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 | Speed and Distance monitor Review - page 3 |
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| Speed and Distance monitor Review - page 3 |
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Page 3 - Accuracy, Price, Storage, Software
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Polar and Suunto
Except in cases of interference, the bottom line for Polar and Suunto is this: cycling accuracy is as perfect as your wheel measurement. You can decide to take the book value for your wheel, or roll it along the sidewalk, with your weight on the bike and the tires pumped to your standard pressure, and mark the distance of one revolution. Cycling accuracy is not a problem.
For both Polar and Suunto, since the underlying technology is the same, the running accuracy goes like this. If you care a lot about accuracy, take it to the track and calibrate it, running at the pace you care the most about. (Note: For any given workout, the greater the difference between your actual pace and the calibrated pace, the greater the error.) Here we are talking about a very small error to my thinking, like low single digit percentage. If calibrated at the pace you normally run at, you can expect 99% accuracy.
If that is not good enough, such as for an evaluation run or short interval workouts, it's best to go to the track and use a stop watch. For other, non-eval workouts, be glad that you can get this data in a very close approximation, and enjoy the freedom to run anywhere you want. To me, dwelling on a small amount of error is missing the point of this very useful technology. Likewise, turning every workout into an evaluation is missing the point in a larger sense.
For the Timex system, if it fits your needs in other respects, accuracy is dead on except in a couple of cases. Dense tree cover or surrounding tall buildings can cause a loss of signal. Also, tight turns (such as a running track) can introduce error as you round off the corners of those thousands of tiny GPS rectangles, so don’t take it to the track to ‘prove it out’.
Here is how similarly outfitted systems compare both in MSRP and in everyday price as found at our online store. (Other internet stores’ prices are generally the same as ours.) By similarly outfitted, I mean everything you need to get heart rate, running speed/dist, cycling speed/dist, and altitude, and to download the results onto your PC.
| Comparable System (speed and distance for run and bike, HRM, and download to PC) | MSRP | Everyday price |
| Timex Trail Runner + Data Recorder 2 | $425 | $375 |
| Polar S625X + Cycling Speed Sensor + PC Interface | $450 | $430 |
| Polar S725X + Running Speed Sensor + PC Interface | $510 | $490 |
| Suunto T6 + Cycling Speed Sensor + Running Speed Sensor | $718 | $624 |
As a side note, if you are already a Polar HRM user, you may already own the cycling speed sensor or IR interface, making that system cost up to $80 less.
Editor's Note: With the sale we are having right now, all of these systems are an even better bargain. Please see our November newsletter for sale details.
http://www.pccoach.com/newsletters/Nov05/index.html
Polar
The watch contains enough memory to store ‘a lot’ of workouts. The storage time depends on what senders are turned on, and whether the altimeter is turned on, and the sample rate you choose ( 5 seconds, 15 seconds, or one minute) but even with everything on and fast sampling there is room for a couple of weeks worth of workouts. The software keeps you well informed about how full your memory is, and how many hours that will store with the current settings. The monitor will also show this, in a sub-menu where you can select the sample rate.
The specifications indicate 128 kB of memory. The documentation suggests that this might last 14 hours at 120 beats/min with other data inputs stored as well. Based on this description, and the fact that their EPOC feature requires storing the time between each heartbeat, I suspect it means that if your heart rate is higher, you would fill the memory faster. You can select a sample rate of either 2 or 10 seconds for the altitude and speed data, but the description gives no details about the effects of that on total storage time. I have not yet found a way for either the software or the monitor to tell how full the memory is. Best guess at present is that 14 hours is about what you should expect to store.
Timex is all about options. The Data Recorder 2 can be configured via their software to record HR only, Speed and Distance only, HR and Speed/Distance, or HR with full lat-long ( which they refer to as GPS 3D) the storage time varies with your choice:
HRM data only: 72 hours
Spd/dist data only: 26 hours
HRM plus Spd/dist: 14 hours
HRM plus GPS 3D: 7 hours
To get altitude, you need to choose the GPS 3D option, so you are limited to 7 hours. You need to decide this when at your computer , before your workout , because the data recorder can only be set up to record specific data via the software.
