Notices

That reminds me, I patched 1.66 some time ago. You can find it attached.

I did talk to Polar last summer about sharing the specs but it became clear that they don't know how open source works or what they can gain from it. Basically they require an NDA in order to hand out the specs. The problem of course is that if you sign the NDA and implement the protocol, you can't share the source code without breaking the NDA.

I don't know anything much about the future of eCoach, you'll have to ask @sampppa. IIRC, Qt is the way to go.

--Martin

@gunni: just return the Polar device as they do not want to support it.

Spread a word around, noone should buy Polar products. Zephyr's are so much better anyway and have open source policy.
Let's see how long Polar thinks the same there is nothing to be gain with open source policy.

@zimon: Polar was the only i found to buy here. And returning it ... well would be money spend on shipping. Dont think its worth.
But i will try to contact polar, maybe if many people contact them they will share some info.

Is this really what this means? I thought kernel hackers sign NDA that allow them to write open source drivers.

Yes but wasn't the intention to allow the kernel hackers to work on pre-release hardware? After the hardware was released for sale, the NDA would be void and they could release the source code under the GPL.

Anyway, basically you're just translating the protocol spec from English into C or C++. The same details are visible in the source code. If the company considers the protocol a trade secret you can't share the source code. Or that's how I understand it (IANAL).

hi!

First of all, thanks for all your work. I have downloaded the polar patch but I don't know how to install... so, could you help me please.

Thanks in advance

Well, presumably you downloaded the already patched ecoach_1.66_mvw_armel.deb from a few posts back?

If so, you just need to move the .deb file to your N900 and then find it in the file manager and open it. This should launch the application manager and if you wait patiently for a minute or two the installation should start.

Well Martin you just became my hero!

I've been using a crappy Nokia 5230 on my runs as it was supported with Nokia Sports Tracker and Polar Wearlink... I hate it. Now I do have the option of returning to eCoach!

As I applied the patch, there became visible an update for eCoach. Is this a versioning conflict - meaning that if I do update the software, it will override the patch?

But thanks again Martin! Thank you, thank you, thank you so much!

A little bugreport, if ecoach is still developed on:

If running with heartrate monitor (i use the patched version from mvonweiss) sometimes it seems that heartrate monitor disconnects, or at least wont get saved (happened twice only, from 20 times, so no big deal). The problem is, that ecoach then only calculates the time where heartrate data is available, but should take the time where gps data is available, as the distance is taken from the gps.

As example, if running 1 hour, 10 km, but heartrate monitor disconnects after 30 minutes, eCoach says you ran 30 minutes average speed 20km/h.
It would be best if ecoach adds a dummy heartrate value, as heiaheia has the same problem, and this way it could be prevented.
Now, if i see this, i manually add a dummy value for the heartrate with the latest time from gps.

I bought a Nokia LS-14 Polar Bluetooth HR Belt for my n900.

I want my HR to be visible with https://www.endomondo.com/ workouts i now use the gpsrecorder app for the GPS recording and to convert and upload .gpx files.

Can somebody get the HR belt to work? Should i return the belt? What other bluetooth HR belt should I buy?