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Speed & Cadence ANT+ on Concept2 Rower PM5

Nils
over 4 years ago

I recently updated my PM5 Firmware on my Rower and can now go deeper to see additional ANT+ sensors for Speed and Cadence (FE-C). I know that the ErgIQ app can leverage these, but I am wondering if I could just connect these sensors directly to the Garmin Indoor Rowing app. When I start the Indoor Rowing activity, I see icons pop up for speed and cadence meaning that the watch is searching for them, but I'm able to find these sensors on my watch when searching for the new connection. Anyone have any idea Why?

What is weird, is that I CAN connect to speed and cadence ANT+ sensors natively from Indoor Cycling activity on my C2 BikeErg. 

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to Marbuel

    Excellent summary @Marbuel. Thanks for getting in touch with support to confirm some of our assumptions. 

    For all three Concept2 machines, I've been connecting ErgData phone app as well as having a parallel activity on my Fenix, and just letting both activities sit in Garmin Connect... However, going forward, I may drop the ErgData sync into Garmin, and only sync Indoor Bike activity for BikeErg, and ErgIQ activity for Row and Ski Ergs, and then manually add the distances into the GC activity after it syncs (this gives distance and avg pace records, so not sure what else is really missing with this one extra manual step?)

    (BTW, you may want to edit your sixth paragraph to say "Rower and *SkiErg" so people catching up on the thread in the future don't get confused.)

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to Nils

    We have to push Garmin to implement FE-C and then FirstBeat to get VO2 max for rower and SkiErg.

    I think rowers are used to measure VO2 max so there has to be ton of data. And the user base cannot be that insignificant.

    Just received my BikeErg. Connection to Garmin was OK after couple back and forth. So it behaves like a smart trainer. Unfortunately, I think it shows about 20-30W less than what I was getting from Tacx smart trainer. But hey ... It's just a number, no? I would like to compare the BikeErg with proper power meter at some point. Just to know.

  • 0 over 4 years ago

    Guys,

    I just wanted to tell you that I contacted Concept2 service and asked how to connect reliably both CAD+SPD and PWR at the same time. Here is what they said:

    "Here are the steps that I've taken to get both ANT+ PWR and ANT+ SPD/CAD to advertise at the same time:

    Connect
    Connect ANT+
    ANT+ PWR
    Remember ANT+
    Connect ANT+ 
    ANT+ SPD/CAD (Power will disconnect at this point) ***Don't hit remember on SPD/CAD***
    Menu X 2

    Once you're on the Main Menu, Power will advertise because it's remembered and SPD/CAD is already advertising.

    I hope this works for you. Keep in mind that this is a work-around, which is why it's not user-friendly at this point. The 'Remember ANT+' function was not intended to be used this way but it works well for this purpose. I'll pass the feedback over to the developers that there's a need for a more intuitive way to do this."

    I tried myself and it works. Next time you turn PM5 on, PWR is connected without doing anything but SPD+CAD is not. So you only do:

    Connect ANT+ 
    ANT+ SPD/CAD

    (not "Remember")

    And this will give you both sensors connected.

    Best,

    Marek

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to Marbuel

    This is great... But how can I use this for the rower? Which activity I choose on the watch? Is it possible to combine with ErgData?

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to jabbba

    You can't, per my first reply in this thread.

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to gaijin

    Time to do your FTP test JoyJoy. I will be using this technique Sunday. See if it works on a 5x

  • 0 over 3 years ago

    Not sure if coincidence but I stumbled on this thread when trying to research my pm5 rower to my fenix6.  I updated to the latest pm5 firmware and it broadcasts over ant+ seamlessly to my garmin, incl pace, distance, stroke etc.  I’m a happy camper!

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to leo95se

    You can do some catching up with developments here https://forums.garmin.com/outdoor-recreation/outdoor-recreation/f/fenix-6-series/244070/indoor-row-connecting-to-concept2-fe-c-as-trainer/1169851#1169851

    It was released in 12.77 beta just over a month ago and then recently released as production software with 12.10.  There's lots of happy campers following this feature addition (or perhaps restoration of a feature on much older Garmin watches).