Polar and irda.

[Gumby]

Greetings, a bit of a pc technophobe but like bling, every technicians
dream maybe?
Running a ****y Desktop Pent 4 3GHz, 1 GB Ram yada. Bought a Polar s725
and a cheapie $10 irda dongle, drivers installed. Fscking Polar cannot
talk to irda. Just will not handshake and download exercise information
to the ****y.
How do I know if the irda has ir photodiodes so the s725 is pointing in
generally the right direction? The books state 6" and +/- 15 deg
Polar forums on web not 'exactly' helpful but a good start.
Any others out there with experience in this matter or should I just get
the Proprietry Polar IR Interface.
I also have an s520 that uses soniclink through the microphone and that
works fine.
Any help comments or distractions welcome.
Steven

[adam85]

Gumby Wrote:
> Greetings, a bit of a pc technophobe but like bling, every technicians
> dream maybe?
> Running a ****y Desktop Pent 4 3GHz, 1 GB Ram yada. Bought a Pola
> s725
> and a cheapie $10 irda dongle, drivers installed. Fscking Polar cannot
> talk to irda. Just will not handshake and download exercis
> information
> to the ****y.
> How do I know if the irda has ir photodiodes so the s725 is pointin
> in
> generally the right direction? The books state 6" and +/- 15 deg
> Polar forums on web not 'exactly' helpful but a good start.
> Any others out there with experience in this matter or should I jus
> get
> the Proprietry Polar IR Interface.
> I also have an s520 that uses soniclink through the microphone an
> that
> works fine.
> Any help comments or distractions welcome.
> Steven

I had the same problem, and the answer was that the polar software wil
not work with a USB infrared adaptor that uses the SIGMATEL chip. I too
mine back and bought a BELKIN. You can check the chipset in contro
panel->system->hardware->device manager->properties

See this post on the forum at www.pursuit-performance.com.au
-------------------
The only chipset we are aware of is the SIGMATEL; it appears in th
BAFO and SPIRIT devices (both appear nearly identical), that we kno
of.
We have been using for test purposes, either a BELKIN purchased fro
Harvey Norman or a similar device purchased from Jaycar Electronic
(the device manager reports the manufacturer as KC Technology, Inc.
Both of these work with no problems with any "i" model plus mobil
phones etc.

Note. We have not heard of any laptop builtin IrDA ports not workin
with the "i" models.


Pursuit Performance Pty Ltd
------------------

--
adam85

[Gemma_k]

"dtmeister" > wrote in message
u...
> Gumby > wrote:
> > Greetings, a bit of a pc technophobe but like bling, every technicians
> > dream maybe?
> > Running a ****y Desktop Pent 4 3GHz, 1 GB Ram yada. Bought a Polar s725
> > and a cheapie $10 irda dongle, drivers installed. Fscking Polar cannot
> > talk to irda. Just will not handshake and download exercise information
> > to the ****y.
> > How do I know if the irda has ir photodiodes so the s725 is pointing in
> > generally the right direction? The books state 6" and +/- 15 deg
> > Polar forums on web not 'exactly' helpful but a good start.
> > Any others out there with experience in this matter or should I just get
> > the Proprietry Polar IR Interface.
> > I also have an s520 that uses soniclink through the microphone and that
> > works fine.
> > Any help comments or distractions welcome.
>
> I have the 720i and I've never been able to make it work with my IR
> dongle (which works fine with my other IR gadgets). I'm unclear as
> to exactly why, but I've spent many hours googling and trying various
> things, to no avail. Many others seem to have the same problem.
>
> I think the answer is to buy the Polar USB/Serial IR interface. :(
> www.deanwoods.com.au have them for $79.
>
I had exactly the same trouble with my dongle. I was ****ed off so I went
into the australian polar distributor to see what I was doing wrong. Turned
out that Polar have some IR issues and not all dongles work with the Polar
products (Mine was a USB Spirit). The nice guys at Polar GAVE me the proper
batman IR interface which works a treat, just for the trouble I took to add
to their dongle-don't-work collection. Apparently there were issues with
XP/USB polar IR interfacing back then too, so I got a Serial port type.
Seems it may be a USB issue rather than an IR issue as everyone I know with
a laptop with built in IR has no problem....
I suggest you ring polar here in Adelaide and see whether they can help
you....

gemma

[Gumby]

