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Elliptical workouts and garmin 935

Former Member over 6 years ago

I am a recent owner of garmin forerunner 935. I also own spirit fitness eGlide XG400 elliptical machine. It is several years old and appears to not have any way to export workout data, the version I have seems to not have any Bluetooth capability. I've done a fair amount of research and found there is a 3rd party elliptical app by FBBBrown. The challenge has been to get the distance recorded when using that. There is a Garmin elliptical app as well, same issue, no mileage is recorded. In researching this further, I found out that some folks are using bike cadence device on their elliptical to get that missing distance info. Some of that info I have found is older. So, Wanted to inquire if that is still the most current way to go about getting the 'miles' recorded ?

Is there a preferred cadence bike device that is being used by most here that has the widest compatibility and accuracy. While I have the garmin watch, the wife has the iWatch.

As an unrelated sidebar - I do NOT recommend anyone to purchase spirit fitness equipment. I have sent them several emails and left several voicemails for support, all have fallen over deaf ears, they have ZERO customer care service.

thanks for your input.
XMFan

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0 myfric over 6 years ago

The built-in Garmin elliptical activity just marks your workout as an "elliptical" activity for reference. It doesn't actually do anything else other than record your heartrate and time spent.

FBBBrown's elliptical app will do what you want. You just need to enter the length of the elliptical stride. Experiment with different values until you get a distance that's similar to what you get on your elliptical's display. Bike cadence sensor is not necessary if you always keep your hands on the handles and enable the high frequency accelerometer function.

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

myfric - thank you for your feedback.

while researching, I also came to a similar conclusion regarding the FBBBrown's elliptical app, quite possibly being sufficient for my needs. After some some fine tuning, I would get fairly accurate results.

Reason I was considering the bike cadence sensor so it could be a multi purpose device for both, my Garmin 935 and the wife's iWatch. Reading on the net, some have been successful using the garmin and wahoo cadence sensors. One person even used an inexpensive unknown chinese brand (about 1/2 the cost of wahoo) and had success with it.

As for me, I am leaning towards the wahoo for product reliability, compatibility and support, if I need it. it is ANT+ and Bluetooth. Their app seems to integrate with Garmin Connect. I would need to experiment and see where exactly the bike sensor will get mounted. The sides of the weighted front wheel has practically no clearance from its housing. I will look to mount it on part of the elliptical link mechanism that moves in a rotational orientation.

0 myfric over 6 years ago

I have a cheap Chinese cadence sensor too, about 1/10 the cost of Wahoo cadence sensor. It's ANT+/BLE just like Wahoo, and it's also a selectable dual function cadence/speed sensor unlike other brands that have separate cadence and speed sensors. I've not tested it on the elliptical since I use FBBBrown's app, but it doesn't need full rotations to detect cadence, i.e. I can shake it and get a cadence value. Wahoo's cadence sensor even comes with a shoe lace mount so it also doesn't need vertical rotation to work.

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

myfric - I did end up purchasing the wahoo cadence sensor. I've downloaded the wahoo app, taped it to the elliptical rotational arms near the fly wheel and I do see the cadence value, but no distance. apologies, as new to this, if you can provide some specific instructions, it would be of BIG help. I would like to get this functionality (distance) reading, not only on the forerunner watch, but on an iphone. I realize this may not be the correct forum for that but thought to ask =)

thank you

0 myfric over 6 years ago

Sorry, the cadence sensor will only give you cadence and not distance, you'll need a speed sensor to get distance. If you don't use FBBBrown's app for converting from cadence to speed, you'll need to use an additional speed sensor and mount it to the "wheel" of the elliptical to simulate the speed and thus get distance. It wouldn't be very accurate and will only give you a very rough record of the workout.

0 CloggyAbroad over 6 years ago

I don't understand this obsession with 'distance' on a stationary piece of gym equipment. As you are not going anywhere, your recorded 'distance' is totally irrelevant. What does matter is the intensity and duration of the workout. The 935 will record that just fine without external sensors and additional datafields.

0 Bit over 6 years ago

I used to have an elliptical at home and made it record 'distance' by sticking a traditional bike speed sensor to the frame and a magnet on the flywheel, then calculated which wheel size was needed to make a Fenix 3 show the same distance as was on the display of the elliptical. If you can find something on the elliptical that rotates and where you can stick a magnetless speed sensor on, it might also work. For comparing one elliptical session with another and as an added fun factor this was quite nice.

0 Former Member over 5 years ago in reply to Bit

Do you get the distance populated in the main screen?

0 6484539 over 2 years ago in reply to CloggyAbroad

The obsession is in trying to be able to track all of the data metrics for your body's performance. Ideally a product would allow unification of this data into an ultimate fitness score so that one can map performance across all workouts. Not everyone is just and outdoor runner.