Power Agent 7?

Steelhead said:

On the other hand, it has some nice features, such as simplified power and heart rate distribution charts that show distribution by "work zones" (i.e. recovery, endurance, threshold, etc.) which is more logical and quicker to digest than CyclingPeaks' many bars.

CyclingPeaks (now WKO+) has always had the ability to display heart rate and power data in terms of "time in zone". Moreover, at least for heart rate you can pick from any number of different zone schemas (the same would be true for power, but I'm the only one* who has proposed non-overlapping, continous "zones" - levels, I call 'em - that allow data to be analyzed this way), or even define your own.

*Ric: if you'd like to see your approach included as a default in WKO+, just say the word...it would have been in there from the git-go if not for the issue of overlap/continuity.

Sorry, my observations are based on limited experience with your product (I'm actually just now using the trial version and trying to decide whether to run WKO+ in emulation or to make do with what's available native on the Mac. So far, believe it or not, a freeware app (called Golden Cheetah) written in C by an MIT student in his spare time has been the most useful. . . practically no bells and whistles (so far). All it does so far is plot the ride and show a pretty accurate cumulative Critical Power plot, but it runs quickly, natively, and reliably.

Obviously your product offers many more analytical tools than either PowerAgent or Golden cheetah, but running it in emulation is kind of a drag on the senses. For a Mac user (at least this one) there's something about working in Windows that's akin to parking your Lotus and taking a drive in GrandDad's '91 Buick LaSabre. It's a bit of a drag on the spirt. No disrespect, intended, of course.

acoggan said:

CyclingPeaks (now WKO+) has always had the ability to display heart rate and power data in terms of "time in zone". Moreover, at least for heart rate you can pick from any number of different zone schemas (the same would be true for power, but I'm the only one* who has proposed non-overlapping, continous "zones" - levels, I call 'em - that allow data to be analyzed this way), or even define your own.

*Ric: if you'd like to see your approach included as a default in WKO+, just say the word...it would have been in there from the git-go if not for the issue of overlap/continuity.

Steelhead said:

Sorry, my observations are based on limited experience with your product (I'm actually just now using the trial version and trying to decide whether to run WKO+ in emulation or to make do with what's available native on the Mac.

Oh right: you are a Mac guy (is there an emoticon for smacking oneself in the forehead?). I mistakenly assumed that you had significant experience with WKO+, but just hadn't stumbled upon the feature I mentioned.

Steelhead said:

Obviously your product

I do get $1/copy sold, but I wouldn't describe it as "my product" - I'm really just a contributor to the effort.

Anyway, I really wasn't being defensive, but just wanted to try to clear up a misconception.

Understood. BTW, I'm not Ric, whomever that is. . .

acoggan said:

Oh right: you are a Mac guy (is there an emoticon for smacking oneself in the forehead?). I mistakenly assumed that you had significant experience with WKO+, but just hadn't stumbled upon the feature I mentioned.

I do get $1/copy sold, but I wouldn't describe it as "my product" - I'm really just a contributor to the effort.

Anyway, I really wasn't being defensive, but just wanted to try to clear up a misconception.

Steelhead said:

Understood. BTW, I'm not Ric, whomever that is. . .

That would be Ric Stern, whom I assumed might be viewed this thread (and this time my assumption was correct! 😄 ).

acoggan said:

That would be Ric Stern, whom I assumed might be viewed this thread (and this time my assumption was correct! 😄 ).

AhhhHa.

Anyway to follow up on my previous report (for other Mac users who might be following this thread with interest): I have trashed and re-installed PowerAgent 7 and this time it downloaded and ran fine, and also without the "out of memory" stalls. My problem may have been a port issue: I'm showing two similar but different ports, which indicates that the PowerAgent is using a slightly different implementation of the FTDI drivers than Golden Cheetah.

If, like me, you already have the FTDI driver installed in order to use Golden Cheetah, then Saris suggests trashing it [location: MacHD=hard-drive/System/Library/Extensions/FTDIUSBSerialDriver.kext] and re-installing PowerAgent from scratch, which will then install the FTDI driver agan.

Also, another tip: if PowerAgent fails to detect your device, or otherwise hangs on download, force quit, relaunch, go to Application Settings, deselect Auto Detect and scroll down to the USB port that is enabled by the FTDI driver. I should download OK then.

Re: my criticisms of PowerAgent "slicing up the ride," I later learned that this is a feature that originally existed in the Windows version that allows users to trash dead sections of the ride where no data is received (such as momentary loss of signal from hub, or stops at traffice lights, etc.) and then merge the actual active date into one continuous ride. It's actually a useful feature once you're aware of the logic. I'm sure most everyone is already familiar with this feature. I mention it for people like me who never used the earlier versions of PowerAgent for Windows.

Obviously I have take another ride to try it out again to see if it continues to work OK. If I learn anything else I will report back.

Steelhead said:

AhhhHa.

