Support for S610i and S720i
Version 3.6.0 is the first PC Coach to support the new models coming from Polar with the letter 'i' after the name. These include the S610i, the S710i and the S720i. Only the S610i and the S720i are available in the US. The 'i' designation means that the monitor is compliant with the irDA standard for Infra-red interfacing devices. To the user, this means that if your laptop has a built-in IR port, these monitors can talk directly to your PC using this port, without the need for the Polar interface kit. Be aware that you must tell PC Coach that you are using a direct irDA port. Do this from the Data Transfer Center: choose 'Manage Data Sources', select your monitor type, and choose 'Edit Setup Options'.

Uploading
Much development effort in 3.6 went to improve the operations related to uploading workout definitions into your heart monitor. This involves the do-it-yourself method using the Exercise Definition Manager, the automatic method from the Quick Setup for S610 and S710, and the automatic one-shot method from the Workout View. Here they are in detail:

Exercise Definition Manager
This is the wizard you get to if you want to define your own set of heart rate zones, timers, interval method etc. Invoke it by clicking on the Data Center, then choose Upload Data, and then choose Workout Setup. This opens what is called the Exercise Definition Manager. One change you will notice immediately is that at the first screen of the Exercise Definition Manager, when you select any already existing definition (single click), a summary of its settings is given.

There are changes throughout this wizard. Most have to do with making the user interface easier. In all cases, I try now to disable any entry field that is not used because of higher-level selection, enabling only the one that fits: if you say timers 2 and 3 are unused, for example, their entry fields for the timer times are grayed out.

The other type of change that permeates the Exercise Definition Manager is a tighter control on valid entries. Now the user is notified immediately upon entering a value that is not within the accepted range, such as a heart rate below 30 or above 240.

Upload Exercise Definitions from Quick Setup
When you use the Quick Setup feature with a Polar S610 or S710 or S720, you can, with one simple operation, download any past workouts that are stored on your monitor, clear them from the monitor, upload the definitions of the next five workouts found on your calendar, and choose some specific settings, such as turning on/off altitude, cycling features, selecting which bike to use, and changing the sampling rate.

Previously, when finding upcoming workouts to upload, I did not check whether the prior workouts on a given day were uploadable or not. The result was that if you had a Health Log on the calendar earlier on the same day as the workout to be uploaded, the workout name that was uploaded to the monitor would look like We 23 2, meaning Wednesday the 23rd, 2nd workout, when in reality it was the first real workout on that day. Now the naming logic disregards any workouts that are not uploadable (meaning they lack the special instructions that define the automatic upload function). This makes things less confusing when you cycle through the stored definitions on your monitor, looking for the right one for today's workout.

Workout View Upload Feature
When you have workouts scheduled on your calendar, they can contain planned data, either created by yourself, your RCS coach, or your training plan. You can double click that workout, opening the Workout View, and then click on the heart monitor button beside the planned data. This will upload the planned data for that workout into your monitor. Previously, this uploaded definition would display 'PCCOACH' on the monitor. This was confusing if you wanted to upload more than one, and several monitors will hold five definitions. Now it follows the format used for the Quick Setup: a workout on Friday the 6th will display as Fri 06 on the monitor. If there are multiple workouts on Friday the 6th that have upload capability, the first will appear as Fri 06 1, the second as Fri 06 2.