Gemma_k wrote:
> "dtmeister" > wrote in message
> u...
>
>>Gumby > wrote:
>>
>>>Greetings, a bit of a pc technophobe but like bling, every technicians
>>>dream maybe?
>>>Running a ****y Desktop Pent 4 3GHz, 1 GB Ram yada. Bought a Polar s725
>>>and a cheapie $10 irda dongle, drivers installed. Fscking Polar cannot
>>>talk to irda. Just will not handshake and download exercise information
>>>to the ****y.
>>>How do I know if the irda has ir photodiodes so the s725 is pointing in
>>>generally the right direction? The books state 6" and +/- 15 deg
>>>Polar forums on web not 'exactly' helpful but a good start.
>>>Any others out there with experience in this matter or should I just get
>>>the Proprietry Polar IR Interface.
>>>I also have an s520 that uses soniclink through the microphone and that
>>>works fine.
>>>Any help comments or distractions welcome.
>>
>>I have the 720i and I've never been able to make it work with my IR
>>dongle (which works fine with my other IR gadgets). I'm unclear as
>>to exactly why, but I've spent many hours googling and trying various
>>things, to no avail. Many others seem to have the same problem.
>>
>>I think the answer is to buy the Polar USB/Serial IR interface. :(
>>www.deanwoods.com.au have them for $79.
>>
>
> I had exactly the same trouble with my dongle. I was ****ed off so I went
> into the australian polar distributor to see what I was doing wrong. Turned
> out that Polar have some IR issues and not all dongles work with the Polar
> products (Mine was a USB Spirit). The nice guys at Polar GAVE me the proper
> batman IR interface which works a treat, just for the trouble I took to add
> to their dongle-don't-work collection. Apparently there were issues with
> XP/USB polar IR interfacing back then too, so I got a Serial port type.
> Seems it may be a USB issue rather than an IR issue as everyone I know with
> a laptop with built in IR has no problem....
> I suggest you ring polar here in Adelaide and see whether they can help
> you....
>
> gemma
>
>
Thanks very much guys. I was trying to work out which angle the ir
window should talk to the dongle, it was getting late 11pm and my brain
was shutting down. I do not have any other IR devices to work with to
test the dongle, so I might have to mark this one off the experience and
see what I can do.
Ho hum.
One good thing thought the s725 does have a much better memory than the
s520 and can save many exercise sessions before needing to be downloaded
to the PPP software.

[Bleve]

I've had no problems with laptops reading my 720, and I have 2 IrDA USB
adaptors, one works, so far the other doesn't. You don't need to
donate $lots to polar to get them working.
The one I have that works is a "MosChip Semiconductor Technology
Limited",
driver version 1.0.0.8. I got it from XON computers in the city
(Melbourne).

[Gumby]

Bleve wrote:
> I've had no problems with laptops reading my 720, and I have 2 IrDA USB
> adaptors, one works, so far the other doesn't. You don't need to
> donate $lots to polar to get them working.
> The one I have that works is a "MosChip Semiconductor Technology
> Limited",
> driver version 1.0.0.8. I got it from XON computers in the city
> (Melbourne).
>
dammit dammit
polar is my favourite charity
:-(

[Carl Brewer]

On Wed, 29 Jun 2005 14:10:17 +1000, adam85
> wrote:


>See this post on the forum at www.pursuit-performance.com.au
>-------------------
>The only chipset we are aware of is the SIGMATEL; it appears in the
>BAFO and SPIRIT devices (both appear nearly identical), that we know
>of.
>We have been using for test purposes, either a BELKIN purchased from
>Harvey Norman or a similar device purchased from Jaycar Electronics
>(the device manager reports the manufacturer as KC Technology, Inc.)
>Both of these work with no problems with any "i" model plus mobile
>phones etc.
>
>Note. We have not heard of any laptop builtin IrDA ports not working
>with the "i" models.
>
>
>Pursuit Performance Pty Ltd
>-------------------

My other one (now I'm at work and can check it!) shows up in the
device mangler as a DonShine, driver ver 1.0.0.0. This one
(so far) doesn't seem to work. You can't tell what make the thing
is until it's too late ... they're all anonymous from a yumcha
computer shop.

[Carl Brewer]

On Wed, 29 Jun 2005 11:14:43 +0800, Gumby
> wrote:

>Greetings, a bit of a pc technophobe but like bling, every technicians
>dream maybe?
>Running a ****y Desktop Pent 4 3GHz, 1 GB Ram yada. Bought a Polar s725
>and a cheapie $10 irda dongle, drivers installed. Fscking Polar cannot
>talk to irda. Just will not handshake and download exercise information
>to the ****y.
>How do I know if the irda has ir photodiodes so the s725 is pointing in
>generally the right direction? The books state 6" and +/- 15 deg
>Polar forums on web not 'exactly' helpful but a good start.
>Any others out there with experience in this matter or should I just get
>the Proprietry Polar IR Interface.
>I also have an s520 that uses soniclink through the microphone and that
>works fine.
>Any help comments or distractions welcome.

I just pulled the one of mine that doesn't work apart - it's got this
in it as its chip :

http://www.chipcatalog.com/Cypress/CY7C63723-SC.htm

I reckon the problem will be a device driver issue. And by
golly, these are a big markup item. The chip's worth about
$1 and there'a pair of LEDs, a crystal, 3 resistors, 3 capacitors,
a mystery "U" chip (looks like a resistor maybe? but it's tagged
"U6") nd the chip .. and hat's *it* on the board. If it cost more
than $5 to make 'd be suprised.

[Gumby]

>
>
> I just pulled the one of mine that doesn't work apart - it's got this
> in it as its chip :
>
> http://www.chipcatalog.com/Cypress/CY7C63723-SC.htm
>
> I reckon the problem will be a device driver issue. And by
> golly, these are a big markup item. The chip's worth about
> $1 and there'a pair of LEDs, a crystal, 3 resistors, 3 capacitors,
> a mystery "U" chip (looks like a resistor maybe? but it's tagged
> "U6") nd the chip .. and hat's *it* on the board. If it cost more
> than $5 to make 'd be suprised.
>
>
I paid $14 for for this very dongle!
I have realised it is better not to look too hard at the componentry and
build price of ****y gear. Too depressing.
Steven