Anyway to follow up on my previous report (for other Mac users who might be following this thread with interest): I have trashed and re-installed PowerAgent 7 and this time it downloaded and ran fine, and also without the "out of memory" stalls. My problem may have been a port issue: I'm showing two similar but different ports, which indicates that the PowerAgent is using a slightly different implementation of the FTDI drivers than Golden Cheetah.

If, like me, you already have the FTDI driver installed in order to use Golden Cheetah, then Saris suggests trashing it [location: MacHD=hard-drive/System/Library/Extensions/FTDIUSBSerialDriver.kext] and re-installing PowerAgent from scratch, which will then install the FTDI driver agan.

Also, another tip: if PowerAgent fails to detect your device, or otherwise hangs on download, force quit, relaunch, go to Application Settings, deselect Auto Detect and scroll down to the USB port that is enabled by the FTDI driver. I should download OK then.

Re: my criticisms of PowerAgent "slicing up the ride," I later learned that this is a feature that originally existed in the Windows version that allows users to trash dead sections of the ride where no data is received (such as momentary loss of signal from hub, or stops at traffice lights, etc.) and then merge the actual active date into one continuous ride. It's actually a useful feature once you're aware of the logic. I'm sure most everyone is already familiar with this feature. I mention it for people like me who never used the earlier versions of PowerAgent for Windows.

Obviously I have take another ride to try it out again to see if it continues to work OK. If I learn anything else I will report back.

Thanks for posting this...

I tried downloading as soon as Jesse announced on the Wattage list, but it was dead at the time.

I haven't taken the time to download since learning it is alive.

We will see how it runs on my Power Book...

Jim

Steelhead said:

Understood. BTW, I'm not Ric, whomever that is. . .

I'm Ric. I'm a cyclingholic.

ric_stern/RST said:

I'm Ric. I'm a cyclingholic.

HI RIC!!!

jbvcoaching said:

HI RIC!!!

are you a cyclingholic to john?

Ric

ric_stern/RST said:

are you a cyclingholic to john?

Ric

Well, yes, aren't most of us? I was just completing the 'entering a 12 step meeting' greeting that you initiated.

jbvcoaching said:

Well, yes, aren't most of us? I was just completing the 'entering a 12 step meeting' greeting that you initiated.

🙂

Ric

$@$!%$@%!^@$! Help-my Power Agent 7.0 wont DL my latest ride-it keeps showing the ride I already cleared from my computer two days ago. I cannot find Power Agent 5.0 to redownload either. Any ideas??

OK-I sort of figured it out-but not really. Its got the Date of my ride as being in 2003 and parsed (sp?) into about 15 pieces. I merged them all and voila -it was my ride from today. Any ideas experts? Is it software related or user error?

OH-duh-reread the first post. OK-why is the Date in 2003?

Ray

rayhuang said:

OK-I sort of figured it out-but not really. Its got the Date of my ride as being in 2003 and parsed (sp?) into about 15 pieces. I merged them all and voila -it was my ride from today. Any ideas experts? Is it software related or user error?

OH-duh-reread the first post. OK-why is the Date in 2003?
Ray

First, it would help if you identify your operating system if you're goint to ask for help.

It looks like your download was successful. The 2003 date is most likely because you never set the time and date on your CPU, or perhaps set the date correctly but not the year. The default setting is '03. When you change the battery, you must also reset the time and date. It would appear to me that you haven't been using your PowerTap that long.

Install update:

Saris has now put up a patched version that works much better. The version is 7.0.1. It seems to have solved the port problem. If you're using 7.0, trash it and install the patched version.

Also, be aware that the PowerAgent installer doesn't install the USB driver. This must also be downloaded and installed separately (with at restart required). The driver has also been patched, so if you have an older FTDI driver (i.e., if you were already using freeware app Golden Cheetah), you must trash it and RESTART before installing the new one. The location of the driver is: MacHD/System/Library/Extensions/FTDIUSBSerialDriver.kext

If you do this you should have no problems with PowerAgent 7. The new driver also functins well wil Golden Cheetah if you want to continue using that.

Mini Review: Yesterday I downloaded a five-lap Central Park race and was able to delete all the unwanted "activities" such as ride to and from the park, race sign-in, warmup, peeing in the bushes, etc. and just isolate the race, so the "slices" were quite useful for this purpose. I then was able to select the data for each lap as a separate interval. They were pretty easy to identify on graph, as finish line was uphill and each lap had a distinctive repeating pattern. Nice for cold race days when it's hard to hit the interval buttons in your neoprane gloves.

Other Features: Aside from being able too select and permanently save intervals within a ride (nice!), you can view at a glance a bar chart of your power distribution by work zone, a bar chart of your heart rate distribution by work zone, a line graph of your cumulative vs. current Peak Power curve by interval(Mean Maximal Power in WKO+). And of course you can view a summary of all your maximums and averages, as well as your peak power by set intervals.

