start.  No guarantee that your tracks will 
not get corrupted.

If you are brave and installed this anyways please report your results.

Original comment by sandordo...@google.com on 20 Oct 2010 at 9:56

Attachments:

• MyTracks-opensource-bt-sensors.apk

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Hi. Thanks! I'm testing it now. 

My preliminary comments:-

Using Nexus One, 2.2 Cyanogen 6. Zephyr HxM.

Sensor Options Works well so far. 
Sensor State will only Connect/show Sensor State once Track recording is 
running, would be good to have working Connection/Sensor State when not 
recording too.

No cadence/accelerometer data displaying.

How do I access the logged data? Will it be embedded in GPX or other existing 
export files?

If you want me to test anything specifically, just ask. 

I'll keep testing and upload logs once I get some more data/test runs.

Original comment by matt...@gmail.com on 21 Oct 2010 at 2:42

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Yup the sensor is only connected when recording.

I was not able to work out the cadence from the Zephyr.  That should be fixed 
soonish.

The heart rate can be seen on the chart view or in TCX files.

I'm more just looking for general feedback and to see if there are any crashes 
left lurking in the app.

Original comment by sandordo...@google.com on 21 Oct 2010 at 3:39

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Probably both related to the experimental state of this build, no initial
migration of old data:
- FC when I installed the experimental apk over the top of the old MyTracks
install, 'Clear Data' from 'Manage Applications' fixed it.
- I tried to restore the backup with some success, I can see that there are
tracks under 'Tracks' but can't load them and review them anymore, something
that I guess will receive polish as part of the upgrade process.

Matt

Original comment by matt...@gmail.com on 21 Oct 2010 at 4:04

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The migration has been implemented, but there is a minor bug the prevents from 
properly upgrading the DB schema, so for now please use Clear Data as a 
workaround.

Original comment by ba...@google.com on 24 Oct 2010 at 3:25

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Great, once the schema upgrade is ready for testing I'll revert to stock and
restore my backup, then test to update process.

I don't know if this is a bug specific to this experimental version, but I
can't select a previously recorded tracks (as recorded with the experimental
version) via menu / Tracks / select.

Original comment by matt...@gmail.com on 24 Oct 2010 at 5:44

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Thanks for your work on this!

I'm particularly interested in the ANT+ compatibility.  (I'd like to hook this 
up to a powertap wheel as well as a Garmin heartrate monitor.)  I saw an 
earlier comment saying much of this work has already been done for the version 
used for the mytrackstour mashup.  Is there any way for the community to help 
out with this portion of things?  (e.g. testing, coding, etc.)  

Original comment by chris.du...@gmail.com on 24 Oct 2010 at 5:59

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Right now the biggest help would be to get people testing these apks.  There 
are several bugs that people have identified I will fix and cut a new release.

Unfortunately we don't have support for ANT+ in this build.  I hope to release 
that soon but we have to get bluetooth nailed down first.

Original comment by sandordo...@google.com on 25 Oct 2010 at 4:24

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What phone hardware is needed for this? (Specifically, should a Galaxy S work?)

Original comment by nick.lot...@gmail.com on 25 Oct 2010 at 9:26

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Any modern phone should support bluetooth. I don't know what phones will 
support ANT+ going forward.

Original comment by sandordo...@google.com on 25 Oct 2010 at 10:07

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Original comment by sandordo...@google.com on 27 Oct 2010 at 5:16

• Added labels: Priority-High, Work-Large
• Removed labels: OpSys-Android, Priority-Low

[GoogleCodeExporter]

hi, i own a galaxy s &  the zephyr HRM (works like a charm with a number of 
apps, eg endomondo) and would be able to test. where can i get the apk? or do i 
need to complile the clone? 
thanks for good work anway!
br
gp

Original comment by gabriel....@gmail.com on 30 Oct 2010 at 10:55

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The apk is attached in a previous post above. Would love to hear your
experiences on the galaxy.

Original comment by matt...@gmail.com on 30 Oct 2010 at 12:04