Polar
Two-way communication with either the Polar software (or PC Coach ) is easy. This approach uses infra-red between the watch and a dongle which then plugs into either USB or serial ports (if you don’t specify, we ship USB). It is a robust interface as long as you get the watch IR lens pointed at the dongle, and vise versa, with 3 to 5 inches between. Once you get that right, there is seldom a problem.
Polar’s PPP software has improved in recent years and you might be happy with it, if your main focus is to download and analyze your workout data. It is the best software of the three companies. Shown at left is the PPP software graph of my running workout. It is showing my heart rate, altitude, and speed on the three overlaid graphs. The PPP software has many enhancements for looking at your data - one example of this is the ability to select one part of your workout and "zoom in" - seeing the heart rate, speed, and altitude in more detail.
A note about other software: If you wish to plan ahead or get training advice, you can use PC Coach software to set up and download your workouts from both the Polar S625X and S725X. PC Coach is compatible with all the features of the Polar system, and offers an approach that is more focused on supporting the athlete's training before and after the workout as well as downloading your workout data. (See our software page for more details.) You can also move Polar’s .hrm format data files freely between PC Coach and PPP after downloading into either program.
The Suunto T6 has a USB interface built into it. A custom USB cable with an alligator style clip on one end is included, and attaches to metal contact points on the back of the watch. Suunto’s software is the runner-up. It is new, version 1.3.4, and it definitely looks like a first release, with some things hardcoded that should be options. It will ask, for example, whether you want Metric or ‘Imperial’ units, but it still gives a European approach, with date/times that look like ll.10 / 15:34, meaning Nov 10 of some year, at 3:34PM.
The Suunto interface is bi-directional, but they don’t make very good use of the upload capability. You can configure your choice of units for all types of data, which you will do one time probably. After that, you can upload one set of heart rate limits, but no speed or pace limits. I found that to be very restrictive compared to Polar’s system of applying one of three sets of any of those at various times during the workout. Suunto does not have the equivalent of Polar’s ‘Exercise Definition Sets’, which are used to describe the workout you intend. Keeping in mind that software can be upgraded, we hope to see some improvement in this capability next year.
The above graph shows the same workout (as shown above with the Polar PPP software), in the Suunto training manager. The image shows my heart rate, respiration rate, altitude, and speed - all in one stacked graph. One nice feature of the Suunto software is the ability to select and hide graphs with one click. (PC Coach also has this ability...)
PC Coach users: PC Coach is not yet compatible with the Suunto t6. But we have applied for a development license, so we hope to see that in early 2006.
The Timex Data Recorder 2 allows for a special USB cable ( shipped in the package ) to clip onto it. Plug in the other end to your USB port and off you go. No problems. The Timex software however is still stuck in a 1.0 time warp, and doesn’t show any sign of moving. New from the last release: the ability to look at the altitude graph, and the ability to export both an NMEA text file and a Timex .csv file with lat/long data.
To support their flagship hardware feature of lat and long data, you can display a plot of a meandering line. There is no map in the background and no X-Y axis, so it is pretty meaningless except that it points out waypoints every mile, ½ mile, or ¼ mile. These are not the waypoints you saved along the way – those are not downloaded. They need some major improvements here. Fortunately, there is a lot of 3 rd party activity around location data, and a number of companies offer support for the Timex file format ( the Timex .csv file itself) to show you a map context behind the meandering line of your trek. Using a 3rd party website to perform this task is far from seamless, but if you have enough patience you can super-impose your workout over a map.
PC Coach has been compatible with the original Data Recorder for some time now and it is working well. An upcoming release will be compatible with Data Recorder 2 early in 2006, for adding altitude to the dataset, and also to allow you to manually enter those lap times that are now only on the watch.
To go straight to the summary of this review, click here.
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