Missing features: If you've already tried CyclingPeaks you will immediately notice that it lacks a few things you might now consider essential, such as:
1. normalized power
2. data smoothing
3. ability to de-select parameters from display (i.e.:
power, hear, cadence, speed, etc.)
4. user-defined value axis for graph

For Windows users who are already used to all the cool features in CyclingPeaks, PowerAgent 7 might seem a tad bare bones, but for Mac Users who had no way to use their PowerTap natively it's quite a nice little Xmas gift! It's still a bit funky in it's behavior, but it's now stable and usable. It's also attractively designed and nice and easy on the eyes. It has the streamlined look of a Mac application. You can read it fast and quickly see where your fitness is going.

Conclusion: If you've already invested your time/money in getting Virtual PC and CyclingPeaks working on your Mac (or even buying a separate Windows machine!) you'll probably just stick with that. But if you're a dedicated MacUser just now buying a PowerTap, it's definitely a viable way to immediately get started with your power training without having to wade through Windoze.

And for those who will undoubtedly feel the need to deepen their mean and maximal obsession with the ever narrowing minutia of their ride data and what it might mean, PowerPeaks will still export ride data into .csv files so they can at some later date migrate to WKO+ and join the ranks of those who are truly "gone" (personally I'm teetering on the edge).

Hope this info is useful to someone.

Steelhead said:

Install update:

Saris has now put up a patched version that works much better. The version is 7.0.1. It seems to have solved the port problem. If you're using 7.0, trash it and install the patched version.

Also, be aware that the PowerAgent installer doesn't install the USB driver. This must also be downloaded and installed separately (with at restart required). The driver has also been patched, so if you have an older FTDI driver (i.e., if you were already using freeware app Golden Cheetah), you must trash it and RESTART before installing the new one. The location of the driver is: MacHD/System/Library/Extensions/FTDIUSBSerialDriver.kext

If you do this you should have no problems with PowerAgent 7. The new driver also functins well wil Golden Cheetah if you want to continue using that.

Mini Review: Yesterday I downloaded a five-lap Central Park race and was able to delete all the unwanted "activities" such as ride to and from the park, race sign-in, warmup, peeing in the bushes, etc. and just isolate the race, so the "slices" were quite useful for this purpose. I then was able to select the data for each lap as a separate interval. They were pretty easy to identify on graph, as finish line was uphill and each lap had a distinctive repeating pattern. Nice for cold race days when it's hard to hit the interval buttons in your neoprane gloves.

Other Features: Aside from being able too select and permanently save intervals within a ride (nice!), you can view at a glance a bar chart of your power distribution by work zone, a bar chart of your heart rate distribution by work zone, a line graph of your cumulative vs. current Peak Power curve by interval(Mean Maximal Power in WKO+). And of course you can view a summary of all your maximums and averages, as well as your peak power by set intervals.

Missing features: If you've already tried CyclingPeaks you will immediately notice that it lacks a few things you might now consider essential, such as:
1. normalized power
2. data smoothing
3. ability to de-select parameters from display (i.e.:
power, hear, cadence, speed, etc.)
4. user-defined value axis for graph

For Windows users who are already used to all the cool features in CyclingPeaks, PowerAgent 7 might seem a tad bare bones, but for Mac Users who had no way to use their PowerTap natively it's quite a nice little Xmas gift! It's still a bit funky in it's behavior, but it's now stable and usable. It's also attractively designed and nice and easy on the eyes. It has the streamlined look of a Mac application. You can read it fast and quickly see where your fitness is going.

Conclusion: If you've already invested your time/money in getting Virtual PC and CyclingPeaks working on your Mac (or even buying a separate Windows machine!) you'll probably just stick with that. But if you're a dedicated MacUser just now buying a PowerTap, it's definitely a viable way to immediately get started with your power training without having to wade through Windoze.

And for those who will undoubtedly feel the need to deepen their mean and maximal obsession with the ever narrowing minutia of their ride data and what it might mean, PowerPeaks will still export ride data into .csv files so they can at some later date migrate to WKO+ and join the ranks of those who are truly "gone" (personally I'm teetering on the edge).

Hope this info is useful to someone.

thanks for the info...do you know if Power agent will work with a keyspan serial-->usb adapter?

mr_mojo said:

thanks for the info...do you know if Power agent will work with a keyspan serial-->usb adapter?

Probably not. You will probably have to purchase the USB harness from Saris, but contact them and ask. According to Saris you will also need OS 10.4, but in theory, it should work on earlier versions as long as you have the current Java console installed.

Steelhead said:

First, it would help if you identify your operating system if you're goint to ask for help.

It looks like your download was successful. The 2003 date is most likely because you never set the time and date on your CPU, or perhaps set the date correctly but not the year. The default setting is '03. When you change the battery, you must also reset the time and date. It would appear to me that you haven't been using your PowerTap that long.

Windows XP. I was able to succesfully download every ride into 5.0 with the correct date.